Sweet Divorce

"Rita, I know you still care about me."

Rita was thinking about how to appease Liam when Michael hugged her again. "I know it. It's not just talk when you wrote the love letter and said you liked me."

Rita's eyes rounded at his words.

Love letter?

She liked Michael?

Well...

When did it happen? How come she never knew?

But it was not the point whether it happened or not. The point was that she, out of the corner of her eye, saw Liam was growing more and more furious.

This ordinary living room seemed to become unadulterated hell suddenly where Liam became the bloodthirsty Satan, saturnine and frightening.

As if he was going to kill everyone in the room the next moment.

His eyes, and his look were too forbidding.

In a cold sweat, Rita was unnerved by him.

Drat!

She had not figured out how to calm Liam yet, but Michael ignited Liam's anger again.

Well done - Liam bristled with rage now.

Rita did not want Liam to take it out on her, so she pushed Michael away. "Nonsense. Michael, when did I write you a love letter and say I like you?"

She didn't and hadn't done that.

'Dear, don't say that again... You maybe have had enough of your life, but I haven't. I'm afraid that he would skin us alive.' Rita said to herself. Gloomy, Michael frowned at her reply. “Rita, you really wish to disassociate yourself from me, right? So much so that..." you would lie about it. Michael did not spit out the following words.

He lifted his eyes to stare at the pretty girl standing in front of him, with a trace of disappointment and sadness flickering across his eyes. Michael looked so sad, which made Rita begin to doubt herself - did she really sent him a love letter?

They did know each other back then.

But that was all, and they were not so familiar to meet in private.

Most importantly, she had had a crush on someone when she was young, but it was definitely not Michael. Besides, she had never written a love letter. But why would Michael say that?

Where did it go wrong?

She was still bemused when someone spoke with indifference behind her. "Mr. Davies, Rita does not like you, so drop the act. Got it? But... I must say, Mr. Davies, you really put much effort to alienate my girlfriend from me, and you even think of this ridiculous excuse."

Michael did not want to mention it again, but he was stung by Liam's sarcasm.

He gave a cold smile. "Mr. Wilson, don't make fun of me. I do not have the guts to act in front of you."

Not to be outdone, Michael took out a piece of yellowed paper from his wallet while speaking.

Then he unfolded it carefully and held it to Liam's eyes. "Mr. Wilson, you must be able to recognize Rita's writing, then you can see if it is from her." Liam crinkled his eyes and looked at the words.

"Dear Michael:

I know it might be abrupt, and you might find it too surprising to accept, but I have to tell you -

I like you.

I really, really like you.

There were about five hundred words in this moving letter. And Liam's face was dark with rage.

Because this beautiful handwriting was from Rita indeed.

Michael hadn't lied?

Rita really had had a crush on him?

Liam narrowed his eyes impassively, with unknown feelings in them.

Out of curiosity, Rita also peeped at the letter.

Then she was shocked when she saw it.

Why was it her handwriting?

She grabbed the letter in astonishment and read it again and again. Then her face grew pale gradually. "That's impossible. Why don't I remember it at all?"

"We can pretend nothing happens if you don't remember."

Michael smiled bitterly and put the letter back in his pocket meticulously. Then he looked at Rita who was still bewildered, smiling at her gently. “Whether it is from you or not, I truly like you. And I don't want to give up even if you don't like me now."

"Michael..."

"I've shown my love for you, and I should go now. Bye, Rita."

Rita's ruby lips parted slightly, but Michael left directly after he said that.

She stayed still, with her thoughts in a muddle.

'Boy, you drop a bombshell and leave without even an explanation, isn't it too terrible?

Do you know you make it really difficult for me to explain now?' Rita moaned in her head.

She took a deep breath and waved her hands to Liam hurriedly. "Liam, listen, I never like Michael, trust me."

"Even if you had had a crush on him, it was over."

"Yeah, right, it was over."

Rita echoed when she heard his reply.

Then she felt the pain in her jaw right after she said that.

He lifted her face, so she had to looked up at him. "So... you did send your love letter to another guy."

Coming from outside, Jacob happened to heard that.

His lips had a twitch.

He had seen how Michael confronted Liam from the beginning.

He thought, at this point, Liam should be angry and want to figure out what was with the letter and what was between Rita and Michael.

Why did Liam sound like he was feeling jealous?

Obsessively jealous.

And Jacob felt Liam was complaining that Michael had the love letter which he did not have.

And he was implying that he also wanted her love letter.

What the hell...

Jacob was shocked by his thoughts.

He hoped that it was only his guess, and maybe Liam did not think of that.

After all, the ordinary people like him could never find out what Liam was thinking.

Jacob still hoped that the old unfeeling Liam would come back.

In the meantime, looking at Liam's angry face, Rita tightened her lips and tried to please him. "Well...then, I will write two letters to you tomorrow to make up for it, OK?"

Liam did not reply, so Rita gnashed her teeth and gave in again. "If two letters are not enough, then ten!"

Jacob flicked a glance at Liam, who still did not have any response. He thought Liam finally turned apathetical and unmoved.

Jacob leaned himself against the wall and cocked his eyebrow complacently.

'Well, do you really believe you can get over it that easily?

And aren't you overly optimistic trying to make Liam happy with only ten letters?'

Jacob was sniggering at Rita in his head when Liam suddenly said, "The letter, I guess, is about five hundred words."

Rita replied, "I will write you one thousand words per letter."

"Don't push yourself."

"No, not at all. I'm willing to write this for you." Rita smiled at him.

As Liam began to soften, the atmosphere in the room was also lightened.

Jacob's jaw went slack when he saw Rita calmed Liam down easily.

Who was he? Where was he? Why was he so naïve to believe that Liam would remain unmoved in front of Rita?

He would believe that the sun could come out from the west instead of thinking that Liam would be firm in front to Rita.

Darn it!

'Liam, can you be more hard-hearted?

Ten one-thousand-word letters are enough to buy off you?

Aren't you letting her off easily?'