The Long-Awaited Divorce

My best friend took me back to her place. Her face was full of worry."What are you going to do now?" she asked.I already had a plan."I'm going to make them crumble from the inside."The next day, I showed up at the spa where Vanessa Hughes—Brad's executive assistant—loved to go.Lucky me. She was there.The moment she saw me, she lightly touched her belly. Her eyes were practically glowing with smugness.Then she opened her mouth."Well, well… look who's here. It's Mrs. Harrington," she said, dripping with fake sweetness.She covered her mouth with a theatrical little giggle."Oh, but I guess I can't call you that anymore. You and Brad are divorced. And you walked away with nothing. Can you even afford this place? You're not going to pull a dine-and-dash, are you?"I gave her a calm, small smile."You don't need to worry about my marriage," I said. "Anyway, aren't you supposed to have depression? You don't seem depressed at all."Her smile flickered.I glanced at her b

I handed over the swapped jewelry set to Vanessa.Brad tossed me a few hollow words of reassurance.Then a few days passed.Mortgage day arrived.My phone rang. It was Brad."What the hell are you doing?" he snapped. "Why didn't you make the payment? The bank is calling me now."My heart went cold, inch by inch.I explained, "Oh, honey, I forgot to tell you. My mom needed money urgently a couple days ago. I sent her everything. Can you figure something out this month?"Brad didn't even hesitate."Don't call me honey," he said coldly. "We're divorced. We're not anything anymore. Stop contacting me."He hung up.I tried calling back. It went straight to voicemail. I tried texting. Blocked. Social media? Gone.He had erased me from every corner of his life.I found them a few days later.Brad was walking Vanessa through the small park near their building. His hand was on her lower back. They looked like a pair of lovesick teenagers.I just stood there and watched. Quietly.

I knew how shameless Brad and his family could be. But even I didn't expect them to move this fast.I had just wrapped up an important meeting when my assistant, Lena Simpson, rushed in looking panicked."Lauren, your ex-mother-in-law is here. She's out in the lobby putting on a huge scene—crying, wailing. Security couldn't get her to leave. Everyone's watching."I didn't even pause. I kept packing up my computer and handed it to her."Please take this to my office."I hadn't even made it through the door when I heard Brad's mother screaming at the top of her lungs."Everyone, please judge for yourselves! Ever since Lauren married into our family, we have treated her like a queen!"We’re terrified of saying the wrong thing, terrified of not cooking exactly to her liking! She criticized everything—how we looked, what we did—and we just took it!"On top of that, she has such a terrible temper. She'd go crazy at home and start hitting us. My son saw how hard it was on me at my age

I gave Vanessa a small smile and slid another photo across the table."You've had this suspicion for a while too, haven't you? Otherwise, why would you go looking for someone else?"The photo showed Vanessa in bed with another man. It was obvious what they were doing.Her face went pale. She looked at me with pure fear."You… you knew this whole time? Why didn't you expose me?""Because I never wanted to fight over him in the first place."From the day I discovered his betrayal, my only concern was how to protect myself. How to cut my losses. Nothing more.What Vanessa didn't know was that the manager at her favorite spa was a friend of mine.And Brad was never exactly the loyal type.Over time, his feelings for her had visibly faded. She could feel it.Then she started hearing stories—other women, other affairs, other third parties getting tossed aside. The more she heard, the more desperate she became.And then she happened to overhear a little piece of advice: A baby coul

Brad went home ready to tear into Vanessa—only to find she was already gone.She'd taken a chunk of his money with her.He searched for her like a madman. The things he said about her—the curses, the venom—were beyond ugly.His mother couldn't take the shock. She collapsed. When she woke up, she was partially paralyzed.And Brad, that model son? At first, he took care of her. Devotedly.But it didn't last long. Soon enough, he started finding excuses. She was too much trouble. Too much work. In the end, he spent a little money and shipped her off to a nursing home.Then, not long after, Vanessa came back.Turned out she'd latched onto a "rich heir". But in her desperation, she hadn't done her homework. The guy was a fraud. He cleaned her out and was about to sell her overseas.She barely managed to escape.The baby was gone. And because she hadn't gotten treatment in time, chances were she'd never have another one.Brad hated her. Absolutely hated her.Vanessa stopped preten