The Heir of the Family

003 - Why?

He collects everything and takes them outside. And there he finds an old lady from the next door, who just opens the door and greets him with a warm greeting.

  

“Are you okay, Victor?” she asks.

  

“Ah, I’m sorry, Mrs. Greta. I must have disturbed your sleep this late,” Victor replies.

  

“It’s okay. Sometimes that's the fun of living next door. Is everything alright?”

  

“It’s Emma. We were having a wedding anniversary party, and she got drunk for having too much wine. It’s nothing serious at all.”

  

That old lady just gives a gentle nod and smiles. The truth is, she has heard everything and knows that Victor is just trying to hide it.

  

After taking everything to the trash bin, Victor greets the old lady again and says good night. But the lady halts him for a moment.

  

“Victor!”

  

“Yes, Mam?”

  

“It’s normal for a family to have a quarrel once for a while. There’s no family without a quarrel. You only need to take a step back when fighting with a woman. Only that way you will win her,” says the old lady.

  

Victor smiles, taking that old lady’s words to his heart. He knows that an old lady like her must know about women and about having a family better than him.

  

He gets back to the house and sleeps on the couch, taking a step back like what the old lady told him, hoping that everything will be alright the next morning.

  

But in the morning, he wakes up as Emma throws a bag at him. Victor is still not aware what time it is currently. He doesn’t care to wake up early since he no longer needs to go back to that pizza shop.

  

“What’s this, Emma? Are you still drunk?” he asks.

  

“I’m clear and fresh, and I had enough living with a pathetic man like you. That’s the document you need to sign. I want a divorce.”

  

Victor's face looks so desperate. He thought Emma was just drunk yesterday and everything will be fine. But now in his hands are the divorce papers that Emma seemed to have prepared in advance.

  

Victor realizes she has prepared everything which means that this is not a decision made on a momentary surge of emotion.

  

“You are serious about this?”

  

“Yeah, I’m dead serious. I don’t need to borrow Einstein’s brain to make this kind of decision. There’s no way I can stand any longer to live with a pathetic loser like you,” says Emma.

  

She looks so firm by crossing both arms on her chest. One of her feet is pounding the floor with rigid movement, seeming so impatient to wait for Victor to make a decision on her demands.

  

“Why?” Victor mutters so lowly to himself.

  

“Huh?”

  

“Why?”

  

“Heh, you still don’t get it. How low can you be to not realize your current situation?”

  

But Victor is still not able to grasp everything. Talking about living a normal life, he has been living as normal people since college life. And Emma never complained at all.

  

That’s also the reason Victor never finds the need to explain everything about his status as a son of a wealthy family in the past to her.

  

“Why did you accept me? I thought you loved me unconditionally?” asks Victor with a low voice and a desperate face.

  

Emma is chuckling to hear such words coming from him.

  

“Unconditionally, you said? Hello? In what world you are living, huh? This is not Disney. I accepted you because you were a smart student with a bright future waiting for you. Even though I know you worked as a pizza delivery man during college, I thought you would be someone based on your achievements in college.”

  

“But no! You choose to stay working for that fat Italian man!” Emma closes with a contorted face.

  

Even after such humiliation, Victor is still trying to reason with her, trying to protect the marriage that is only two years old.

  

“If that’s the reason, I’ve resigned from that shop yesterday. I can still do a lot for us. Trust me, I can give you…”

  

“Enough with this nonsense. Haven’t you realized it yet? I’ve cheated on you. The fact I’m asking for a divorce is because I’ve found someone who can fulfill my desire. There’s no such unconditional love. If you still don’t get it, it is all about money. That’s the reason I accepted you before, for thinking you are going to be a rich man. And that’s the reason I leave you now, cause I’ve found someone much better than you.”

  

Victor's face becomes so cold. There is no longer that sense of despair. Of course his heart still hurts. But he realizes, there is no longer any reason for him to keep that relationship with her.

  

So far, he willingly fought for her because he felt Emma was a woman who had sincere feelings for him. For such an Emma, he was willing to do anything.

  

But it seems he had misunderstood it all along. Turns out his wife is just a gold digger. Even if he tells her now about his identity as the son of a wealthy family, there is no guarantee that Emma will always be by his side if one day he gets into trouble.

  

“Now I’ve made it easier for you. You only need to sign this document, and then you can go back to that fat Italian man you love so much,” says Emma.

  

Victor reads all the documents. He no longer has any intention of preserving their marriage. However, the more he reads the document, the more his face wrinkles.

  

“What’s this? You demand half of the wealth including this house?” asks Victor with a look of disbelief on his face.

  

“Of course. We’ve been living together so far. So it’s normal asking for half. You have to sell this house and split the money with me,” says Emma.

  

“What the? I had bought this house even before I married you.”

  

“Bought my ass. You only bought it in installments and most of the mortgage on this house was only paid off when we lived together. So this house is still our property for this marriage. Once we are divorced, we have to split the wealth and money after selling this house. It’s 50 : 50, you hear me?!”