The Ramen Smell on My Husband Exposed His Affair

"If I actually let Whit resign, wouldn't that just prove there was something going on between us?" "I, Ethan Shaw, swear to God. And the whole office was watching. There's nothing going on between Whit and me! I have a clear conscience! " He made me laugh in spite of myself. "A clear conscience? Perfect." "Ethan, you're really something." I turned and walked out. He didn't come after me. Once I left the building, I called a private detective. "Look into Ethan Shaw for me. I need proof that he's cheating on me." Then I called my lawyer. "Pull up everything under Ethan Shaw's name. I want to know whether any of our marital assets have been transferred." I stayed home and waited until Ethan got off work. Normally, I'd have dinner waiting for him when he got home, with several dishes and a pot of soup on the table. Today I couldn't be bothered to cook either. He came over and crouched down in front of me. "Vivi, are you still mad at me?" "You broke into my office today and made a scene in front of the entire company. You completely humiliated me. But I let it go, so, can you stop giving me the cold shoulder now, please?" "People's tastes change. When I was little, I loved sweets, but now I can't stand anything sweet at all." "I'm getting older. It's not really that weird that I've developed a taste for spicy food." That afternoon, the detective called me back. There were no suspicious hotel bookings under Ethan's name over the past year. And neither he nor Whitney had been spotted in each other's neighborhoods either. Had I really misread him? "Since you didn't cook, let's go out to eat." In the end, I agreed. He started the car. "There's a new restaurant that just opened on Baker Street. The broth there is incredible; you'll love it." He reached over to open the door for me as he spoke. But the moment I slid into the seat, I froze. The glove compartment in front of the passenger seat was covered in Snoopy cartoon stickers, and an ugly handmade Snoopy dangled from the rearview mirror. "Who put these stickers and this thing in the car?" "Oh, I went out to run some errands with a coworker, and she got bored along the way and started decorating the car." Ethan had always hated anything overly cutesy. He'd tossed out the Hello Kitty charm I'd once hung in his car without giving it a second thought. He would absolutely never tolerate anyone doing this to his car. And now he'd made an exception again. "It was Whitney." Not a question. A statement. He slammed his hand against the steering wheel. "Vivian, can you stop dragging Whit into everything!" "She's just an ordinary coworker who was bored and messing around. Do you really have to make such a big deal?!" "You're right. It's not a big deal." I pulled the little Snoopy from the rearview mirror, rolled down the window, and dropped it into the trash can beside us. Then, in a few quick motions, I peeled all the stickers off the glove box. He flew into a rage. "Vivian, what are you doing? How can you possibly have a problem with these things?" "I don't like them. They're an eyesore." "How many times a year do you even ride in this car? As long as they're not an eyesore to me, that's all that matters!" And suddenly, I remembered what Ethan had told me when we first got together. "Only you get to sit in my passenger seat." But now another woman was sitting there. "Why did you let someone else sit in your passenger seat?" "What?" "You said only I could sit in your passenger seat. But now you've let someone else sit here." He was losing his patience. "Vivian, are you a kid or what? Can you please be reasonable for once!" "I went out to work with a coworker. There wasn't room in the back, so of course she had to sit up front." "But you're the boss. Why were you the one driving?" "Have you been watching too many TV dramas? I'm not some billionaire who needs to be waited on hand and foot. I’m not that kind of royalty!"

"You sit at home all day, every day. You've gotten so bored you've started imagining things!" "Why don't you go out and find a job too? Stop sitting around at home all day." I looked out the window and kept my voice level. "Weren't you the one who told me to quit my job and be a full-time housewife?" "You said you made enough, that you could support me, that all I had to do was stay home and look pretty." "You said I was too beautiful, that you didn't trust the world out there, that you were afraid other men would want me." "But you can't just stay home forever either. If we had a kid, you wouldn't be sitting around coming up with all these ridiculous ideas every day." The second he mentioned a child, something inside me twisted painfully. I'd been pregnant twice. The first time I lost the baby because Ethan's little nephew crashed into me. The second pregnancy was ectopic. After the surgery, I never fully recovered. Ethan looked so heartbroken for me. He told me it was okay. He'd get a vasectomy, and we'd be happy together without children. He said that was all he needed, as long as we had each other. "You should go out and work, keep yourself busy. Then you won't suspect everyone around me of having an agenda." I let out a cold laugh. "Ethan, is this it? You think I'm not worth being your wife because I don't work and can't give you children?" "See, there you go again, twisting what I said. I told you to get a job because it's good for you." "If you don't want to go, then don't. Nobody's forcing you." Ethan slammed on the brakes, making me jolt forward. "We're at the restaurant. Get out." He didn't even wait for me, just strode straight inside. I followed behind him and watched him walk right up to a table where the guests had already settled in. When I looked closer, Whitney was sitting right there among them. They all stood up when they saw us. "Mr. Shaw, you finally made it. We'd just been waiting for you to get here before we ordered." Whitney looked at me. "Mrs. Shaw, please, have a seat." I stayed where I was and didn't move. "If you want to have dinner with Whitney, go ahead. You don't need to drag the rest of us along to cover for you." Ethan slammed his fork down. "I knew you'd have to come in here and make some snide remark. I didn't even want to bring you in the first place!" "Tonight is the sales department's team dinner. It was Whit who suggested bringing you along to put an end to the misunderstanding from this morning." "There's nothing going on between us. Why do you always assume the worst about us? Everyone from our department is here. Ask them if there’s anything going on between Whitney and me!" Derek Lambert, the sales supervisor, spoke up first. "Mrs. Shaw, I've worked under Mr. Shaw for five years, from when this company was just getting off the ground right up to today. Nobody knows his character better than I do. He would never cheat on you!" "Mr. Shaw is a devoted husband, through and through. And Whitney has a master's degree. She's an educated woman. There's no way she'd knowingly be the other woman." "Besides, we all work at the same company. If anything was really going on between them, we'd have noticed." "I can swear to God. Mr. Shaw and Whitney are not what you think they are!" The others chimed in, one after another. Whitney looked both wounded and touched, tears glistening in her eyes. "Thank you all for standing up for me. Otherwise, I'd never be able to explain myself." The fact that no one else had noticed anything only proved how well they'd covered their tracks. It didn't mean there was nothing going on behind my back. Maybe in their eyes, I, Vivian Carter, was nothing but a suspicious, unreasonable, hysterical madwoman. Ethan lifted his head to look at me. "Vivian, if you're going to eat, then sit down now. If you can't, then you can just leave." "Stop standing there. You're ruining our appetite." I dropped into a seat. "Well, since all of you say so, then maybe I really did misjudge Whitney." "Sorry about that, Whitney."

Whitney probably didn't expect me to apologize first. She blinked, then managed a tight smile and muttered that it was okay. After dinner, it suddenly started to drizzle, and Whitney put on a helpless look. "What do I do? No way I'll get a cab in this rain, and I didn't bring an umbrella." Ethan jumped in right away. "I'll drop you off." "Whit's place is on our way. We'll give her a lift." And without waiting for me to agree, he was already opening the door for her. At least she was smart enough to sit in the back voluntarily. When I got in, she suddenly let out a little "huh." "Mr. Shaw, where'd the Snoopy I gave you go?" "I threw it away." I turned around to look at her. "Sweetheart, you shouldn't be giving married men things like that. It gives their wives the wrong idea." "I'm sorry. I didn't think it through." Ethan looked thoroughly annoyed. "Enough! Here we go again, right?" "Didn't you say Whitney wasn't the one who hung that thing up?" "I never said that." "Fine. I can't be bothered arguing with you." After Whitney got out, I went digging for a tissue in the car, and a Durex condom packet fell out. Rage surged through me. "Ethan, you'd better explain right now why there's something like this in your car!" He barely glanced at it. "Probably some other coworker left it. What's the big fuss about?" I forced myself to swallow my fury. That night, as soon as I got home, I ordered a tiny hidden camera with overnight shipping. No wonder I couldn't find any hotel records; no wonder there was nothing about them going to each other's homes. They had been hooking up in the car. And what disgusted me most was that this Cullinan was mine. Back then, Ethan asked me to lend it to him since I wasn't working anyway. It’s such a waste to let a nice car like that just sit there. And since he was a CEO now, driving some cheap car would be so embarrassing. He ended up driving that car for five straight years, and he wouldn't even let me use it for a few days when I asked for it back. The second the camera arrived, I grabbed my chance and planted it in my car. This time, I was going to catch them in the act. The faithful-husband act. The woman who would never knowingly be the other woman. I was going to tear every mask off both of them. I never expected it to happen so soon. The very next day after I installed the camera, the two of them showed up on the footage. First, they were flirting in the car, then things heated up and they started tearing at each other's clothes. I took a cab straight to the company, ran up to Ethan's office, and shouted in front of all the staff. "Something's happened to Ethan! Everyone, get down to the underground parking garage! Hurry!" I led the whole office downstairs in a rush, and we all rushed toward Ethan's car and surrounded it. Derek yanked the door open. "Mr. Shaw!" "Whitney, why are you in Mr. Shaw's car?" Whitney scrambled out and smoothed down her short skirt. The panic was still written all over her face. "I just had some work questions I wanted to ask Mr. Shaw about." I walked up and slapped her hard. "You filthy little bitch. You've already slept with my husband in his car, and you've still got the nerve to stand here and lie to my face." Ethan slapped me back at once. "What the hell are you talking about? How many times do I have to say it? There's nothing going on between me and Whit!" "We were both still completely dressed, and you're claiming we slept together? Vivian, don't go too far!" Everyone's eyes turned to me, sizing me up like I was insane. Derek looked at me helplessly. "Mrs. Shaw, you said something happened to Mr. Shaw and had everyone come down here." "And it turns out it's just you being paranoid again. How many more times do we have to explain it to you? There is no inappropriate relationship between Mr. Shaw and Whitney." “Is that so?” I pulled out a tablet. “But the cameras in my car caught the whole thing. Want to see the R-rated footage?”