"You are not allowed to sit next to me; you're nothing but a scourge!!"Jia Li said as she clenched her fists.
"I made it clear to you already that I don't like you calling me names, especially when we are outside; is that too hard for you to adhere to?" Donghai Warned
Donghai and Jia Li were a couple who had come to the lodge in the hotel where Wang Fang worked. They had had a misunderstanding before they left the house, and they had come to the hotel to see if they could resolve the issue between them since their house wasn't making that happen.
They had been married for 11 years and had two beautiful daughters. Before now, they were happily married and had lived in peace. Not until Jia Li had gone through Donghai's phone and discovered that he had been cheating on her for almost a year now.
She got furious and could not handle the situation calmly; she was hot-tempered, and how Donghai was able to keep up with such an act for almost one year without her knowing was a mystery to her.
It had been two months already, and she still wasn't ready to let go of her husband's chat with another lady.
She requested that they divorce, but Donghai, on his part, objected to his wife's decision.
Jia Li was in her 30s, and Donghai was in his early 40s.
He was that financially buoyant, and he never wanted to have a broken marriage.
He had to make sure Jia Li agreed to lodge with him for a week in a hotel, which he considered a more serene environment away from their kids, to make peace.
Jia Li raised her hand and gently clenched Donghai's fist, making him unable to move.
Seeing this, Donghai raised his other hand and was easily subdued by Jia Li again.
Seeing that he was like a calf charging to cause trouble, she said calmly
"If you want to fight, I can help you out with that by accompanying you to the side of this hotel after making our reservation, and that is if you want to do what you have in mind to do."
"Don't you ever get tired of me being mad at you? You do this all the time, even in front of the kids, which is very bad of you as a mother who is supposed to be a role model to her kids." Donghai complained bitterly.
"Ooh, I see. Now tell me, did it ever occur to you that you are a father who is expected to act as a trustworthy husband to me and a responsible father to our daughters before you made the effort to see another woman?
I bet our daughters can't even wish to get married to a man like their father." Jia Li spoke angrily.
While this misunderstanding was still ongoing between Jia Li and Donghai, Wang Fang was on her duty post, observing the situation.
She was trying to paint a picture in her mind of what was going on between Jia Li and Donghai. From the look of things, she believed they had come to the lodge, and probably they'd had issues at home before coming to the hotel.
But what exactly were they still waiting for before walking up to Fang to make a reservation? Fang wondered.
Donghai looked calm and peaceful compared to Jia Li, who was completely garrulous as far as Wang Fang was concerned.
Fang looked away for a minute, yet she was still hearing some unpleasant words coming out of Jia Li's mouth toward Donghai.
Before this time, she was only hearing whispers of words from them both to each other, and then she tried to figure out what the problem could be, but this time around, Jia Li's voice was becoming louder and topping Donghai's own, and they were not the only ones at the reception.
At this point, she needed to calm them down by going to meet them where they were seated. She needed to know what was wrong—if not to know what happened, at least to get to know what they wanted.
"Good day to you two. My name is Wang Fang, and I am the receptionist on duty this morning."
"Good day!!" Jia Li and Donghai responded together in unison.
"I have been on my duty post, and I noticed that you have been seated here for the past two hours, so I was wondering if you are here to make a reservation for someone or yourselves."
"Yes! That is why we are here. We are going to lodge here for a week or more." Donghai Responded
"That won't be a problem. Kindly come with me to make your booking as I take down your personal information."
Donghai Stood up to follow Wang Fang to her desk to make the booking as she had instructed them to do.
Jia Li reluctantly stood up just as Donghai was about to ask Jia Li to tag along so that she could drop her details too if there was a need for her to do so.
In less than 10 minutes, Wang Fang was done attending to them. She gave them the keys to their room.
She knew those two were going to go into the room and have some arguments. From the look on their faces and the way Jia Li had been talking to Donghai, she could deduce that something was wrong, but she could not tell what the problem was.
She wasn't even certain who they were to each other—if they were married or were just dating. Donghai wasn't putting on a wedding ring, and Jia Li's fingers too were empty.
***********
"Li, I think we should have a shower together; what do you think?" Donghai asked
Jia Li looked at Donghai as she quietly went to the end of the bed, sat down, and said
"The question should be, Jia Li, aren't you going to have a shower for making you talk too much today?"
Donghai smiled and said to Jia Li, "You are such a troublesome wife, but I love you still."
Jiali angrily stood up from the bed and went straight to Donghai. She looked straight into his eyes and said to him:
"No, don't say that; I hate to get that from you. You don't love me, and you never did. You only got married to me out of pity."
"Don't sound that way; you and I know that I love you and I will always do so; I didn't marry you out of pity. If I may ask, why did you make use of the word 'pity?' Do you see yourself as an object of pity?"
"Demn it, Donghai! Demn it! Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. We dated for 5 years, and you once said to your friend that you don't see yourself not getting married to me after all these years of being together.
You didn't see yourself not getting married to me because you loved me, but because you didn't want to disappoint me after 5 years of being with me. Hence, the best you could do was to cheat on me after having two beautiful daughters for you." Jia Li stated this with a range of anger in her voice.
Donghai slowly got his eyes off Jia Li's as he shamefully went to the window and had both arms against each other, looking out through the window as he spoke.
"I won't deny the fact that I said those things to my friend, but I didn't say them to you because I love you and wouldn't want to hurt your feelings. What I do not understand is how you found out about this and didn't let me know all this time."
"I didn't see the need to let you know. Was that why you cheated on me?"
On hearing what Jia Li had said, he quickly rushed to her and hugged her while he apologized to her.
I'm sorry I did what I didn't; please forgive me and get the divorce plans out of your mind.
I can't imagine my life without you. Think about the kids and how they are going to feel about having us separated."
Jia Li let loose on Donghai at once. She just doesn't like the fact that he was trying to talk her out of her decision to file for divorce. To an extent, her mind was made up. She was only trying to find the best way to explain to the girls what her plans were like and her reasons for wanting to make such a decision.
"They would cope with it when the time came." I'm trying to come up with a strategic way of letting them know of my plans and giving them my reasons why I want the divorce." She explained it to Donghai.
"Are you also going to explain to them the negative effects it would have on them? Are you not going to consider that?"
"I don't know what else you want me to do; I can't be with a cheat. It is clear to me now that you don't know how I feel about you. You don't know what I now see you as."
"Give us a second chance, and I promise it won't repeat itself. Henceforth, I am going to remain faithful to you—not just faithful to you but a darling husband that you got married to," he said as he smiled and shed tears at the same time.
Jia Li turned to look at her husband; this wasn't the man she had gotten married to years ago. She imagined what would have made him a cheat. She didn't get married to a cheat, and why had he turned out to be one after years of being married?
"I am going to forgive you and let go of everything only on one condition."
"What condition is that? I can do anything now to win your heart back again." He promised
"You have to call your mistress right away and let her know that you are married and you no longer want to have anything to do with her anymore. Is that clear to you?"
"My love, I deleted her number from my phone three days after you saw my conversation with her. I made sure I let her know these things you just asked me to tell her. Right after I did that, she did not call me. We no longer communicate, and it's going to be like that forever."
"So are you trying to tell me that you are not going to cheat on me with any other girl aside from the one I saw your chat with?"
"It's a promise, my love; I won't try such a thing again. Can't you see that you are the best thing that has ever happened to me?
I'm sincerely sorry that I betrayed the trust you had in me from the very first day we met." Donghai gave Jia Li his words.
She looked at Donghai, smiled stylishly at him, placed her palms on his cheeks, and said, "I will take you by your words, and you should also know that it's going to take some time to trust you once more. You have to work hard to earn such a thing from me again."
Her smile was a huge relief to Donghai, and her placing her palm on his cheeks was a greater burden-lifter. She only does that whenever she gives him advice and encourages him to do anything business-related that would increase his financial status.
He smiled back at her and kissed her on her forehead as he said, "I am ready to work to earn your trust and love again. I promise to love you for the rest of my life."
"I never stopped loving you; I was so mad at you. You still have to work towards sustaining my love for you and earning my trust back." She said this as she placed her lips tightly on his.