Leon felt uneasily and upset. It was unusual because he always prided himself on his ability to control the situation. Erica, his wife, sitting across from him at sofa. She crouched herself in her favorite corner under half lights and shadows. He couldn't see her face clearly.
Then the words, " I want a breakup, Erica." He knew there was no easy way, no perfect moment. And it always followed with a wild scene. Thinking about it, preparing, he had rehearsed endless variations on the scene but her reaction was not among them.

    Erica registered this shocking news with a big yawn. "No, Leon, my answer is No. Can I go to bed now?" Her voice was soft, as if she was just refusing a dinner invitation that she was not interested. Then she stretched her body and was going to leave.

    For a moment, Leon didn't know what to do. If Erica stood up and made a scene about it, he could handle it quite well. He prepared himself for a violent refusal but not this complete indifferent No answer. He grasped her arm and said sharply: " Look, our marriage was nothing left but an empty cell. What's use for hanging on it?"
Back to sofa with a sign, Erica retreated into her world of hall lights and shadows again. Instead of answering his inquiry, she took a cigarette out of the case and lit it with one graceful movement at a delicate-looking small lighter. The flickering light dancing through Erica's fingers gave her a kind of time illusion. Vaguely she remembered some lines from a movie: " Cigarette is your best friend, never betrayed you and would company you through every lonely moment."

   " Erica?" her husband's sharp voice drew her into the reality. Very slowly her lips curved upwards in a catlike smile. " So, you got serious with that girl, Elsa, is that her name?" said Erica, in a flat tone with no hint of bitterness in it.

" You are spying on me, again?" A poison menace had seeped into his tone, but Erica remained unimpressed.

" Poor, Leon. Why should I? Your girl came to me this afternoon, and told me you two cared for each other and were going to be married, and there was no good for me to adopt a dog-in-the-manager attitude about it."

" What? Stupid woman! Did she have any sense to let me handle it?" Leon was irritated, his petulant face wavered, showed temper.
" I guess she can't wait to be Mrs. Luo." The soft tone was now definitely impregnated with mockery, which made Leon even more irritated.

That was interesting, Erica thought, to see how far she could drive Leon to, so Erica decided to go on : " So, Vicky, your secretary becomes history now? Leon, how bad you are. She is a nice girl, and I believe she really crazed about you. You should not treat her like that."

Leon's irritation found its way out now. His eyes narrowed to slits. And he burst out an ugly sneer. " Not spying on me? I almost forgot what kind of person you are! If you are not such damned possessive, I would not…"

" Ok, it's my possession that push you into a series of affairs. But believe or not, Leon, I lost interested in spying on you long time ago. Besides, I need not to do that. It's there in that poor girl's face for any one to read… Vicky is too young to hide her own feelings for you. I guess that's her problem. She is too easily to get into your trap, so you soon got over her, right? Elsa might be different, because she is more sophisticated. But you are wrong, Leon. She is the same…possessive, that's the word you are afraid most."

" You talked like you were not one of them!" Leon sneered.

"You really enjoy raking the old story up, Leon." Erica shrugged her shoulder, "Yes I was an intense nature. And I did care you with a desperation. But I was not the girl who married to you two years ago. That girl was died, Remember? Believe it or not, you are not my god any more." Her words faltered into silence.

What a passionate and crude creature she used to be! Believe every single word Leon said to her. But with a wry, painful twist of the lips, Erica wondered now how it was that she couldn't know. She should have known from the very first minute----up there at her birthday party----when she had first introduced her friend Lucy to him. The way he looked at her. And she should have known the very night the two betrayed and cheated on her. He came home with the scent Lucy used. She should have read in his soft face, with eyes abstracts, what he was thinking about----that woman----the woman he had just left. She must have sensed what was going on from the very beginning, because after that party, her heart ached so often for no reason, and because she struggled so desperate to convince everybody including herself that she had been in a fairy-like marriage life. She refused violently to take in any suggestions, any hints leading to that same track----the truth. Leon was her life, her existence. Love burned in her with a medieval force, to survive in a world with a god like him, she had to master the act of pretence. And she should be rewarded an Oscar for playing that part in a play----the part of a happy wife. But one day the delicate edifice of false hope and security had collapsed. Her friend May handed her a phone record. It' was Leon's phone record full of the same familiar number----Lucy's number, those eleven bloody figures stabbed through the thick enveloping armor of Sue's imaginary happiness----pin-prick through a heavy muffling veil…. she couldn't continue this one-acter play any more. The stage was already collapsed. She never knew it was Lucy or May she hate most. But after that, her whole world was not the same any more. It first followed a series of fusses and scenes. She almost had done everything she despised most: to pray, to beg, to spy, to make a fool of herself. Then one night, in a furious row with Leon, she took a knife and plunged heavily into her wrist. Blood, bloody was all over. Now, there was still ugly scar left on her wrist to remind how desperate she once was! Leon finally left Lucy and returned to her. But the nightmare was not over, never. There were Linda, Vicky, Sophia, and now Elsa. He was always getting mixed up with some woman or other. Couldn't help it. She didn't know form what time her heart stopped bleeding. It just one day, she could not be touched by Leon and his affairs. In fact, nothing could touch her any more.

" Stop talking like a saint." Leon frowned, " I admit I might have given you the hell of a life. So why not take this chance of getting out?"
Erica was yawning and twisting the small lighter in her hands. She answered still with an easy nonchalant way: " I did this for you, Leon. Rethink about it and you will see you are making a huge mistake. Suppose we do get divorce and then you marry Elsa, what would happen next? You would soon get bored and want to get back into the game. Would Elsa be happy about that? Do you really want to go through another hell of it?"

There was a silence. Leon stared at Erica as if he was trying to find something so he could read between the lines of her words. But nothing, he could find nothing from that quiescent face under half lights and shadows.

" Ok, forget what I just said." Leon said.

When Leon left, Erica heaved a sign of relieve. So she finally won in this battle, but how about next one?