C03
“Avery, I bought this house. It’s up to me who uses it,” Asher said, his tone cold. “It’s just Camilla borrowing a room for a few days. Is it really necessary for you to be this unreasonable?”
I stared at him, speechless.
It was true he bought this house, but he seemed to forget that I used to own one too. When his company was on the verge of financial ruin, he held me from behind, pleading desperately, “Honey, let’s sell your place. I’ll buy it back for you as soon as the company is back on its feet.”
At first, I refused outright. “Isn’t there any other way?” I asked him, shaking my head. “That place is part of my family’s legacy–it was my parents‘ gift before we got married. I don’t want to sell it.”
But he was determined, and for two weeks, he tried everything to convince me. Seeing him–a grown man of six feet–cry helplessly, clutching his knees in despair, broke my heart. So, I finally agreed.
After the crisis passed, I waited for him to buy it back, but every time I asked, he brushed me off with vague
excuses.
“It’s not a good time to buy property now, we’d lose a lot on it,” he said. “And besides, isn’t this place our home? I’d never kick you out.”
Now, I could only laugh at that idea of “our home.”
I sat quietly on the sofa, waiting. Asher seemed to think I’d come to my senses and exhaled in relief. But a moment later, there was a knock at the door, and I got up to answer it–but Asher was one step faster than me..
“I’ll get it!”
At the door were movers in work uniforms, glancing between us, confused. “Hello, we’re from the moving company. Which items are we packing up?”
Asher froze. “You must have the wrong address. No one here is moving.”
I got up and cut him off. “Actually, I am. Come on in.”
Stunned, Asher looked back at me. His face grew tense as he saw me avoiding his gaze altogether. “What are you doing? This is the only place you have. Where would you even go?”
Ah, so he knew this was my only home. “So you were counting on the fact I had nowhere else to go to treat me like this?”
He faltered, but then his expression turned icy again. “Avery, what is going on in your head? Camilla’s only here for a few days. She’s not trying to claim the master bedroom permanently. Can’t you just stop making a scene?”
“I’m not making a scene,” I replied, calmly packing my belongings with the movers, not even sparing him a glance.
Frustrated, he kicked one of my boxes, breaking it open, as if to force me to stop. I just looked at him coolly, letting the movers seal it up again.
“Asher,” I said, watching him with calm disdain, “this only makes me more disappointed in you.”
A flash of panic crossed his eyes. He took a step closer, trying to hold me. “Avery…”
Behind him, Camilla suddenly burst into tears. “It’s all my fault, Asher! If it weren’t for me wanting to stay, you wouldn’t be in this situation, and Avery wouldn’t be so upset.”
Asher’s hands stopped in mid–air as he let go of me, turning instead to comfort his little “soulmate.”
