Chapter 1

My CEO husband, Victor Thorne, loved bringing his buddies home for dinner, claiming it made us feel more like a family.

Watching me serve a table piled high with dishes, one of his friends grinned.

“You’re always such a gracious hostess, Elara! Truly the queen of this castle.”

My expression didn't change as I asked, half-jokingly, “Oh? Is there some other, less… *generous* lady of the house I should know about?”

His friends froze, a flicker of panic in their eyes.

Victor chuckled, pulling me into a hug. “Listen to them babbling nonsense. Besides you, who else in this world is worthy of being my wife?”

Watching his nonchalant act, I smiled.

But the moment I turned away, I dialed a number.

“Julian, Victor Thorne is cheating on me. Make sure he rots in prison.”

My brother on the other end of the line was silent for three seconds.

“Elara, are you sure you’re not mistaken? Victor, he…”

I pulled off the wedding ring from my left hand, the diamond digging painfully into my palm.

“We’ve been married for ten years. Every single one of his cufflinks, I’ve had custom-made in Italy.”

“But today, he’s wearing a cheap, plastic flower pin. Julian, do you really think I’m mistaken?”

“You know I won’t tolerate injustice. Expose all the dirty deeds he’s done over the years. And while you’re at it, get me the best lawyer. I want a divorce.”

Julian’s anger flared. “Consider it done.”

Half an hour later, my phone pinged with an encrypted file.

I clicked open the first picture: an innocent-looking girl in a white shirt, beaming as she held a man’s arm.

Her wrist, peeking out from her sleeve, bore a wolf-head tattoo identical to Victor’s.

Without hesitation, I drove straight to his company.

Minutes later, a girl with long, straight black hair and a white dress hurried out.

I glanced at her employee ID: Serena Vance.

The moment she saw me, her face went white with fright. She instinctively hid her hand behind her back.

But I still caught sight of it: a Swiss custom-made watch.

Last year, on my birthday, I received a notification of a Swiss purchase.

A three-million-dollar watch, a fifty-thousand-dollar necklace.

The necklace was carefully kept at home.

The watch was on *her* wrist.

I scoffed, cutting straight to the chase.

“Ms. Vance, your husband seems to have remarkably similar taste to mine. Even his custom-made watch has the exact same design.”

Serena trembled at my words, her red lips parting and closing several times before she stammered, “Y-yes… I guess all men have similar aesthetics.”

Her fingers, clutching the hem of her dress, were bone-white.

“Enough with the act,” I said flatly.

“You’re the ‘little lady’ they’ve been calling, aren’t you?”

Seeing that I’d directly confronted her, Serena trembled even harder, a panicked mess.

“Please don’t misunderstand, it’s just that Mr. Thorne had another low blood sugar faint, and I simply looked after him once.”

“Mr. Thorne’s friends thought I was very attentive, and they were just joking around.”

“I’m truly sorry if I caused any misunderstanding.”

With that, she even dramatically folded over in a ninety-degree bow towards me.

She looked like a pathetic, wronged damsel. If I hadn’t seen her tactics for seducing Victor, I might have actually fallen for it.

Half a month ago, she posted a video on TikTok.

A man was swiping his card at a luxury car dealership, next to a Porsche.

Her caption read: *Where a man's money goes, his love follows.*

At that time, I was at home, burning with a fever, almost unconscious.

I called Victor, asking him to take me to the hospital.

He panicked for a second, but then his voice turned hoarse, like he was suppressing something.

“Darling, I’ll have the housekeeper take you. I have something urgent I can’t get away from.”

An hour later, I was fighting for my life in the hospital with pneumonia.

Meanwhile, she posted a photo lying in a car, a man’s chiseled abs dotted with suggestive red marks.

Caption: *New car and you, forever marked as mine.*

When Victor finally arrived, his shirt still half-unbuttoned.

He threw himself by my bedside, his eyes red-rimmed.

Then, I naively thought he was worried about me. But it turns out, it was just guilt from his illicit affair.

A wave of nausea washed over me. And *this* is the caliber of woman Victor betrayed me for? Truly pathetic.

Too disgusted to watch her pathetic act any longer, I turned and left.

But the moment I got into my car, Victor called.

The instant I answered, his voice was laced with panic.

“Why did you suddenly decide to come to the company?”