The fourth wraith is my college ex-fiancée, Hailey. We met at freshman orientation, and somehow, our conversations just clicked instantly. She seemed to totally get my passion, and I got hers. In our second year of dating, we decided to get engaged and move in together in an apartment.
I took Hailey to meet my parents, and she did the same. We started planning our wedding, even though it was still a long way off. But in our fifth year of dating, Hailey started hanging out with women who, in my opinion, were total gold diggers.
At first, I thought Hailey wasn't affected, but little by little, she started changing. She began making excuses not to split the rent with me for various reasons. She started buying ridiculous, expensive stuff like clothes, shoes, bags, and makeup.
She also completely changed her look. The woman who used to be happy just being casual and makeup-free with me now started wearing heavy, excessive makeup and getting totally dolled up. She also started pulling away from me and getting mad at me all the time.
She was going out late at night a lot, claiming she was with her girlfriends, and wouldn't come home until almost morning. But the thing that absolutely choked me was when she quit her job and depended on me to pay for both our lives, plus her completely over-the-top lifestyle.
I felt suffocated, and slowly, my love for her faded. I started thinking, "Is this really the woman I want to marry?" The answer came three days after I started asking myself that. I had forbidden her from going out because my mother had suddenly gone into the hospital, and I asked her to visit my mom. We had a huge fight, and finally, she said,
"You're boring. I can easily find a guy who's way more exciting, richer, and much better in bed than you are. I'm still hot; you should be grateful you got to be with me... don't believe me? Here's the proof."
She confidently pulled up her dating app right in front of my eyes. Then she told me she had been on several dates with other men, right to my face, as if she was trying to humiliate me. My blood boiled, and my hands clenched, but I forced myself to stay calm and keep a poker face. Finally, I gave her an ultimatum:
"You walk out that door, and we are done."
Though surprised, she finally walked out and slammed the door so hard that a picture frame near the entrance fell and shattered. I immediately chased after her, opened the door, and said,
"Hey! Give the ring back."
Hailey turned, took off the ring, and threw it. It hit my chest and dropped to the floor. My engagement was over. After that, I focused on work, and about three years later, I finally got a promotion that significantly increased my income. That's when I met Avery. She was a junior advocate working at a law firm and was a recent graduate. She had her own income and paid for her own life.
We met at my company's gala, which happened to invite her firm because we used their legal services. We immediately connected and snuck out for coffee at the cafe across from the hotel where the gala was held. Of course, coffee led to exchanging numbers, then coffee turned into dinner, and so on, until we decided to get married two years later. On our wedding day, something totally unexpected happened: Hailey, whom I hadn't seen in ages, showed up and crashed my wedding party.
She said she regretted leaving me, that she had nothing now, and was living with several people just to pay the rent. When I looked at her, she really did look a mess. Her hair was messy even though she tried to flatten it, she had dark bags under her eyes like someone who rarely slept, she was missing a tooth, and she was skinny but unhealthy. I told Hailey that we had no relationship anymore and that I was now marrying Avery.
Hailey kept arguing and finally humiliated herself, and the whole scene was shared all over social media. A week after my wedding, I heard the news again: Hailey had committed suicide in her rental and left a letter for me. Her father came to my house just to give me the letter. After her father left, I read it. The contents were just apologies, but she also called me cruel. I threw the letter away before I even finished reading it.
The last wraith is the fifth one, Avery, my ex-wife, who was the worst of them all, even though I didn't see it coming. For five years of our marriage, everything was fine. Sure, we had minor issues, but that was normal for a couple. When we entered our sixth year—specifically when Avery was made a senior partner at her law firm—her attitude changed completely. She became arrogant, and she started treating my job as a game developer like it was far beneath hers.
For six months, I kept listening to her snide remarks about all sorts of things. I was no longer introduced as her husband, but just as Ray, an adult who likes to play games, even though she didn't know that as a team leader and senior developer, my salary was much higher than hers as a lawyer, and I was the one paying for her life all this time.
But because I loved her, I thought I'd just deal with it. My understanding turned out to be wrong. One day, I got an email from the legal team at my company that would completely change everything I thought about who Avery really was.
The email was a lawsuit against me, accusing me of giving company data to a competitor and selling it for a high price. The email also included evidence like contracts, receipts, and the amount transferred to a bank account number that I knew absolutely nothing about. I immediately called my office and asked what the hell the email meant.
Of course, HR and Legal wouldn't answer me; they just said I had to come in on Monday to meet with them. When I showed up for the meeting, I was shocked out of my mind. All the game program data that was still being developed on my home computer had been sold to a competitor for cheap, even though that game was going to be the main source of income for my office in the future.
Someone had reported the transaction to HR, complete with contract letters, receipts, and bank statements using the name of a limited liability company I'd never seen before. But when I looked at the contract and studied the signature, I was absolutely certain it wasn't mine, and I knew exactly who could forge my signature.
I went home and, unexpectedly, Avery was waiting for me with a manila folder on the dining table. Inside was a divorce paper demanding all my assets. Naturally, I immediately contacted my own lawyer and a private investigator to look into my wife.
I eventually found out that Avery was actually cheating on me with a coworker who taught her how to get the maximum assets from the divorce and deliberately framed me to make me look worse than her. Avery and her lover were also embezzling money from her firm.
After a legal war that lasted over a year, my divorce was granted, my name was cleared, and Avery and her lover were arrested and sent to jail. A few months after Avery was in jail, one day I got a call from the prison. Avery apologized to me, saying she was manipulated and all that.
But I told her I didn't care and that since this was all her choice, I was not responsible for the consequences. I hung up the phone, and that was the last I heard her voice, because after that, I got news that Avery died in prison.
Now, my five exes who gave me massive trust issues and made me afraid to be in a relationship—and who should be dead—are standing right in front of me, and I'm trapped inside the horror game that was a black mark on my company.
My exes said that in the real world, I died from a sudden heart attack at the office, causing a panic. In other words, I'm stuck in this game world with nowhere to go, and I just killed one of the main characters, even though he wasn't the protagonist. What the hell is this story? Everything is officially messed up.