I didn’t even open the pictures.
But I said, “Good job, Ashley.”
Ever since Ashley “got beat up,” she’d gotten
impatient. She was desperate to see me lose
the baby.
So she showed me these pictures.
But the truth was, I didn’t have a baby.
And my divorce was almost over.
On the last day, I sent a message.
“You don’t have to send me pictures. You
win.”
She said, “Don’t give up just yet. I’m going to
send you something really good.”
I laughed.
She’d already showed me everything.
I blocked her.
Then my phone rang.
I thought it was her. But it was the repair
shop.
“Hey, Mrs. Johnson, we took care of your
jade vase.”
“Thanks.”
The vase was the second item from my
grandmother.
She said it would protect me.
When I started my company, I put the vase in
my office.
My company was very successful.
I needed to get it back.
I got in my car.
While waiting for the light, I got a live feed on
my phone.
The man held a woman against the shelf in
the office and kissed her.
I looked at the vase.
It started shaking back and forth.
I freaked out.
“My vase!”
“Stop it, Mark!”
I couldn’t yell loud enough.
I watched Ashley push it off.
It broke when it fell on the ground.
I started thinking about what had happened in
the garage.
She wanted to take everything from me.
I knew I had to do something.
The car stopped.
I walked into the office.
They stopped what they were doing. Mark
looked at the broken pieces.
Ashley acted apologetic. “Sorry. It was an
accident.”
I started walking closer to her.
Mark grabbed my arm. “It’s okay. It was me.”
“You did it?”
I started tearing up.
He said, “Yeah, I’ll get you another one.”
“Are you okay?”
Ashley went to him and gave me a look. “It
was just a vase. It was going to break
anyway.
Did you really have to attack Mark?”
“Going to break anyway?”
I grabbed a vase and threw it at her head.
Ashley screamed and fell to the ground. Blood
was everywhere.
Did she want a fight?
I grabbed another item, but Mark stopped me.
“What are you doing?”
“You guys are bullying me!”
I grabbed her hair and started hitting her.
Ashley was crying.
“I didn’t do it.”
She was acting innocent.
“Your wife can’t accept me. She’s always
been jealous!”
“Enough!”
Mark hit me.
I fell on the jade pieces.
My hands got cut.
Mark picked up Ashley.
“You’ll be okay.”
She smiled at me.
“Mrs. Johnson, you were going to get rid of
the vase. Don’t worry about it. Please clean
up the pieces. We don’t want to hurt
Then they left.
The office got quiet.
My hands were cut.
I also felt sad.
I picked up all the broken pieces.
When I was nineteen, my grandmother pushed
me out of the way of a truck. I cried for her.
She told me to be happy.
She gave me a code.
It was to a vault with a wedding gift.
I opened the vault and found the vase and
bracelet.
But they didn’t do what she wanted.
I messed up everything.
I gathered all the vase pieces.
I packed up everything.
And said, “I won’t see you again.”
Sarah was waiting for me.
“He’s a jerk.”
I smiled.
“Let’s go.”
She started crying.
“We need to see each other. I’m going to
miss you.”
“I’ll call you.”
I went to college here for Mark.
But now, I was leaving.
