I Am the Manstress of My Ex's Wife

chapter 1

Character description

Garven kaslow

Appearance: diamond face shape, perfect facial thirds, average symmetry. small forehead,perfect sized chin, dark black hair,deepset thin almond affectionate deep seet onyx brown eyes with positive cantant tilt and no eyelid exposure, pale glass skin like the moonlight, thick Straight eyebrows, upturned nose, cupid lips with a voluptuous pout, 10%body fat, lean physique. 173cm height.wears thick glasses that distorts the size of his eyes making it look smaller.

Race :50% Filipino, 25%korean, 25%British

Attributes

Looks : 8/10

Intelligence: 7/10

Eq : 7/10

Current age : 26

Occupation : nurse

Overall physical aspects: ordinary

Talent : acting,dancing, critical thinking.

Personality: INTJ

A boy who has suffered immense suffering during childhood, his parents breaking up, both parents leaving to another country to make money,being raised by his siblings,suffered poverty malnutrition, bullied for being ugly and fat at 13 when his mom came back after overeating and gaining so much acne. Became happy after his family financial situation Became stable and started focusing on himself becoming quite remarkable at 16. He perused nursing and became one of the top graduates.

Appearance: triangle face

Kael Rivenhart

Appearance:

Rectangular face shape, strong facial thirds, broad forehead, heavy square jawline, thick neck, coarse dark ash-brown hair kept short and messy, deep-set hooded steel-gray eyes with an intimidating calm, warm tan skin with visible texture, thick slightly arched eyebrows, straight prominent nose with a slight bump on the bridge, firm wide lips with a restrained expression, 12% body fat, heavily built athletic physique with wide shoulders and thick arms.

Height: 188 cm

Race : 50% Filipino, 50% italian.

Often wears fitted hoodies or sleeveless jackets that emphasize his build.

Attributes:

Looks: 8/10

Intelligence: 6.5/10

EQ: 6/10

Current age: 27

Occupation : Executive manager of a successful mall

Overall physical aspects: physically dominant

Talent:

Combat sports, weight training, leadership under pressure.

Personality:

ENTP – quiet, action-oriented, observant, confident without needing attention.

He met when Garven was at his Lowest was friendly to him knowing he was bisexual and lead him on for a year out of pure amusement, got courted by garven by a month, liked him backed, got into a situationshio for a week,got bored and turned off then left him, suffers from family problems, is being constantly being criticized and compared by his parents.

Name: Selene Marquez-Hanford

Appearance:

Face shape: Heart-shaped with elegant contours

Facial harmony: Well-balanced facial thirds, classical beauty symmetry

Forehead: Slightly wider, giving a regal but soft presence

Chin: Delicate yet defined, enhancing youthful femininity

Hair: Jet-black, silky straight, waist-length, naturally glossy

Eyes: Deep almond shape, mesmerizing obsidian brown, framed by full lashes

Skin: Porcelain-pale with a cool undertone, almost luminescent in moonlight

Eyebrows: Softly arched and full, enhancing expressiveness

Nose: Slightly upturned, subtle and pretty

Lips: Full cupid’s bow, with a soft natural rosiness

Body: Lean hourglass, ~18% body fat, graceful musculature

Height: 168 cm

Usually wears oversized round glasses that downplay her beauty and make her seem shy

Ethnicity / Background:

50% Filipino, 25% Korean, 25% British

Attributes:

Looks: 7.5/10 (underrated because of glasses and introverted style)

Intelligence (IQ): 7/10 — insightful, learns fast

Emotional Intelligence (EQ): 7/10 — caring, empathetic, receptive to others

Current Age: 25

Occupation: financial analyst

Backstory

Selene grew up with a life that looked perfect from the outside — high-achieving home, private school education, a family known for polished reputations. But behind their cultured façade lay suffocating expectations.

Her British-Korean-Filipino mother drilled elegance, femininity, and composure into her as if perfection were survival. Her Filipino stepfather — a dignified businessman — made decisions for her entire future as if her career, marriage, and behavior were his investments.

Selene learned early: Love must be earned by obedience.

At 18, she was arranged into a relationship with Kael Rivenhart — the son of one of her stepfather’s closest partners. Kael was older, protective, and offered security she couldn’t refuse. Their engagement wasn’t romantic. It was an alliance.

But Kael was never fully present — cold, emotionally distant, still shaped by unresolved family trauma. She felt like a guest in her own marriage.

When she met Garven at 23, she experienced something she had never been given: Softness. Patience. Safety.

With Garven, she could wear oversized glasses and messy hair. With Garven, she could be weak without being judged. With Garven, she felt alive.

But she couldn’t bring herself to break free from her marriage — the shame, the expectations, the fear of destroying her family image held her shackled.

So she created a lie she told herself every night: Garven was her real husband. Kael was just an obligation.

Until the day both worlds collided in Garven’s apartment bed.

And the truth destroyed all three of them.

Garven Kaslow, 26 — A nurse who rose from poverty, abandonment, and bullying to build the life he once thought he’d never deserve. With his stable career, supportive family, and loving girlfriend Selene, he finally believed happiness was real. He cherished her — not just because she saw the beauty he always hid behind thick glasses, but because she made him feel chosen.

On their second anniversary, Garven cut his long shift short to surprise Selene with dinner and a handwritten letter confessing how she saved him from his darkest years.

But when he entered his apartment, the soft laughter and familiar voice he heard didn’t belong to her alone.

Selene was tangled in bed with another man.

His ex.

Kael Rivenhart — the first person who made him believe he was worth loving… and the first person who proved he wasn’t.

Garven wasn’t the boyfriend. He was the affair. He was the manstress.

And the husband Selene had never mentioned?

Was the very man who once broke him.

Chapter 1

The Anniversary That Never Was

(First-person from Garven’s POV — raw, intimate)

My key never felt heavier.

I stood outside our — my — apartment door, heart pounding like it was afraid to hope too loudly. In one arm, a ridiculous bouquet of red roses, large enough to swallow half my body. In the other, a handcrafted tower of chocolates — her favorite, the one she always joked she wanted instead of a wedding ring.

Two years together.

Two years of loving her hard enough to silence the old voices inside me saying I wasn’t enough.

I wanted to surprise her.

To show her I remembered the one day she forgot.

The lock clicked open.

Light laughter — hers — spilled into the hallway. Soft and breathless.

Joy surged in me at first.

Then the second voice came.

A man’s voice.

Deep. Familiar.

My past wrapped in a single painful vibration.

My legs moved before my brain could stop them. Roses trembling. Chocolates digging into my forearm.

I walked in.

The world froze.

Selene’s bare back. Kael’s muscular arms around her. Sheets tangled. Skin flushed. Their bodies pressed together like they had always fit.

My heart dropped so violently it felt like it shattered against my ribs.

I couldn’t breathe.

“...Garven?” Selene whispered, horror draining the color from her perfect face. Her glasses sat crooked on the bedside table — a detail I shouldn’t have noticed, but did.

Kael turned, brows furrowing as his eyes pierced through me.

Those gray eyes.

The ones that once looked at me like I was a joke.

The ones I swore I’d never drown in again.

He didn’t look guilty. Or shocked. Just… confused.

“Who the hell are you?” he asked.

My voice cracked — a pitiful sound too small for all the pain.

“I–I’m Selene’s… I’m her—”

My throat closed.

Tears blurred the roses into bleeding red shapes.

Selene scrambled to cover herself, her lips trembling.

“Garven, please… I can explain—”

“You’re married?”

The chocolates slipped first. They hit the floor, scattering like cheap promises.

Then the roses fell.

My knees followed.

I knelt on the cold tile — the anniversary gift I had polished and paid for — and finally the sob I tried to swallow broke free.

“I thought…” My words shook apart.

“I thought you loved me.”

Kael’s expression shifted.

Recognition.

Then disgust.

As if he’d just remembered the pathetic boy he once toyed with.

Selene reached for me, pleading.

Kael grabbed her wrist, dragging her back.

And I realized—

I wasn’t the surprise.

I was the intruder.

I wasn’t the lover.

I was the other man.

The manstress.

Chapter 2 - An anniversary that never was.

The room was silent except for my breathing — ragged, uneven, humiliating.

I forced myself to stand again, even though my legs trembled like they were ready to give out again. My hands shook as I picked up the roses and the chocolate bouquet.

They were wrinkled now. Some petals torn. But I fixed them gently, like they were her.

I swallowed hard, trying to stitch my voice back into something steady.

“Get out.”

My words came out soft — too soft to sound angry — but full of pain they could never deny.

Kael clicked his tongue, already pulling on his pants. “Ah hell nah, I’m outta here,” he muttered under his breath, shaking his head like he was the one wronged here.

He walked past me without looking back.

Though — just for a second — his eyes flicked toward my face.

To the tears clinging to my lashes.

To my chest rising and falling like my heart might tear its way out.

His thoughts flashed across his eyes, unfiltered:

Damn. He actually looks… kinda cute like that.

He shut the door behind him before that thought could betray him further.

Now only Selene remained — frozen in the sheets she shared with another man.

She had never looked more breakable.

“Garven…” she whispered, voice cracking.

I stepped closer, not to embrace her — but to place the roses gently on the bed beside her. I smoothed one of the petals with trembling fingers.

“These were for you,” I said quietly.

“As congratulations… for two years together.”

She covered her mouth, tears streaming.

“I’m sorry,” she cried. “Please— just let me explain—”

I set the chocolate bouquet beside the flowers. I tried to smile. It failed.

“Get dressed,” I said, still calm. “And leave. Both of you. This apartment… it’s mine.”

Her face twisted in guilt — not only for betraying me, but for destroying the version of love I had built around her.

She reached for my wrist.

I flinched away.

For the first time, she saw it:

The boy who once begged to be loved… was gone.

Only the man she destroyed stood before her.

“Garven,” she whispered again, choking on her own sorrow, “I never meant to hurt you like this.”

“But you did,” I replied.

“And I still love you for it.”

That was the worst part.

The part that broke me most.

“I'll— I’ll get my things,” she sobbed, scrambling to dress.

As she moved around the room, her guilt hung heavy — a suffocating cloud she could never escape now.

I stood perfectly still.

Silent.

Watching the life I knew collapse piece by piece.

When she reached the door, she hesitated, looking back one last time.

My eyes met hers.

“You could’ve just told me,” I said.

Almost whispering.

Almost pleading.

She nodded, broken.

And left.

The door closed.

The apartment finally — devastatingly — quiet.

Garven Kaslow was alone again.

The door clicked shut.

That tiny sound was louder than any scream Selene could’ve made.

It echoed.

It echoed like the last piece of me breaking.

My knees gave out again, but this time I didn’t try to stop the fall. I hit the floor hard, palms scraping tile — but the pain barely registered. My breath caught, desperate and strangled, like my lungs were trying to crawl out of my chest.

The roses and chocolate still sat perfectly arranged on the bed.

Like a cruel joke.

All the love I had prepared… still waiting for someone who no longer wanted it.

My body folded into itself.

Arms wrapped around my stomach — trying to hold in the ache that throbbed deep and desperate.

I tried to cry quietly.

But the sobs tore out, ugly and wild.

“Why…”

The word cracked like glass.

“Why wasn’t I enough?”

The memories attacked like an ambush:

Selene’s laughter.

Her head on my shoulder.

Her soft “I love you” whispered into my neck at night.

Her promise that she would choose me.

My chest heaved.

They were lies.

Every single one.

My fingers dug into the floor until my nails hurt.

I wanted the pain. Any pain that wasn’t this.

“Is there something wrong with me?” I gasped to the empty room.

“Why does love always leave?”

The ghosts of my past answered — in the voices of childhood bullies, in Kael’s cold dismissals, in my mother’s absence, in the hunger and loneliness of years spent unwanted.

“You’re ugly.”

“You’re useless.”

“You’re nothing.”

“No one stays with you.”

I pressed my forehead to the ground, sweat and tears pooling beneath me.

“Stop…” I pleaded with my own mind. “Please… stop.”

But the hurt only grew.

It filled the apartment.

It filled my bones.

It filled every memory where I dared believe I deserved happiness.

My phone buzzed nearby — a reminder notification I had set:

“Happy Anniversary, Garven & Selene! ❤️”