There was a knock at the door. Sharp. Repetitive. Jarring.
I glanced at the clock -- 7:43 p.m. Who the hell shows up unannounced on a Thursday night? I stubbed out my cigarette in the ashtray, still warm from the last one, and pulled open the door.
"Delivery," the man said, holding out a small box.
No name. No company logo. Just a plain cardboard parcel. I signed without thinking.
Back inside, I turned it over in my hands. No return address. Just a smudged postmark -- India.
The box was light. Thin. A DVD fell out the moment I opened it, clattering onto the kitchen table like it had something to say. On it, in scrawled black marker, were two words:
**Play Me.**
I lit another smoke, the taste of stale tobacco and bitterness thick in my throat. I should've tossed it. I *knew* I should've tossed it.
But curiosity has its own gravity.
I slid the disc into the player. Hit play.
And then she appeared.
"Hi there, asshole," the TV beamed.
My heart kicked against my ribs. That voice -- I'd recognize it in a windstorm.
Evelyn.
She was smiling, cruel and radiant. Her eyes burned right through the screen.
"That's right," she went on, "it's your ex-wife. Miss me? Aww. That's too bad. Because I don't miss you one *fucking* bit."
Then she laughed -- not playfully, but wickedly. I jabbed the remote. The screen went black.
I sat there in stunned silence. Then rage hit me like a brick. My hands were shaking. *What the fuck is this?*
Evelyn. That cheating, manipulative bitch.
She left me for the same bastard who humiliated her in college. Some jackass from Howard she swore she hated -- Terrell. One homecoming weekend, she vanished into her past and never came back. I only found out because one of them FaceTimed me while they were *in the act* -- him fucking her on the couch *I* paid for.
That night still haunts me. Her moans. Their laughter. Her phone lying on its side, recording it all. Watching it, I felt like a ghost in my own life.
I sat down. Rolled a joint with shaking hands. My stomach burned with hate, but my curiosity, once again, refused to die.
I hit play.
She was back on screen. This time, nude. Completely, confidently nude.
All 5'8" of her, curves fuller than I remembered -- maybe 165, 170 pounds, but she wore it well. D-cup breasts that hadn't lost their perk even at 38, nipples dusky and proud. A neatly trimmed patch of hair framed a pussy I once thought was mine.
I was hard in an instant.
She sat down on a bed that looked disturbingly familiar -- mine? Ours?
"Well, Kevin," she began, voice smooth as silk and just as dangerous, "I wanted to say thank you. For what? For being such a controlling, condescending prick."
I blinked. My mouth was dry. My hand hovered over the remote, but didn't move.
"All those years you tried to keep me locked down -- the names, the guilt, the gaslighting. You thought that would keep me yours. It didn't. It made me stronger."
As she spoke, one hand casually cupped a breast, massaging it, pinching the nipple. My nipple. Mine once.
She sighed like she was reminiscing about a good meal. "You remember the tongue ring you took me to get?"