I Gave My Marriage Away in Seven Days

Waverly Gardner, my wife, enjoys watching me get jealous. She says that the more it bothers me when other men get close to her, the more it proves I love her. Thus, every year on our wedding anniversary, Waverly gets her best friend, Tobias Lawson, to replace me as the husband for a few days and makes bets with her friends to see how many days I can put up with it. In the first year, Tobias puts on my custom suit without my permission to pose for photos with Waverly. I order Tobias to take it off right away, but Waverly just kisses me and laughs, saying it proves that I really can't live without her. In the second year, Waverly gives our master bedroom to Tobias and sends me to the guest room. I tell Tobias to move out immediately, but Waverly just opens the door and claims he is only staying for one night. In the previous year, Waverly brought Tobias to dinner with the Gardner family and let him sit in my usual seat. She even told her parents to treat Tobias like a son-in-law. She only pulled me back when I turned to leave the dining table. "Do you really have to make a big deal out of how my parents treat him, Xavier?" Waverly and Tobias take it a step further this year. Tobias drags his suitcases into our house, pulls out a brand-new set of keys, and asks me in front of everybody. "Waverly said I could live as the husband for seven days. You won't be upset with me, right, Xavier?" Waverly wraps an arm around his shoulder, clearly looking forward to it. "He'll definitely be jealous if he really loves me." Everybody's waiting for me to blow up like I do every year, then have her laugh and call an end to the game, but this time, I simply head back to my room and start packing my belongings instead. I place my wedding ring and the house key in Waverly's hand before leaving. "I think seven days is not long enough. Xavier can have my position as the husband for good." Chapter 1 Xavier's POV Waverly Gardner, my wife, made no attempt to chase after me once I left our home. I could still hear her friends behind me, cheering and teasing. "Xavier seems to have raised his game this year!" "You shouldn't concede so soon, Waverly!" Waverly chuckled softly. "He can't stand being without me. He'll definitely come crawling back in three days!" That evening, Waverly started another betting pool in the group chat. She wagered 4,500 dollars, betting that I'd give in within 72 hours. She even registered Tobias Lawson's, her best friend's, fingerprint to the smart lock and handed him the keys to the house, which signified that he belonged here, hoping to make me give in first. Tobias posted a photo of the keys and his breakfast on his social media, with my home slippers on his feet in the shot. He included the caption, stating, "Stand-In Husband for a Week, Day 1." Their friends all piled on, cheering and teasing. "You should try 'conquering' the master bedroom tonight, Tobias!" "Tobias should be allowed to drive Xavier's car for the next couple of days, right? He is Waverly's stand-in husband, after all." Waverly didn't put a stop to it. She even replied, "You can grab the car key on the second shelf in the entryway." I was sorting out my luggage in the small house Mom and Dad had left me when I saw the post. It had been unoccupied for years. Dust covered the windowsills, and the faucets were slightly rusty, but at least no one here treated my place like part of a game. In the first year, after Tobias helped himself to my custom-made suit, I lost my temper in front of everyone. Waverly ran after me and stopped me, spending a long time explaining herself. She said she just wanted to know if I cared enough to get jealous. She even promised, "There won't be a next time, Xavier." Tobias was going through my custom-made suits in the walk-in closet, trying them on one after another. He even found my watches and cufflinks, then started a live stream so his friends could pick the best-suited outfit for him—something befitting Waverly's husband. He fastened the cufflinks while facing the camera, then adjusted his collar. "How does this one look?" Waverly was sitting nearby. She looked up and said, "You look better in these clothes than Xavier." Everyone on the live stream burst into laughter. Then, someone suddenly asked why I hadn't made an appearance. Tobias leaned back on the couch and smiled helplessly. "Xavier gets butt-hurt way too easily over a mere game. I was only doing Waverly a favor, but Xavier made a big deal out of it and moved out of the house. Then again, we all know he'll come back sooner or later." Waverly chimed in. "He'll come back once he's done throwing a fit." She then sent me a message. "You know very well that relationships need a bit of excitement every now and then, so stop getting upset over a harmless joke, Xavier. If you're going to keep playing the running-away-from-home card, you might as well come take the rest of your belongings." I realized the smart lock no longer recognized my fingerprint when I returned to take the rest of my belongings. Tobias ended up opening the door for me. He was wearing my watch and walking around in my home slippers. I noticed that the bed in the master bedroom had been swapped out with the light blue sheets he preferred. I found that all my toiletries had been dumped into a cardboard box. I noticed that the wedding photo on the wall in the master bedroom had been taken down and propped against the corner of the wall, with the cardboard box covering half of my face and Waverly's in the wedding photo. Waverly pushed the cardboard box toward me. "You only get to play this whole 'play hard to get' act once, Xavier." Tobias leaned against the doorframe of the master bedroom and looked at me. "Do you want me to move into the guest room, Waverly?" He had asked the question, but he didn't make a move to leave. Waverly simply replied, "You don't have to do that. You, as the stand-in husband, should naturally sleep in the master bedroom." Having said that, Waverly turned to look at me, with the familiar amusement in her eyes. She seemed to be waiting for me to blow up and throw Tobias out of the house or pressure her to choose between him and me in front of everyone. Yet, contrary to her expectations, I merely picked up the cardboard box and asked, "Is that everything?" Waverly's smile faltered for the very first time. She stared at me for a few seconds, then said coldly, "You're rather convincing this time, Xavier. I'll see how long you can keep it up." I offered no response. I just turned around and closed the door behind me. Chapter 2 It was the third day of the stand-in husband experience, and the Gardner family suddenly hosted a family dinner. Doreen Lowe, Waverly's mother, sent me the details and asked me to bring the Gardner family signet ring, passed down to all sons-in-law. Doreen had personally handed me that ring when I married Waverly, but I knew she had always looked down on me. If Waverly hadn't insisted on marrying me back then, I wouldn't have ended up with the family signet ring, which proved that I was part of the Gardner family. I remembered the day I met Waverly's family at Gardner Manor, where Doreen stated before the whole family that my modest background made me unfit for the Gardner family. Waverly held my hand and said in a calm yet firm voice, "Xavier is the man I love. I'll marry whoever I want. I don't need anyone else making that decision for me." I couldn't help but feel a bitter sense of irony now that I thought back on that moment. I tightened my grip on the ring box; after the family dinner, I'd return the Gardner family signet ring once and for all. I arrived at Gardner Manor and found that Tobias was already sitting in my usual seat. No seat remained for me at the dining table, so one of the maids brought in a spare chair and set it at the end of the table. Doreen explained with a smile, "Tobias is playing the part of Waverly's stand-in husband these days, so it only makes sense for us to play along during the family dinner. You're already a grown man, so don't be so petty about it, Xavier." Waverly even had the kitchen redo the menu to fit Tobias' tastes. I was severely allergic to peanuts, yet even after seven years of marriage, the Gardner family still served peanut brittle at family dinners. At first, Waverly reminded everyone about my allergy, but over time, she simply told me to avoid it. Tobias hated cilantro, so cilantro was completely banned from the Gardners' dining table. If even a speck of chopped cilantro floated in the soup, Waverly would instantly order the maids to take it away and prepare a fresh one, saying, "Tobias gets nauseous from the smell of cilantro." They allowed Tobias to sit in my seat for the first time during last year's family dinner. I turned on my heel and walked off, but Waverly came chasing after me. She said a seating arrangement didn't mean a thing and even promised, "That seat will always belong to you, Xavier." Yet, this year, I wasn't even deemed worthy of a seat beside her. Just before the family photo was taken, Doreen glanced at my right hand and said, "You should take that ring off and let Tobias wear it for a few minutes. I mean, the family photo should show Waverly's husband wearing it, after all." "I really shouldn't," Tobias said, though he kept his eyes fixed on the ring and had already reached for it. Waverly took hold of my right hand before I could even say anything and slowly slipped the ring off my finger. Though the ring scraped across my knuckle and left the skin raw, she was too busy checking the face of the ring for scratches. She then personally slipped it onto Tobias' right index finger. "Tobias will return it to you once the seven-day experience is over, Xavier. It's just a ring, so there's no need to make a big deal out of it." Tobias stood next to Waverly for the photo, while Jeffrey Gardner—Waverly's father—and Doreen sat in the front row. I had been placed at the far edge, nearly out of the shot. The photographer told everyone to move closer together for the photo. Waverly deliberately hooked her arm around Tobias', then looked back at me, as if waiting for me to speak up and put a stop to it. I, however, just looked at Doreen and said, "Tobias can keep the ring." Doreen's expression shifted slightly. "It was all in good fun, yet you have to ruin the mood with comments like that! It's so disrespectful of you to put your elders on the spot like this, Xavier!" Before long, a relative, who knew nothing about the stand-in arrangement, posted the family photo in the family group chat. "Everyone finally made it into the photo this year!" In that instant, the other relatives chimed in, praising how well-matched Tobias and Waverly were. Quite a few even asked whether Tobias and Waverly were going to have a wedding soon. Doreen offered no explanation, merely reacting to the message with a red heart emoji. I stared at the Gardner family group chat, the one I'd been in for seven years, then quietly tapped the "Exit group" button. Waverly quickly realized what I had done. She instantly sent me a message. "You're putting on a pretty convincing act this time. Let's see how many more days you can keep this up, Xavier." Waverly clearly had no idea what was going on. I wasn't actually putting on an act. I was systematically erasing every trace of myself from the Gardner family. Chapter 3 That night, after leaving the Gardener family group chat, I submitted my resignation to Waverly's company. I was among the first batch of employees when the company was starting out. I accompanied her to meet clients and stayed up late working on proposals. When things were at their toughest, the two of us spent months sleeping right there in the office. On the day the company turned its first profit, Waverly declared before every employee, "Xavier isn't just my husband. He's also the partner who stayed by my side through my lowest points." Yet now, Waverly assumed my resignation was just another part of the game. She approved it without any hesitation, saying, "Your resignation is approved. You can come back once you're done playing, Xavier." It was the fifth day of the stand-in husband experience, and it happened to be the company's anniversary. It was also my final day completing the handover for my resignation. I went to the company to return my key card and hand over my projects. In the lobby, the anniversary video was playing. I noticed that my name and all the photos of me from the startup days had been completely cut out. There was nothing left of the footage showing me packing products in the warehouse, drinking with clients until I suffered a stomach bleed, or staying up all night revising proposals. The video ended with a photo of Tobias and Waverly standing side by side. The caption read, "Thank you for being with us every step of the way, Mr. Lawson." Waverly knew perfectly well I was the one supposed to attend the anniversary banquet with her, yet she had Tobias wear the custom-made suit meant for me instead. He stood by her side to cut the cake and toast the guests present at the banquet. Every time someone mistook him for Waverly's husband, Tobias raised his glass with a smile and accepted the role readily. Waverly never bothered to correct them either. She would probably say this if I were to confront her about it. "We've already made it to the fifth day of the game, so there's no point in stopping now." I didn't bother entering the multipurpose room to attend the anniversary banquet. Instead, I stayed in the office to complete the final handover. Just as I was about to leave, one of the longtime employees, who had been with us from the very beginning, spotted me. He called out to me from the multipurpose room, glanced at Tobias, who was on the stage, and asked in confusion, "Who is that over there, Mr. Shaw?" In that instant, everyone in the multipurpose room fell silent. That was the moment the guests realized that Waverly was actually married to someone else, not Tobias. It didn't take long for people to start whispering. "Why on earth is he wearing the Gardner family's signet ring if he isn't Ms. Gardner's husband?" "He moved into their marital home and showed up at the anniversary banquet acting as Ms. Gardner's husband. How is he any different than a homewrecker?" Before the rumors took off, someone nearby whispered, "Haven't you seen Tobias' post? Xavier is the one who refuses to step aside. "Ms. Gardner has already made it clear who she wants by bringing Tobias up onstage, but Xavier still refuses to let go, relying on the fact that they once built the company together. He's being so unsightly. He's just reluctant to let go of his status as Ms. Gardner's husband." Having said that, the person held out his phone for several people nearby to look at the post Tobias made. I had seen that post as well. Tobias had posted a video showing me taking back my suit with a stern expression, confronting him about moving out of the master bedroom, and walking away from the family dinner held at Gardner Manor. It was all footage of me losing my temper. It left out Waverly saying it was "just a game" and the things she had said afterward when she held me back and told me not to take it seriously. Tobias even included a caption with the post. "Some people just refuse to step aside, holding onto a title that no longer belongs to them." I stared at the caption and suddenly thought of all the so-called games of the past three years. I was the one who had to cave first every time they pushed me to the breaking point. I had to be the first one to bow my head amid everyone's taunts, admitting, "It was my fault for taking the game too seriously." Waverly's phone still contained their betting records from every year. They had bet on when I would lose my temper, whether I would really kick someone out, and how long it would take before I gave in and apologized to Tobias. That video made me realize that they had saved every instance of my anger, embarrassment, and loss of composure over the past three years, replayed and used as fodder for their entertainment. Before I could say anything, Waverly walked up to me and whispered, "We've already come this far with the act, so we have to see it through. Tobias is just trying to help out here, so I'm not going to let his reputation get dragged through the mud over this, Xavier." I looked right at her and suddenly chuckled. "You'd rather ruin my reputation instead, huh?" Waverly scowled. "You've really taken this too far this time, Xavier. If you hadn't taken the game so seriously, things wouldn't have reached this point." I didn't engage with her any further. I just set my key card and my resignation paperwork on the front desk. "I've completed the handover." Having said that, I walked past her and stepped into the elevator. Waverly was finally angered by how indifferent I was. She called her lawyer over in front of all the guests. "Go draw up an actual divorce agreement! I'll make him choose in front of all of our friends on the seventh day! I'd like to see how long he can keep this up!" Chapter 4 It was the final day of the stand-in husband experience, and Waverly told me to return to our marital home. She said that she would return my keys, the family signet ring, and the resignation paperwork in person since the seven days were over. She also added that it was finally time to address what was going on between us once and for all. I hadn't even opened the door when I saw through the gap that the living room had been set up just like in previous years to announce the end of the game, complete with champagne, cake, and streamers. In addition, the walls were covered with photos of me arguing with them, walking out in anger, and tearing up the game agreements over the last three years. They had written down their wagers right under the photos. They were betting on how many minutes it would take me to cave once I saw the divorce agreement. Tobias sat in my usual seat, spinning my car keys between his fingers and wearing the Gardner family signet ring on his right hand. Waverly was standing right next to him. It was then that someone started teasing Tobias and Waverly. "Xavier hasn't shown up yet, so why don't you two just get everything out in the open first?" "Exactly! Xavier always makes a fuss and then gives in eventually. Why do you two even bother putting on an act? You know, I saw you two leave a hotel together on the 16th of last month. You couldn't even cover up the hickeys with your collars, yet you're still playing the 'best friends' card." I stood outside the door, my hand freezing on the handle. I remembered the 16th of last month. That was the day my stomach hurt so badly that I could barely stand straight. I had called Waverly three times before she finally picked up. She told me she was in a meeting and couldn't leave. She told me to take some medicine and go to the hospital on my own if it became unbearable. She hadn't been busy with work; she had been busy getting intimate with Tobias at the hotel. Tobias glanced at Waverly and took her silence as consent. He stood up, wrapped his arm around her waist, and leaned down to kiss her. Waverly didn't immediately push Tobias away. She furrowed her brow slightly once Tobias backed off, as if realizing something. She then said solemnly, "Xavier has overreacted this time. We should just drop these kinds of games altogether from now on." I couldn't help but find the whole situation absurd. It turned out that even going to bed with someone was just considered part of the game. I took a deep breath before pushing the door open and walking in. In that instant, the commotion and teasing in the living room died down, leaving only a roomful of lingering tension and unspoken intimacy that couldn't be cleared away in time. In the center of the coffee table lay a divorce agreement. Waverly couldn't quite hide the unease in her expression, but confidence still outweighed it. She was certain I would back down and give in, just as I had for the past three years. It was then that someone teased with a laugh, "Do you remember how you tore up the fake agreement midway through signing two years ago, Xavier? You shouldn't chicken out at the last second again this time!" Tobias looked at me and said nonchalantly, "You shouldn't take it so seriously, Xavier. Waverly just wanted reassurance that you still loved her." Waverly leaned back on the couch, looking completely sure of herself. "I'll get rid of the divorce agreement as long as you admit that you were jealous, apologize to Tobias, and put your wedding ring back on, Xavier." I flipped through the divorce agreement and found that all the assets, properties, and marriage details were completely legit, right down to the lawyer's attestation. Waverly had gone as far as preparing a real, valid divorce agreement just to make it convincing. She was utterly convinced that I wouldn't actually have the guts to sign the agreement. She had even asked a friend to film my reaction, waiting to record my fourth public outburst. I picked up the pen before the countdown ran out. Waverly was already smiling faintly, probably expecting me to do what I had done two years earlier—push the divorce agreement away and press her on whether she actually meant it. I neither argued nor hesitated this time. I simply signed my name at the bottom of the divorce agreement, carefully and deliberately. In that instant, the laughter in the living room came to an abrupt stop.