Chapter 3 When the Lies Spread

"It's just a divorce, right? Fine, let's get divorced. But don't come crawling back to me for forgiveness later."

I stopped her and said coldly, "You may not care about this house, but I do. I bought it. Since you've made up your mind, sign the papers, pack your things and leave."

Valerie glared at me, heaving. After signing the papers, she immediately called Gideon.

"Come pick me up. Grayson and I are getting divorced. He's making me pack my things and leave."

I stood to the side, the corner of my mouth twitching when I heard that.

The way Valerie put it, people would think I'd been bullying her.

Thankfully, she signed the agreement. I could finally be free of this marriage.

We'd been together for five years, and all this marriage had brought me was endless exhaustion.

By the time Valerie finished packing and stood at the door, she realized that nearly everything in the house belonged to her.

I barely had anything. I still had shirts that were five or six years old, and I hadn't even gotten around to throwing them out.

She lowered her head and fell silent. A hint of uncertainty flickered in her eyes.

"I'm here, Valerie! He didn't hurt you, did he?"

By the time Gideon came rushing over in his car, I'd already closed the door and settled onto the couch with my takeout.

When I heard the commotion outside, I put my headphones back on.

However, Gideon seemed determined to humiliate me.

He shouted loudly from the outside, "If I'd known he would do this, I never should've let you go to him!

"You're a grown man. It's just a house. You get divorced and immediately throw her out? Where's your sense of decency?"

The neighbors heard the commotion and began coming outside to watch, talking among themselves.

I finally couldn't take it anymore. I walked outside and punched Gideon.

"When you two were cheating behind my back, where was that concern for decency? You got her pregnant, and you still have the nerve to lecture me?"

Valerie stared at me in disbelief, her lips trembling uncontrollably.

"What are you talking about? Gideon, let's go."

She clearly hadn't expected me to know about her pregnancy, much less announce it in front of everyone.

Her face looked awful, and all she wanted now was to get away from the scene.

I didn't stop her. Instead, I turned around and told building management to remove Valerie's face ID from the security system and make sure she couldn't get inside again.

"We can finalize the divorce next week. I'll see you outside the courthouse. After that, we'll have nothing to do with each other anymore."

I sent her the message, then turned off my phone and went back to eating.

I'd thought that when this day finally came, I'd feel empty inside.

Instead, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief.

…

For the next few days, I was busy handling company matters. After running myself ragged, I finally managed to secure an investor.

"Mr. Steele, let's sign the contract."

We were about to sign the deal when the investor's assistant suddenly rushed in, his expression grim as he showed the investor something.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Steele, but we're going to have to put this partnership on hold."

After looking at whatever the assistant had shown him, he turned and walked away.

I stood there, completely dumbfounded.

It wasn't until I saw footage of myself trending online, angrily confronting Valerie and Gideon, that I realized I'd been set up.

Gideon was a social media influencer. When he came to pick Valerie up the day before, he'd arranged for someone to record the confrontation from inside the car.

After he got home, he edited the footage and posted it with the caption that read, "Went to pick up my best friend after some jerk kicked her out. That bastard deserves to die."

He'd built his whole online persona around being a man who championed women. The stories he'd fabricated for his followers quickly racked up more than 100,000 likes.

Furious, I immediately called Valerie.

"How dare you two make up lies about me? What gives you the right to falsely accuse me like this?"

Valerie, however, couldn't have cared less.

"Go ahead and sue us, then. Let's see who the police will believe. Public opinion is already on our side. Do you think I'm afraid of you?"