I Married My Childhood School Crush for a Day to Avoid the Single Tax, but My Wife Has Been Acting Strange Lately - Chapter 14

I started the car and chased after the black van.

I pressed the accelerator, and the engine roared inside the car.

The sound of the tires gripping the asphalt made my tension rise.

The sun was setting, and the road quickly grew dark.

Streetlights flickered on, and red traffic lights made me even more frustrated. I honked, changed lanes, and passed the cars in front of me.

My heart pounded in my ears, and my breath became shallow.

Riona’s terrified face and her struggling it was burned into my mind.

There was no doubt about that man; Kamikaze had done this.

Had the lawyer’s evidence and the police warnings cornered him and driven him to this madness?

Anger burned in my chest.

But more than anything, her safety came first.

I glanced at my phone to check Riona’s location.

The GPS app I had installed for situations like this was finally useful.

A red dot was moving toward the industrial area on the outskirts of town.

I called the police and explained the situation.

“My wife has been kidnapped! A black van… the license plate… I remember as much as I can!”

The operator’s calm voice slowly helped me regain some control.

I gripped the steering wheel tighter, giving them the location as I drove.

Memories of Riona flooded me.

Peaceful mornings together, laughing in the kitchen, listening to her breathing in bed…

What had been a fake relationship had become a real bond.

At least, I thought so.

If I lost her… what would happen to me?

Fear grew stronger. I had to protect her smile.

I wouldn’t let that man touch her.

Sweat ran down my forehead, blurring my vision.

I moved the wipers and focused.

The van’s taillights appeared in the distance.

I closed the gap and kept chasing.

The road became emptier as we entered an area lined with factories and warehouses.

Streetlights were sparse, and the darkness thickened.

The air felt heavy, filled with the smell of the industrial zone.

I contacted the lawyer, too, and they warned me not to do anything reckless.

I switched to low beams and followed quietly, trying not to be noticed.

In my mind, I pictured Kamikaze’s face.

◇

The air inside the van was heavy and still.

My wrists were tied with rope, and I was pushed into the back seat.

Several men wore black ski masks.

The man I feared was probably waiting where the car would stop.

But I never imagined they’d go this far.

The car rattled along the road.

The black seats stuck to me with sweat, and the rope cut into my skin.

Fear made my body stiff.

“Is it really ten million?”

“We already got five up front. We’ve got no choice but to believe it.”

It seemed they had kidnapped me like it was some shady side job.

The driver kept his eyes on the road, while two others fidgeted and kept an eye on me.

I tried to think of a way to escape.

The location-sharing app was on, so maybe Shouta-kun could find me.

All I could do was buy time.

The car eventually stopped at an old warehouse-like place, and Kamikaze was waiting as expected.

He handed something to the men, then tied me to a pipe, leaving a chair in front of me, and stared.

His eyes were bloodshot, wild with madness.

He leaned close and sniffed me.

I smelled his breath mixed with sweat.

It made me want to throw up.

“Riona-chan, finally, just the two of us. Divorce him quickly and be mine.”

He peeled the tape off my mouth.

His voice was low and shaky.

Then he began to talk.

“I’ve been watching you since you joined the company. You were exactly the kind of girl I always dreamed of. Your cute smile, your work, your charisma, and that cold look in your eyes… My perfect ideal. No one loved me as a child. My father’s abuse, my mother’s neglect. School bullying. Rejected first love… Women always betray me. But you didn’t. Even when you kept your distance, you didn’t reject me. So I visited your room, lay on your bed, and smelled your scent. I listened to your voice with that bug. I spied on your outfits every night. Even after you warned me, I couldn’t stop. I took pictures of your silhouette from your window… When the marriage talk came up, I couldn’t forgive it. But that was a lie, right? You did it to make me jealous, didn’t you?”

His words brought back the fear of the past vividly.

Breaking into my house with a copied key, lying on my bed…

Secretly taking photos of my clothes, watching me every night…

But I couldn’t let my anger show here.

“Why are you doing this? Don’t you know this will make me hate you?”

“You won’t. Don’t worry. You’ll come back to me.”

Help…

Fear and thoughts of Shouta-kun mixed together while shaking my heart.

I decided to ask about his past, even though I wasn’t interested.

“…I don’t know if I can understand, but could you at least tell me about your past?”

He slowly began to speak, piece by piece.

◇

Kamikaze Shintarou had been a lonely child from the very beginning.

He was born in a small town, raised by a strict father and a distant mother.

His father, a factory manager, constantly told him to “work harder” and disciplined him harshly. His mother was busy with housework and barely paid him any attention.

There was no place for him at home.

At school, he was bullied. His grades were below average, and he was bad at sports.

Classmates found his behavior and words “creepy” and avoided him. He had no friends.

He didn’t belong at school either.

So, after classes ended, he would sit alone in a small park, hiding in a pipe, just waiting for time to pass.

Why wasn’t he loved?

Why couldn’t he have a normal and happy life?

He thought about these things every day.

In middle school, he fell in love for the first time.

She was popular and surrounded by friends.

But she smiled kindly at someone like him.

So he gave her a letter…

And the answer was no.

He tried to accept it, but the next day, word got out that he had confessed, and her boyfriend beat him up badly.

“Don’t come near my girl. You trash.”

Her eyes were standing beside him and looked at him like he was garbage.

From that moment, he shut his heart completely.

In high school, he threw himself into studying, but he failed to get into university.

He went to a vocational school to study computers and seemed to have a talent for it. On top of that, a wealthy relative helped him get a job at a top IT company.

At work, he didn’t stand out.

But everyone soon realized he had gotten in through connections, and people kept their distance.

Meanwhile, his coworkers started getting married and building families, and he watched them with jealousy.

“Why only them…”

His past experiences of rejection had twisted the way he saw love.

Over time, he began to see women as “things to own,” and whenever he was rejected, his obsession only grew stronger.

It was around that time that Riona joined the company.

The moment he first saw her, he felt it was fate.

Her perfection stirred his ideals.

She was exactly as he had imagined. The perfect girl he had dreamed of as a child.

But even so, he thought he wasn’t worthy… yet she smiled at him.

At first, it was just watching her. But it gradually escalated.

Copying keys, breaking in, taking secret photos…

Years of suppressed madness finally exploded when he learned the truth about her marriage.

◇

“So, Riona-chan, you’re mine. All the women in my past rejected me, but you’re different. You’re my destiny.”

Hearing all of that, I felt nothing but disgust.

I had never done anything to give him the wrong idea.

In fact, I had been careful since school to make sure no one could misunderstand me.

And yet, he somehow convinced himself that I liked him, and now this was the result.

There was not even a shred of sympathy.

Just pure disgust.

Then, he smirked beneath his mask and moved closer while touching my chest.

“Ah… I’ve wanted to touch this for so long…”

My feeling of revulsion hit its peak.

“…I’m sorry, but I’m the type of woman who doesn’t feel anything from that.”

“It’s okay. I’ll fix that for you right away.”

At that moment, the door burst open with force.