Three Hundred Ways to Prove You Love Me

My girlfriend never felt safe with me. She was always testing whether I'd leave her. We were together five years. In that time, she ran three hundred tests. A month into the relationship, she called me drunk and said a man was harassing her at a bar. When I got there, I found a man holding her down, kissing her. A year and a half in, I was about to pay for my mother's surgery and found every dollar gone from my account. After I'd scrambled and borrowed and finally covered it, my girlfriend texted me, laughing: "Congratulations. You passed." It wasn't until our wedding day, when she walked in holding another man's hand, that something in me finally died. Chapter 1 Madeline Hart smiled at me from the middle of our wedding reception. "I'm sorry, Caleb. I can't keep lying to myself. "The truth is, the man I love is Trent. He's the one I want to marry." My parents' faces changed. They were both academics, quiet and proud, and they had gone their whole lives without a public scene. Now their son's wedding was the worst humiliation either of them had ever suffered. Mom spoke first. "Madeline, what is this supposed to mean? "Is this young man one of your groomsmen? I've got nothing against you kids and your games, but there's a limit. This is your wedding to Caleb." My lips had gone white. I caught her hand, close to begging. "Madeline, this is our wedding. Don't turn it into another test, please. "My parents aren't young. They can't take this." She pulled her hand out of mine. "What test? I don't know what you're talking about. "Trent and I are in love. Saying it now is better for both of us." She raised an eyebrow and turned to my mother. "Eleanor, Trent isn't a groomsman. He's today's groom." The screen behind us lit up. It was supposed to be photos of Madeline and me. The man in them was Trent. The first picture was the two of them kissing in a bar. That was when I remembered him. He was the man from the bar the first time Madeline played the testing game. They had never stopped seeing each other. And today he was standing here as the groom. The guests were talking now, and some of them had their phones up, happy to have a show. "She's calling off the wedding? And she brought another man here to do it?" "The Morgans will never live this down." "All that talk about being respectable, and their son's wife gets taken by some guy from a bar." Mom pressed a hand to her chest. Dad's face went red. "Caleb," he said under his breath. "What is going on? "Your mother can't take this kind of stress. If that man is the groom, where does that leave us?" I watched the photos go by on the screen, one after another, and went cold all over. Trent slid an arm around Madeline's waist. "Want to guess who Madeline was with last night, Caleb? "You're the smart one. You'll work it out." That was when I saw the marks on her neck. Three years into the relationship, Madeline had told me she was afraid that once I had her, I'd stop treasuring her. So I respected what she wanted, and I never touched her. And on the night before our wedding, she was in another man's bed. My eyes burned. I closed my fist and swung at Trent, and I hit him hard. He hadn't expected me to swing. He froze for a second, hit back, and had the better of me almost at once. Fists, knees, blood at the corner of my mouth. None of it was worth a fraction of what my chest was doing. When he got tired of it, he spat at my feet. "Look at that. A nobody like you, taking a swing at me." Madeline looked at Trent like he was the one who'd been hurt. Then she slapped me. It wasn't as hard as Trent's punches. It didn't need to be. That slap broke every last thing I still felt for her. Chapter 2 I stared at Madeline. "Why would you do this to me? Wasn't everything I gave you enough? "Every test you came up with, no matter how far it went, I played along. I did everything I could to make you feel safe. "You spent five years testing whether I'd leave you, Madeline. And now you're the one leaving, straight into another man's arms." She watched me hurt, and something like satisfaction crossed her face. "Caleb, you can't force love. "I never made you take those tests. You threw yourself at them. How is any of that my fault?" My chest closed up. I was shaking. "Then what was the marriage license, Madeline? What is this wedding?" She leaned back against Trent, and he ran a hand down her hip. "It's a piece of paper," she said. "Getting married doesn't mean you can't get divorced. "You always said you wanted me happy. Being with Trent is what makes me happy. Are you willing to give me that?" Mom couldn't take any more. She went down. My breath stopped. I got to her and called an ambulance. Madeline was smiling like she'd enjoyed it. I was the one crying. Before they carried Mom out, I said one last thing. "If this is what you want, Madeline, then you can have it." She smiled and nodded. Trent pulled her against him and kissed her. I held Mom's hand while it went cold, and the tears kept coming. The wedding I'd spent months planning ended in sirens and wreckage. They took Mom into the emergency room. Dad and I waited outside the doors. Ten hours, and still no word. I couldn't hold it in any longer. I crouched in a corner of the hallway and broke down. Dad put a hand on my shoulder. "Caleb, none of this is on you. Don't do that to yourself. "Anyone this happened to would be in pieces. "Your mother is going to be fine. I know it." Somewhere in that night, still sitting outside the emergency room, I got a message from Madeline. Congratulations, puppy. You passed the final test. Your prize is being Madeline Hart's husband. I laughed at the screen, and I blocked every notification from her. At dawn, the doctor finally came out. "She's out of danger. But she needs rest, and she absolutely cannot go through another shock like that." I let out a long breath. For the next few days I did nothing but look after her. When Madeline got no reply, she started flooding my phone. Hint: if you come chase me right now, I might lower myself and do the wedding over. Caleb, why aren't you answering? Ignore me again and I'm marking the test failed. Keep this up and I'll marry Trent for real. You can get on your knees afterward and I won't turn around. From the moment she walked into our wedding holding his hand, we were finished. I wrote back. Madeline. Three days from now, the county courthouse. We're filing for divorce. Chapter 3 After I sent it, I blocked her number. Three days later I showed up at the county courthouse with the divorce papers. Madeline had been there since early morning, pacing outside the doors. When she saw me, relief flashed across her face and was gone, replaced by temper. "Caleb, why didn't you answer me? Are you trying to fail on purpose?" By then I didn't care about the tests at all. I didn't want to play anymore. Whatever I'd felt for her had gone rotten in a single afternoon. My silence made her worse. "You're not actually angry, are you? "Your mother didn't die. She fainted. Is this really necessary? "Honestly, I think she faked it. She wanted to put her future daughter-in-law in her place, before I could take over as the woman of the house." The word died was the end of my patience. "Don't. If anything happens to my mother because of you, I will take you to court over it, and I will mean it." Madeline stared at me. "You just raised your voice at me? "I'm not even living under your roof yet and that old woman is already turning you against me." I walked past her and straight to the filing window. The clerk looked at our dates and frowned. "You were married a week ago. And you're filing already?" Madeline's whole face changed. She went small and pitiful. "His mother won't leave our marriage alone, and he takes her side every time. I don't want a divorce. He dragged me here." The clerk gave me a look of plain disapproval. "Mr. Morgan, you can be as close to your mother as you like, but you can't let her run your marriage." She closed the register. "Here's what we'll do. Take thirty days to cool off. If you still want this at the end of it, come back." I wanted to tell her not to bother, that we could do it right now. But she waved me off and called the next couple forward. Trent was waiting outside when we came out. He got an arm around Madeline. "I handled the wedding night for you too. Not bad at all. "I'll tell you what, sleeping with another man's wife really is something else." Madeline looked at me, pleased with herself. "I'll give you one more chance to win me back, Caleb. "Otherwise, when I actually marry Trent, you'll be the one crying." What made her think I'd still take her? She was filthy. Looking at her turned my stomach. "No need," I said. "Go marry him." She went still for a second, then scoffed. "What's this, playing hard to get? "Let's see how long the tough act lasts." I shook my head, done wasting words on her, and left. Mom was much better by the time I got home. She looked up at me, worried. "Caleb, you and Madeline —" "Mom, I'm sorry. This is my fault. You almost —" She took my hand. "Don't. It isn't your fault. If I blame anyone it's myself, for raising you so gentle that people like her think it's an invitation." I told her Madeline probably wasn't finished, and asked her to stay calm no matter what happened. Over the next few days, Madeline called and called. I blocked her, and she came back from an unknown number. "Caleb, you're taking this way too far. "It was one test. Is this reaction really necessary? You blocked me?" She still thought I was only angry. I smiled at that, and asked her the only thing I still needed to hear from her. "Madeline. Did you sleep with Trent?" Chapter 4 Silence on the other end. I'd known the answer for days, and it still landed like a dull blow. I wanted it finished cleanly, so I said it plainly. "Madeline, I'm not sulking, and I don't care about your cheap little tests anymore. "I am divorcing you. You love Trent so much? Then have him. Both of you." Her embarrassment turned into fury. "You just wait, Caleb. I'm going to make you throw another wedding, a big one, and take me back in front of everybody. "You will marry me." I knew she'd make a scene. I didn't think she'd make it at Ashford, the university where Mom and I both worked. She'd decided my mother had turned me against her, and it apparently never crossed her mind that she'd done anything wrong. Classes had just let out. Madeline knelt in the rain in the middle of the quad, and every student and faculty member crossing it stopped to look. "Eleanor, I'm sorry. I know I was wrong. "I'm not trying to take Caleb from you. Please, don't make him divorce me. "We've been together five years. Neither of us can let go." I watched her play fragile and closed my fists. With me she was never anything but above it all. In front of an audience she could turn herself into the victim in seconds. When Mom and I came out, she started bowing her head to my mother, again and again. "Eleanor, I really was wrong. Please don't break us apart." I held Mom's hand. She patted the back of mine to tell me she was all right. The students around us were already talking. "Textbook mama's boy. God help whoever marries him." "That's terrifying. A professor at this school, treating her son's wife like that?" My face went dark, and I tore open a wound that hadn't closed. "Madeline brought another man to our wedding and announced he was her real love. "My mother collapsed at that wedding because of you. What else do you want? "You love Trent. So go marry him. Why are you still hanging on me?" Her face went white for a moment. Then her eyes moved, and she had it. "Five years together, Caleb, and you'd slander me like this? "The man I brought to the wedding was my brother. Your family wouldn't even welcome him. You tried to throw him out." The crowd turned on me. "What kind of person are you? Five years of her life, and you humiliate her at her own wedding?" "Caleb Morgan, right? He's one of the new lecturers here. Let's report him." "Someone like that has no business teaching. Get him off this campus." They closed in around us. I got in front of Mom and took the shoving and the fists. Then her breathing changed, too fast and too shallow. "Move," I said. "My mother has a heart condition." Madeline called out over the crowd. "Don't listen to him. She faked it at the wedding too, to ruin the ceremony." Mom was getting worse and I couldn't force us through. "Madeline," I said, and I was crying. "Don't make me hate you." She looked back at me, pleased, and didn't move. Then a hand appeared in front of me. "Caleb. I'll get your mother to a hospital."