Chapter 2

I had just tucked Casey in when my phone buzzed.

It was a text alert from my bank about a charge.

“Your debit card ending in 6789 was charged $3,200.”

Immediately after, transaction alerts started blowing up my phone.

“Your debit card ending in 6789 was charged $8,600.

“Your debit card ending in 6789 was charged $15,000.

“Your debit card ending in 6789 was charged $45,000.”

…

Melody had blown through nearly a hundred grand in less than ten minutes.

This was her way of retaliating against me.

She expected me to do what I always did and call her right away to apologize and make things right.

Instead, I called the bank’s customer service.

“Hello, I’d like to report my card missing. Please put a freeze on all my accounts.”

After the call, I stared at the empty living room and came to a decision.

Both Melody and I were on the deed of the house.

However, the down payment came from Casey’s entire life savings. I had been slaving away at work, picking up extra shifts just to pay off the mortgage. Meanwhile, Melody never contributed a dime.

Since she despises small-town people so badly, she could forget about ever living under this roof again.

Stony-faced, I sent Melody a text.

“I’ll have my lawyer send you the divorce papers tomorrow. From now on, you can take that precious pride of yours and live with it.

“And that $100,000 you blew through today? That’s deliberate waste and dissipation of marital assets. I’ll be seeking to recover every penny during the divorce proceedings.”

Early the next morning, I made sure Casey was taken care of before heading into the office like any other day.

I stepped into the office, only to find that something was off.

“That must be him. He looks decent. It’s hard to believe that he’s a controlling mama’s boy.”

“I know, right? Apparently, it’s bad enough that he beats his wife, but he threw her out in the middle of the night and cut off her access to their bank accounts.”

My brows furrowed as I headed straight for the VP’s office.

Lee Cooper, my assistant, burst in frantically and handed me his phone.

“Mr. Caldwell, y-you need to see this. It’s blown up all over social media.”

The clip showed Melody, dressed in a flimsy cardigan, crying her eyes out on the curb late at night.

The caption read, “This is what happens when you marry a mama’s boy. MIL faked an illness to set me up. My husband kicked me to the curb in the middle of the night and froze all our accounts. Girls, don’t ignore major red flags like me!”

The video had over a million likes, and the hate comments kept piling on.

“The guy deserves to rot! No real man would freeze his wife’s cards.”

“I hope the toxic MIL rots in hell! Faking sick is a whole new level of psycho.”

“Stay strong, girl! Dox the guy! Let the internet ruin him!”

My personal information, photos, and employer had been leaked online.

Right on cue, my office line started ringing off the hook.

It was the CEO, Adrian Harp.

“Parker, get in my office. Now.”

I pushed open the door to Adrian’s office to find him red-faced, slamming his iPad onto the desk.

“The company is at a critical stage in preparing for its IPO. Do you have any idea how damaging this kind of negative publicity could be?

“I don't care what the truth is. You have three days to make this problem go away.

“Fail to do that, and you can kiss your VP position goodbye. You can save us all the trouble and hand in your resignation.”

I walked out of the CEO’s office, my back drenched in sweat.

Five years. I’d given this company five years of my life.

I’d clawed my way up from an intern to vice president, sacrificing countless nights of sleep and practically drinking myself into the hospital at business dinners.

Now, all of it was about to be destroyed by that vile woman, Melody.

My first thought was to give Melody a call, but all I got was the automated message saying her phone was turned off.

I went straight to the garage, got into my car, and drove over to Maddox’s place.

“Well, well, well. If it isn’t Parker. What? Did the viral video freak you out? Are you here to plead with Melody to take you back?”

Maddox blocked the doorway with a sneer, having no intention of letting me in.

“Where’s Melody? Tell her to come out here,” I said with a stern look.

“She’s not here.” Maddox blew a smoke ring, his eyes dripping with contempt.

I peeked into the foyer, and true enough, Melody was nowhere to be found.

“Alright. I’ll wait for her inside.”

I pushed past him to get into the house.

Maddox held his hand out to stop me while flashing the same deadbeat grin.

“Not so fast, Parker. Since you’re here, there’s one thing we need to talk about.

“Serene and I are planning to get hitched soon. I’m short 300 grand for a nice ride to keep up appearances…

“Money’s a little tight at the moment. You’re practically family. Mind to spot me?”