Page 98 of The Humiliated Wife

“You’re the dumbest man I’ve ever met.”

Dean looked down. “I don’t expect her to ever forgive me.”

“Good. Because you don’t get toexpecta damn thing from her.” Russell’s voice was hard.

Dean was quiet.

Russell’s expression was hard. "You know what June would say about all this?"

"That I'm a piece of shit?"

Russell smiled without any humor. "Well, probably. But she'd also say that a man who can see his own ugliness that clearly might have a chance at becoming someone better."

Russell groaned. He stood up, gathering his lunch. "Come to dinner tonight."

Dean stared at him.

Russell paused at the door. "Seven o'clock. And Dean? Bring flowers. June likes daisies."

Dean was goingto meet Russell’s June tonight. He was going to see a marriage that had lasted for decades, just as his own was imploding.

He sat in the conference room, the scent of overpriced espresso and ego thick in the air. The screen glowed with a half-finished presentation, slides slick with buzzwords: “Disruption,” “Synergy,” “Brand Fluency.”

He didn’t speak just to hear himself anymore. That alone already made today feel different.

Richard leaned forward at the head of the table. “So. Let’s talk rollout. I want campaign concepts on the table. Jared, Roxanne—you’re up.”

Jared launched into something bloated and expensive, involving influencer tie-ins with a moody, cinematic ad spot she said would “evoke a post-capitalist yearning for connection.” Whatever the hell that meant. He used to fake understanding. He used to want them to think he was cool.

He hated himself.

Richard nodded along, impressed by the pitch. “Okay. Dean?”

Dean cleared his throat. “I have a simpler option.”

Roxanne didn’t hide her smirk. Jared actually sighed. Richard just raised an eyebrow.

He used to be one of them. Smug. Shallow. God, he used to think this room mattered.

Now he just wanted to scrub himself out of every memory where he’d cut his wife’s accomplishments down.

Dean continued. “Instead of trying to make the brand cooler than it is, we lean into what it already does well: reliability, low cost, no frills. We roll out a regional print-and-radio campaign targeted at small towns and mid-size cities—places where people actually use this product. Emphasize longevity. Practicality. Stability.”

Jared blinked. “Print? Like… printed mail?”

“It’s not flashy,” Dean admitted. “But it’s cost-effective. We could cover three times the market for a third of the price. And these consumers don’t want aspirational—they want useful.”

Silence.

Then Richard leaned back, one eyebrow raised. “That’s… actually smart.”

Roxanne made a face. “But it’s notexciting.There’s no narrative.”

“There’s no waste either,” Dean replied, keeping his tone even. “And it meets the client’s actual goals.”

Jared muttered something under his breath about “billboard beige.”

Dean didn’t care.