Ficorpio
Chapter 1
I broke up with my girlfriend when she was at the lowest point in her life.
Years later, after she had made a name for herself, she used every means at her disposal to make me marry her.
Everyone said I was the untouchable first love she had never gotten over, the husband she cherished more than anyone else.
Then she started bringing different men home every night. She broke my heart and turned me into the laughingstock of the metropolitan elite.
But I never cried or made a scene. I quietly moved into the study and never once interrupted her affairs.
My indifference drove her mad.
She kissed me savagely, then demanded in a low voice, “Aren’t you jealous?”
She didn’t know I was sick.
Every day she spent taking revenge on me was another day I silently counted down how much longer I had left to live.
In the third year of my marriage to Claire Sterling, she took a handsome young college student as her kept lover.
His name was Julian Hayes. He was refined and striking, exactly Claire’s type.
She had been supporting him for more than six months.
Other than me, he was the man she had kept by her side the longest.
My friends warned me to be careful. They all said Claire seemed to have developed real feelings for Julian.
The first time I met him was on my birthday.
My nose had been bleeding since early that morning, so I went to the City Hospital for tests. The doctor told me I would probably live only until the following spring.
I nodded faintly.
“That’s all right,” I said softly.
I wasn’t afraid of dying. I was only a little afraid of the pain.
I had heard there was an expensive prescription drug that could make whatever time I had left more comfortable.
There wasn’t enough money in my bank account, so I went to Sterling Group Headquarters to ask Claire for help.
Julian happened to be there. He had recently graduated and now worked as Claire’s secretary.
Claire was in a meeting, so I sat outside and waited.
Julian kept staring at me. Then he leaned toward the employees around him and whispered, “That’s the boss’s husband? He’s so ugly. Look at him, all skin and bones. He looks like he’s about to die.”
“Everyone keeps saying I look like him, but how? I’m way better-looking than he is.”
My reflection stared back at me from the polished glass wall. My hair was a mess, and I was swallowed by a bulky winter coat.
He wasn’t wrong.
I didn’t look good.
And I was, in fact, dying.
One of Claire’s colleagues tugged at Julian’s sleeve and lowered her voice. “He only looks like that because he hasn’t made an effort. If he cleaned himself up, ten of you put together still couldn’t compete with him.”
“And don’t go provoking him just because the boss spoils you.”
Chapter 2
“You have no idea how much she loves him. If you upset him, Claire might destroy you.”
I’d heard Claire Sterling loved me—loved me more than anything. Julian Hayes merely curled his lip and rolled his eyes at me.
He brought me a cup of tea and asked gleefully, “Ethan, how could Ms. Sterling bear to keep you waiting so long?”
“Strange. Whenever I used to visit her, she’d come spend time with me first, no matter how busy she was. She always said I was the most important person in her life.”
“I thought she treated every man that thoughtfully…”
The corner of his mouth lifted in a smug smile. When he grinned like that, he looked remarkably like I had at his age.
I thought about it for a moment. Claire really did treat Julian differently.
She had countless lovers around her, using them as weapons in our marriage. Every night, she brought a different man home, testing my reaction again and again.
Claire never stayed entangled with any of them for long. Sometimes it lasted a day or two. Sometimes ten days, or half a month. She always grew tired of them quickly.
Julian was the only exception.
Claire kept him in a separate apartment, taking him out to eat, shopping with him, and going to the movies. They looked like an ordinary, devoted couple. Claire gave him money, but she gave him love, too.
I looked at Julian and smiled.
With deliberate gentleness, I asked, “If you’re so important to her, why would Claire make you live as her dirty little secret?”
“You should persuade her to divorce me soon and marry you.”
Julian’s expression changed instantly. Humiliated and furious, he lowered his voice and spat, “You’re the kept man! You’re the one who doesn’t belong here!”
“Isn’t that the only reason you have any advantage over me? You met Ms. Sterling a few years earlier. But now you’re old and ugly. What exactly do you think you can compete with me on?”
One of his colleagues must have been afraid I would lose my temper. She hurried over, caught him by the arm, and tried to pull him away.
But it didn’t matter to me.
I had already promised myself I wouldn’t get angry at Claire. I wouldn’t grieve over her, either.
And I certainly wasn’t going to fight another man for her attention.
She wasn’t worth it.
Someone grabbed Julian Hayes from behind. He lost his balance and fell, shattering the teacup in his hand. A deep gash opened across his palm, and blood spilled onto the floor.
Through the glass walls of the conference room, Claire saw Julian’s injured hand.
Everyone was watching when she dropped the documents she was holding and strode over. She seized Julian’s wrist, her brows knitting with concern.
Her voice turned cold. “Who hurt him?”
The colleague who had tried to help took two frightened steps backward, his face going white.
I let out a cold laugh. “I did. And he deserved it.”
Chapter 3
Julian gritted his teeth and glared at me before shouting, “Yes. I deserved it! Who told me to fall in love with someone I had no right to love? Who told me to let people call me a pretty boy and a kept lover?”
“But, Ms. Sterling, as long as you love me too, I’ll stay by your side for the rest of my life. No one can separate us.”
He gazed into Claire’s eyes with such devotion that even those absurd words sounded brave and unwavering.
Claire laughed at him. She raised a hand and gently ruffled his hair, soothing him like a child.
“Good boy. Don’t be angry. You know it hurts me to see you upset.”
She really was different with him.
I lowered my eyes, no longer interested in watching. I only said to Claire, “For my birthday this year, I want fifty thousand dollars.”
It was almost laughable. We were married, yet we didn’t even have each other’s contact information.
The only time I ever reached out to her was when I needed money.
Before we got married, we had made an agreement. She wanted me, and I wanted her money.
Claire had always despised me for being materialistic.
But in the past, whenever I asked, she gave me whatever amount I needed—and usually more.
This time, however, she watched me with a smile so cold it made my skin prickle. Then, in an unhurried voice, she said, “You want money? Fine.”
“But first, Ethan, lower that lofty head of yours and apologize to Julian.”
Claire wanted to use two hundred thousand dollars to buy my dignity and purchase an apology for Julian.
It was the first time she had used money to humiliate me for the sake of another man.
I slowly clenched my fists and gave a quiet laugh.
When pain suddenly surged through my body, I forced myself to endure it, turned around, and walked away.
I didn’t want her money anymore.
Suddenly, I was curious, Claire.
If one day you learned that this money could have kept me alive a little longer—if you learned how much I had suffered before I died—
what expression would you wear then?
I went home alone and curled up beneath the covers, pain wringing cold sweat from my body.
After taking a few Sleeping Pills, I tried to fool myself.
Once I fell asleep, it wouldn’t hurt anymore.
Half-conscious, I drifted into a dream. I dreamed of the year I was twenty, when Claire Sterling was poor—but loved me with all her heart.
On my birthday that year, I passed a coffee shop and saw a couple sitting by the window.
The boy was holding a slice of snow-white cake. It looked delicate, delicious, and expensive.
I still remembered the heavy snow falling that day. I scooped up a mound of it in my hands, smiled at Claire, and asked, “Claire, does this look like cake to you?”
She clenched her teeth and pulled me tightly into her arms. She didn’t let me see the tears gathering in her eyes.