Skeletons in His Closet

The sun was up. As usual, I made Zane's favorite breakfast. Yet, he still remained indifferent. He ate quietly without saying a word to me.

It felt like I wasn't his wife but his maid.

After breakfast, I drove him to work. We both worked in sales at the same perfume company. After parking the car, I strode into the office.

Once he was gone, I left a colleague with some instructions before quickly leaving the office. I didn't take the car but instead called a cab to drive me home.

Flinging open the main door, I crossed the living room as quickly as I could and rushed toward the basement. However, when I arrived, I was dumbstruck.

The door to the basement had been changed! Without my knowing, it had been changed to a door with a password lock! And, without the password, it was impossible to enter.

I took out my phone and took a photo of the door. I wanted to find out if there was a universal key for this type of door.

"What are you doing?" Zane exclaimed, suddenly appearing at the stairway.

It turned out that he had felt uneasy, so he'd followed me!

He stalked up to me and slapped me across the face. "What did I tell you?"

"Did you just hit me?" I put my phone away.

"What did I tell you?" he roared again.

"This is my house! Do I not have the right to enter? Besides, shouldn't you have let me know that you were going to change the door?" I screamed back.

"You were supposed to wait until I had free time to tell you!" He raised his arm to hit me again.

I leaned back, dodging his strike. "I'm calling the police!" I said, taking out my phone. My face was stinging from the pain, and I was so furious that I felt like I was about to combust.

We hadn't even been married that long, and he was already abusing me. Things would only go downhill from here!

Panicking, Zane grabbed my hand. "Why are you calling the police?"

"This is my house, so why won't you allow me to go downstairs? And why did you hit me? Can't I call the police over this?" I insisted on calling the cops.

"Honey, calm down," he said, lowering his voice. "I… I had acted impulsively."

"Is impulsiveness a reason to hit your wife?" I shook his hand off. "Let go! I have to call the police!"

He grabbed my hand once again. "Honey, is this so big of a deal that you have to call the police? If you feel like things won't work out between us, you can file for divorce."

Divorce?

When I heard that word, I took a step back, falling silent.

Even though we weren't getting along as husband and wife, we weren't at the point where we should get divorced. Moreover, my parents had placed high hopes on our marriage. They were even looking forward to grandchildren.

More importantly, if we got divorced, he would get half of this villa. That would be a huge loss for my parents!

It wasn't like I agreed to it either!

"If you file for divorce, you have to give me the villa," Zane continued. "If you don't want to get divorced, then we can continue to live life the same way we used to, and you go back to work now."

After pondering it carefully, I shot him an angry look before storming upstairs.

I had no choice. I couldn't give up the villa that my parents had bought with their hard-earned money!

"Get back here!"

I stopped in my tracks, turning to look at him.

"For disrespecting me, don't you owe me an apology and a guarantee?" Zane asked.

I burst into tears from anger and slammed my fist against the handrails. Blood spilled from my hand. Giving him one last glower, I quickly left.

…

When I returned to the office, my colleague, Jane Dorca, asked, "Chloe, what's wrong? You look upset."

I told her I was fine and sat down to start work. My right hand was bandaged, so I had to use my left hand to turn my computer on. I didn't want Jane to see it, so I kept my right hand under the desk.

"Hey." Jane sat next to me and patted my shoulder. Winking at me, she continued, "Even though you're on your honeymoon with your husband, you need to slow down. Or else, you'll drain him dry."

I smiled wryly. If it was my honeymoon doing this to me, I'd admit it.

"It's the weekend tomorrow, and we're going out for our company team-building excursion. The theme is family-related, so we have to bring our spouse or partner," Jane reminded me. "If you don't show up, you'll get penalized."

I wasn't interested in team building, but I didn't want to get penalized. However, Zane really loved traveling. He had never missed a single company team-building activity in the past.

"I'll go if Zane goes," I said.

"I asked him earlier, but he said he's not going. If that's true, you two are going to lose your bonus this month!"

"Let me ask him."

I got up and walked toward the office space on the other side, which was where he worked. As soon as I entered, I saw him gossiping with two other male colleagues.

Two months ago, an accident had occurred in front of the office. A female driver had run over and killed three of our company's staff before running away. Until now, the female driver still hadn't been caught.

That was the topic of their conversation.

I stopped beside Zane and asked softly, "Aren't you attending the company team-building event?"

"No," he replied coldly.

"If we don't go, the company will penalize us," I continued quietly.

"Let them do it then."

"I don't think that just because we fought, we—"

"You're so annoying!" Zane suddenly shouted. "I'm staying home, you hear me?"

The office immediately fell deathly silent. Our colleagues gaped at us in utter shock.

My face flushed red. I badly wanted to hide under a desk. He had just raised his voice at me, his newly wedded wife, in front of everyone in the office!

What else could I say? Bowing my head, I turned and left.

It was at that moment that all my illusions about Zane died completely.

When I returned to my desk, Jane wrapped her arms around me. "Chloe, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pressured you," she apologized quietly.

"It's alright."

Suddenly, something popped into my head. I took out my phone and sent her a photo. "Jane, you know a lot of things. Could you help me find out if a password-locked door like this has a universal key?"

Jane looked at the photo on her phone for a while before nodding. "Sure. I have a friend who sells doors like this. I'll ask her for you."