Chapter 1

The apartment went quiet for a few seconds.

Then, Ezra Wright’s voice echoed again. “Nina, I love you, and I don’t want to keep hiding from her every single time. Why don’t we just come clean?”

Nina Doherty suddenly raised her voice. “Are you crazy? Olivia has funded me for eight long years, through high school and grad school. If she finds out about this, what would that make me? An ungrateful backstabber who bites the hand that feeds her? If word gets out, my reputation will be ruined!”

I let out a bitter smile. So, she knew she was in the wrong. Yet, not only did she do it, but she also chose to hide it.

The sound of someone pacing back and forth could be heard from inside the apartment.

“But she’s been investigating this for four years. You haven’t seen the way she looks. She’s almost convinced herself that she’s going crazy with delusion.”

Nina’s tone softened and became tearful. “Babe, can’t we just wait a little longer, please? Just until I’ve established myself at the company and the dust settles. Stick to the plan. Let’s just keep it hidden for a bit longer, okay?”

A long silence followed before Ezra sighed. “Fine. We’ll do whatever you want.”

Nina immediately stopped crying and broke into a smile.

“That’s more like it. In that case, I have one condition. For my birthday, you have to go on a trip with me. This time, I want to go to Asper for skiing and hot springs for three days and not a single day less.”

Ezra chuckled and replied gently, “Alright, my little princess. I’ll just tell her it’s a business trip. She won’t be able to trace a thing. She hasn’t found out in four years, so what’s there to worry about a few more days?”

Outside the door, I bit my lip until it bled. I had no idea how long I stood there, but eventually, I calmed down, gently placed the birthday present on the ground, and left. The cold breeze outside the apartment brushed against my face, and only then did I realize I had broken out in a cold sweat.

On the drive home, Ezra sent me a message.

[I have to go on a last-minute business trip this week. I leave tonight.]

I stared at the message for a long time.

What a half-hearted excuse! He knew full well I had been suspicious about this the whole time, yet he didn’t even bother providing a reasonable explanation or valid reason. Instead, he brushed me off with the same old excuse of a business trip.

I was simply too foolish to realize earlier that the culprit was right by my side the entire time.

I replied, [Okay.]

Once I was home, I went to the study. I began taking inventory of everything in this house that belonged to me over our four years of marriage.

I opened a drawer and pulled out a folder. Inside were the things I had gathered over the past four years. There were screenshots of the money he transferred at the same time every year, call logs from the three days he disappeared each time, search results for that unlisted number, and a private investigator’s report from three years ago.

Back then, I wept in the study for an entire night, staring at the report. Now, looking at it, all I wanted to do was laugh because the person had been right beside me all along.

I first contacted my attorney, Frank Jenkins.

“I want a divorce. Please prepare the divorce papers for me.”

“Sure.”

Then, I calculated all the assets that belonged to me and listed out our shared assets accumulated over the years. I refused to give him a single bit of what belonged to me.