The Boundaries You Asked For Chapter 1

After we got back together, Sienna became unusually clingy.

She had to report everything—what she ate, what she drank, who she saw.

One day, she called, her tone testing the waters. “Lindsay’s bringing some younger guys to the spa resort. She wants me to go.”

“Oh,” I said. “Have fun.”

The line went dead.

Twenty minutes later, she was blocking my doorway, demanding in a hoarse voice, “You’d really just let me go off with other people?”

I took a step back under her gaze.

“Isn’t this the ‘boundaries’ you wanted?”

My words hung in the air, and she froze.

* * *

“Are you done? If you’re done, you can leave. I really don’t mind.”

Worried she might misunderstand, I added helpfully, “Don’t worry. I’ll play along for your parents tomorrow.”

Sienna’s face instantly darkened.

“Caleb, you’ve got a real goddamn nerve.”

She slammed the door and left.

The commotion had completely shattered my sleepiness. I curled back under the covers and scrolled through my phone.

At two in the morning, an unknown number sent me a few pictures.

A young guy, wearing nothing but swim trunks, his pale body pressed against Sienna from behind. The air was thick with steam. His arms were wrapped casually around her waist, only a thin layer of fabric separating them.

[Hey, man. I’m scared of the water, so Sienna was just helping me out. You’re so lucky to have such a caring wife~]

I stared at the screen, considering my options.

Should I get up and go catch her in the act? No, it was too late. My driver was off for the night, and getting a ride would be a pain.

Well then… maybe write a long, scathing text to tear her apart? The weather was too cold; my hands would freeze.

Maybe I could just copy and paste one of my old rants from our chat history.

As I scrolled back through our old fights, I actually fell asleep.

No wonder Sienna never bothered to read them. Once you stripped the emotion away, the words were just long-winded and tedious.

Excellent sleep aid, though.

The next day was New Year’s Day, and we went to the Vaughn family estate.

I was chatting with the elders when the doorbell rang.

I opened the door to find the same boy from last night’s photo, standing there, looking shy.

He was clutching a bikini top.

“This… was left at my place yesterday.”

The style was bold and youthful. In this house, there was only one person it could belong to.

The whole scene felt sickeningly familiar.

The year we got engaged, another boy had shown up just like this. I’d lost it, grabbed him by the throat, and thrown him to the ground. Sienna had pushed me off, and without a backward glance, led the boy away, leaving me a pathetic mess on the floor. The estate was in chaos that night. No one had a happy new year.

The old folks say you shouldn’t start the new year on a bad note. Sure enough, that was the year Sienna and I fought the most.

The living room was silent. Everyone was waiting for my reaction.

I immediately smoothed things over with a smile. “Oh, that’s my cousin. He grew up overseas. We were all together for the New Year’s countdown last night.”

Sienna’s father breathed a sigh of relief, but her mother’s eyes were filled with suspicion. “Really?”

“Absolutely,” I said, pulling the boy inside and shutting the door.

The last flicker of hope in Sienna’s eyes died out.