Chapter 8
659words
He must be resting upstairs, I thought.
I tiptoed up to the second floor, planning to surprise him.
But to my shock, I found Stanley wasn't alone in the room - there was a girl with him!
The girl was dressed head to toe in the latest Chanel, her curvaceous body pressed tightly against Stanley's front.
From where I stood, I could see that Stanley neither embraced nor pushed her away.
No wonder the room was so tidy. It had a woman's touch. But then why had Stanley been flirting with me?
Before I could process this, I heard Stanley pleading in a hushed voice:
"Crystal, please give me some time. I'll come clean with my family."
"How much more time do you need? Isn't wasting over a decade of my life enough?"
"Who's going to take responsibility for these years I've lost?"
What?
Stanley-the-jerk had been with this girl for over ten years?
I couldn't help but laugh bitterly: Was I some kind of jerk magnet? Why did every man I met turn out to be a scumbag?
Tears welled up in my eyes as I fled the scene.
It was already night when I got home.
Just as I was about to draw the curtains and rest, I spotted Jeffery in the apartment across from mine.
Eager for some firsthand gossip, I even set up the telescope I'd bought on a recent trip.
After positioning the telescope, the show across the way began:
"Dona, you're such a liar! The baby in your belly isn't mine, is it? Why did you lie to me?"
Seeing that Jeffery was penniless after his divorce, Dona probably figured he was no longer useful. Her gold-digger persona suddenly became apparent:
"Oh, you've only just figured out the baby isn't yours?"
"With your three-second performance, I'd get more sensation from a pinprick than from sleeping with you. How could I possibly have a baby with you?"
Humiliated by the woman he loved, Jeffery became even more frustrated:
"Dona, tell me whose bastard you're carrying. I'll kill him!"
When Dona refused to answer, Jeffery lost control. He pinned her to the ground, punching and kicking her repeatedly.
At first, I planned to stay out of it.
But when I saw Dona was about to pass out from Jeffery's beating, I decided to call the police:
"Hello, is this 911? There's a man here beating a pregnant woman. Please come quickly."
The police arrived about fifteen minutes later and rescued Dona.
But Jeffery had been so violent that not only did Dona lose the baby, she was left with lasting damage. She would never be able to have children again.
Jeffery was arrested and, according to the police, was sentenced to five years in prison for assaulting a pregnant woman, causing permanent injury, and disrupting someone else’s marriage.
When I heard the news, I couldn’t help but play myself a song to celebrate.
A few days later, while I was taking a walk around the neighborhood, I ran into Dona again.
But now, her eyes were empty and lifeless. She was sitting in a wheelchair, being pushed by an elderly woman, probably her mother. All the vibrancy and spirit she once had were gone.
After asking around, I found out that Dona had a childhood sweetheart, and the baby she was carrying was actually his.
To give Dona and their child a stable home, he worked at a company during the day and took on a second job delivering food at night.
But Dona was not the kind of woman who could be satisfied easily.
While her boyfriend was out working to support them, she got lonely and decided to hook up with Jeffery, partly for attention and partly to make some extra money.
She even convinced Jeffery to rent her an apartment in the building across from mine.
