She Trained Me Like a Dog

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My fiance, Kristin, had a best friend named Brooke who proudly called herself a master of training men.

She preached that all men were inherently flawed beasts who needed to be broken and house-trained. Under Brooke's constant brainwashing, Kristin turned my life into a series of endless rules. I had to be on call twenty-four hours a day. Going on a business trip required submitting a written request for approval three days in advance. Every hour, I had to send my live location and video-call her to prove exactly what I was doing. I had to do ten things to please Kristin just to earn a single kiss, and I had to perform ridiculous public displays of affection to prove my loyalty.

My buddies laughed at me. "Gavin, man, that good-husband training of yours... you might as well be in a maximum-security prison."

I would just smile it off. "Happy wife, happy life, right?"

I was planning my ninety-ninth proposal, waiting for the exact moment my company went public. But then Kristin and Brooke burst into the conference room with a mob, ripped the stockings off my female business partner, and pulled them over her head.

That was the exact moment my patience snapped.

If they wanted a dog, they could go find another one. I was done playing fetch.

Ten minutes prior.

I had just closed the deal of a lifetime with our investor, Diana Ward. The moment her pen touched the contract, my company would be cleared for its IPO. Just as Diana raised her pen to sign, a shrill screech shattered the quiet of the boardroom.

"Kristin, watch how I handle this homewrecking whore!"

Brooke did not even hesitate. She lunged forward and grabbed Diana by the hair.

"Tear her apart! Look at that slutty face of hers!" Kristin's face was twisted in absolute rage.

They had brought five or six women with them. Some screamed, others swung. The room descended into absolute chaos.

"Suit jacket on top, fishnets and stilettos on the bottom? What kind of business meeting is this? She is practically begging to be bent over!"

"Exactly! Kristin, if we were ten minutes late, they would be rolling around on the lounge sofa!"

Brookes words poured gasoline on the fire. Kristin glared at me, her eyes burning with a deep, ugly resentment, as if she had caught me red-handed.

"Have you lost your minds? Get off her!" I snarled.

When Brooke finally let go, she ripped out a bloody clump of Diana's hair. Kristin leaped in, tearing Diana's stockings off her legs and forcing them over her face. Seeing Diana exposed, I threw my suit jacket over her shoulders.

She was shaking, her voice trembling with pure rage. "Is this your idea of a professional negotiation, Gavin?"

"I am so incredibly sorry. I will make this right, I promise..."

Before I could finish, Kristin ripped my jacket off Diana and threw it to the floor. "Why are you apologizing to her? She is a cheap homewrecker! She deserves to be humiliated!"

"Exactly! Rising to the top at her age? We all know how she got her promotions," Brooke sneered.

Diana let out a sharp, furious laugh. "This is slander! I will sue you into the ground!"

"Go ahead! Sue us! You came in here to seduce my fianc, and now you are playing the victim?" Kristin sneered.

My face turned cold. "Kristin! Shut up! Apologize to Diana right now!"

"You are making me apologize? Gavin, I love you so much! What did I do wrong?" Suddenly, she was the victim.

I bowed deeply to Diana. "Please, let my assistant escort you out first. I will handle this."

Diana glared at me, adjusted her torn clothes, and stormed out. Looking at the hysterical Kristin and her smug group of friends, a profound emptiness settled in my chest.

Eight years of knowing her, six years of loving her, and I was finally, utterly exhausted.

Eight years ago.

Kristin was the golden girl of our university. An heiress with the title of campus queen, she had a line of suitors stretching out the door. I was nobody, a poor kid getting by on scholarships and hard labor. I worked night shifts just to buy her the fresh organic milk she liked every morning. My poorly written love letters filled her locker daily.

Back then, Brooke would laugh and say, "Probably some broke loser dreaming of a miracle."

But Kristin never threw them away. I could not afford expensive roses, so I gathered fresh wildflowers from the hills. I quietly cleaned her classroom, pulled her shifts, and changed my elective courses just to catch a glimpse of her. If she wanted something done, I did it in secret.

For two years, I loved her in absolute silence. Then, one day, she blocked my path.

"Gavin Pierce. It is been a month. Where are my letters? Where is my morning milk? Where are my wildflowers?"

I stood there, completely frozen. Dozens of rich guys showered her with designer bags, but she had noticed the broke kid.

"I know your mom is sick. I paid her medical bills. Now, what do you have to say to me?"

She was wearing a white summer dress, her smile so bright she looked like an angel.

I stammered, "Thank you..."

"Wrong answer," Kristin whispered, stepping closer.

Confused, I took a breath. "I love you?"

Kristin stood on her tiptoes and pressed a quick, sweet kiss to my cheek. "Bingo."

During those weeks when the letters had stopped, I had been working myself to the bone trying to raise money for my mother's liver surgery. Kristin paid for everything, hiring the best specialist in the country. The eighty thousand dollar bill was settled without her even blinking. Every day after class, she came to the hospital with me, bringing food and telling jokes to keep my mother's spirits up.

When we started dating, Brooke screamed at her, asking what she could possibly see in a pauper. Kristin simply laced her fingers through mine in front of everyone. "Because Gavin shows me what real love looks like."

When my mother was recovering, Kristin stayed up all night with me. This girl, who had never washed a dish in her life, tried to help empty my mothers drainage bags. I held her hand, my eyes burning with tears. "Kristin, I swear, I will spend the rest of my life making you happy."

Though my mother eventually passed away from post-op complications, Kristin remained my anchor through the darkest days.

But then, Kristin's father was caught in a massive cheating scandal. Her mother committed suicide in grief, and their family empire was torn company by company by greedy board members. After that, Kristin changed.

Staring at the shrieking woman in front of me, my restraint finally snapped. I raised my hand and slapped her across the face. The sharp sound cut through the chaos instantly.

Kristin froze, her hand flying to her cheek. Her cheek swelled rapidly, and a bead of dark blood welled at the corner of her lip.

"You... you struck me?" She looked at me in utter disbelief, her eyes pooling with tears.

My chest heaved with fury. I pointed toward the glass doors. "Who let these people in? Pack your bags and get out. You are fired!" I screamed at the security guards.

"Gavin, are you blind? That woman was practically throwing herself at you! Or are you two already sleeping together?" Brooke shouted, stepping in.

You would think they had caught me in bed rather than a board meeting.

The veins on my neck bulged. "Get. Out."

The girls looked at each other, suddenly uneasy. They had never seen me like this. For eight years, I had been trained to protect Kristin from even the slightest scratch. Hitting her was unthinkable.

Kristin burst into hysterical tears. "You will regret this, Gavin! I swear you will!"

Brooke hugged her, sneering at me. "See, Kristin? This is what happens when you let a broke dog get too comfortable! You think staying by his side when he was poor means he will be loyal? Men are trash at their core! If I had not been watching him like a hawk, he would have cheated on you years ago!"

The other girls chimed in. "Seriously. Brooke is the master at this. Look at how she turned her own husband from a player into a loyal pup! Toby does not even dare look at another girl. Brooke is a literal genius."

Brooke pointed a finger at my face. "Gavin, you know exactly how much Kristin did for you. If you get down on your knees right now and beg her for forgiveness, maybe she will take you back. Otherwise..."

Here it was again. The endless humiliation, the emotional abuse.

After her family fell apart, Kristin became paranoid. Brooke convinced her that all men were liars. To help us, Brooke took total control of our relationship.

She boasted to Kristin, "My Toby is so obedient. If I tell him to jump, he asks how high." Toby, indeed, never looked up in public. Brooke was incredibly proud of her creation.

Back then, I tolerated it all just to give Kristin peace of mind. But soon, Brooke became a permanent fixture on our dates.

If a female passerby brushed past my shoulder, Brooke would scream in the street, forcing me to vow my undying love to Kristin on the spot. When I was building my company, working eighty-hour weeks, I had to answer hourly video calls. If I was even seconds late, Brooke would smirk on the screen. "Twenty-eight seconds to answer, Gavin? Hiding another woman under your desk?"

Then Kristin's face would darken, and I would spend the next hour begging for forgiveness.

Whenever Kristin made a hand gesture representing a number, I had to immediately wire her that exact amount of cash. "A man's heart is where his wallet is," Brooke had declared.

Even when I collapsed from a stomach ulcer due to stress, I did not dare miss her calls. Every holiday, every anniversary, I had to spend thousands on elaborate gifts just so Kristin would not feel embarrassed in front of her friends. Even when my company was struggling for cash flow, I took out personal loans to buy her what she wanted, always making sure to buy Brooke a matching luxury item too.

But Brooke's demands only grew. She helped Kristin set up a point system. Good behavior earned points; mistakes deducted them. Travel required three days' notice. I was not allowed to make eye contact with female clients or give them compliments. I could not ride in an elevator or a car with another woman.

My friends thought I was insane, but I did it all. Yet, Brooke mocked me. "He is only doing this because he has not gotten into your pants yet. Once he gets what he wants, he will change."

So, for six years, our physical relationship never progressed past simple kisses. And even those had to be bought with ten completed favors. I kept telling myself she was just insecure because she loved me.

Once my company succeeded, I showered them with money, but their tests only became more sadistic. They sent honeytraps to seduce me during business trips. They tore up my business proposals just to see if I would raise my voice. They installed tracking software on my phone, suffocating my every move.

Staring at Brooke's smug face, I let out a low, cold laugh. "Otherwise what?"

"Otherwise, I will personally make sure Kristin never marries you! Ninety-nine proposals? You can try nine hundred and ninety-nine times, and you will still die alone!" Brooke barked.

I looked past her, staring directly into Kristin's eyes. "Is this what you want too?"

Kristin's response was to step forward and slap me again, hard.

I slowly picked up the torn pieces of the Diana Ward contract. "I was going to sign this today. Once signed, the company would have gone public, and my net worth would have skyrocketed."

"For our ninety-ninth proposal, I bought the estate overlooking the bay. I bought the sports car you wanted. I had a custom wedding gown made to your exact measurements, and I bought a rare emerald jewelry set at an auction..."

Kristin's anger suddenly wavered, replaced by a flicker of greedy anticipation.

But then, I spat out a mouthful of blood and looked her dead in the eye. "But now, it is over. We are finished, Kristin. There won't be a ninety-ninth proposal."