1 TIRED

Erika stared at her blank phone screen, frowning. It was already two in the morning but her husband, Adrian, had yet to return home from work.

Their bedroom was filled with expensive furniture but even with all this luxury, there was a severe lack of warmth. It barely even felt like home, perfectly reflecting her and her husband's relationship.

Sighing, Erika sat up in the bed and tried dialing his number again. No surprise, it went straight to voicemail. For as long as they had been married, it seemed like Adrian's phone number would always be switched off whenever she called. It was almost as though he had blacklisted her number.

"Where are you…" she mumbled worriedly under her breath, speaking to no one in particular.

She couldn't go to the other members of the Hart family. Knowing them, all that awaited Erika if she dared ask for Adrian's location would just be a barrage of insults and ridicule.

Her thumb hovered over Adrian's contact number and was just about to press down when faint shuffling sounds from outside caught her attention. Erika sat up a little straighter, straining her ears. It sounded like a set of footsteps.

No, it wasn't just one set, but two.

Alarmed, Erika quickly bolted out of the bed only to have the door thrown open, nearly hitting her face if she hadn't backed away in time. A wave of alcoholic stench quickly permeated the room, along with the smell of smoke and perfume.

There stood her husband, Adrian, leaning against his lover, Felicia Evans, for support. Erika tried to ignore the way her heart fell to the floor at the sight of them. Their bodies were pressed intimately together, with Adrian's hand over Felicia's shoulder and hers placed securely at his waist.

"Where have you been?" Erika asked her husband, trying to ignore Felicia's existence as much as she could.

In return, Felicia merely smirked haughtily. Adrian barely even batted an eyelid in Erika's direction, pushing into the room. He was swaying on his feet. Paired with the smell of alcohol, Erika quickly realized that he was drunk. Both of them were.

"I've been trying to call you all night!" Erika continued. "Your number kept going straight to voicemail. Do you even know how worried I was—"

"Who do you think you are to ask all these questions?" Adrian cut her off mid-sentence. He heavily sat down on the bed, slouching back lazily. The top buttons of his shirt had come off, revealing his broad chest, peppered with red lipstick marks.

"I am your wife," Erika said through gritted teeth. She could feel the back of her eyes starting to turn a bit hot with tears, yet she forcefully held them back.

"I have told you many times to just sign the divorce papers," Adrian gestured to the stack of documents placed in the drawers of the bedside table, "and just leave me be! Which part of that can you not understand?"

"I—" Erika tried to say but her words were clogged at her throat, disrupted by Felicia's yelp of surprise when Adrian pulled her down into his lap.

As if Erika wasn't standing there, he pressed his lips tightly against Felicia's. Soon enough, the sound of their make-out session filled the entire room, causing Erika's goosebumps to rise.

It hadn't been the first time Adrian had spoken so rudely to her. For almost every day within the last three years of their marriage, this was the way they had interacted.

However, the fact that he could so brazenly make out with his mistress in front of his wife still caused Erika's heart to break. Her chest clenched painfully as her fingers fisted the fabric of her nightgown, willing herself not to cry out loud in front of them.

With her eyes red, Erika quickly and quietly left the room. The adulterous couple hadn't even bothered to spare her another glance, simply falling back against the plush cushions of the king-sized bed to continue with their make-out session.

***

The next day, while tending to the flowers in the garden, Erika could still imagine the moans and groans coming from their bedroom last night. It didn't take a genius to figure out what was happening on her matrimonial bed.

When she returned to the living room with plans to escape into the hot shower, she saw her mother-in-law and sister-in-law seated there.

Erika tried to keep her footsteps as silent as she could, hoping that they wouldn't notice her enter and exit. Alas, her dreams were quickly shattered. She had barely made it past the couch when she was stopped in her tracks.

They were initially watching the television but upon hearing her enter, a crude smile immediately made its way onto their lips.

"Slave," Mary, her mother-in-law, ordered, "come here."

Erika halted her steps, taking in a deep breath as she cursed her luck. She had long grown used to the way Mary addressed her— they had never bothered to keep it secret that they hated her very existence. It was evident in the cruel nickname they gave.

She answered quickly, not willing to risk offending them. "Yes, Mother," she said.

The moment she walked close to where they were seated, their noses scrunched up, appalled. Juliet, Erika's sister-in-law, even pinched her nose as she made a sound of disgust.

"Geez, have you not showered in a week? You stink!" Juliet shrieked.

"I was tending the flowers in the garden just now and the weather is a little hot today," Erika tried to explain. "I was just about to head to the shower—"

The mother and daughter duo merely looked at her with disdain written across their faces. Mary waved her hand in front of her face, attempting to fan the smell away.

"Yeah yeah, excuses aplenty, as usual," Mary butted in, cutting Erika's speech off. "Get out of here. You're infecting the room with your body odor, slum bitch."

Erika lowered her head. "Yes," she said. "I'm sorry."

Without looking back, she quickly scuttled away. Even as she left, she could still hear Mary and Juliet's voices echoing down the corridor, their conversation filled with further insults about her.

Once she entered her bedroom, she closed the door. When her eyes landed on the messy sheets of her matrimonial bed, tears started to fall uncontrollably. A wave of disgust filled her from head to toe as she thought back to the sight of Adrian and Felicia's locked lips.

"What have I done wrong?" she asked herself.

'Was it wrong to fall in love?' Erika wondered. She had silently braved all of the torture, abuse, and insults thrown her way, all in the name of love. Yet, all of her sacrifices had resulted in no return other than pain.

She stared wordlessly at the bed. Enough was enough.

Only the Hart's matriarch, Adrian's grandmother, loved her and welcomed her into this family. Yet, the other members of the family merely treated her as a rag doll, a servant that was meant to serve them and then be thrown away.

Erika had long known that Adrian's heart belonged to another but she had never thought that he would cheat on her so openly as to kiss another woman right in front of her.

She had been taken for granted for far too long.