All Chapters of A Size Off, a Marriage Off: Chapter 1 - Chapter 9

The shirt was exquisite, clearly my wife, Celeste Beaumont's, own work. However, the tightness I felt across my shoulders left me deeply puzzled.Celeste's younger brother, Felix Beaumont, and I had almost identical builds, both always wearing size XL. Could she have remembered the incorrect sizes?I doubted the idea as soon as it appeared.Celeste was a professional fashion designer and knew the two of us best out of everyone. There was no way she'd make an L-sized shirt for either of us, unless the shirt wasn't made for Felix or me.In that case, who was it for?Once that thought popped up, it clung to my mind like stubborn vines.I forced myself to stay calm and tapped on the pet surveillance app on my phone.I'd been away for a month, and the cat was the only thing that ever worried me. Therefore, I'd set up security cameras in the living room and bedroom. I scrolled back to the day I left. Aside from the housekeeper showing up on schedule daily to feed the cat and clean u

As the new menswear brand progressed, Celeste worked overtime more frequently and sometimes didn't come home until 1:00 am or 2:00 am.She said the new collection had hit a bottleneck.I told her not to overwork herself, but she'd just smile and say she was fine.Then, another detail raised my guard.When Celeste came home, her body wash seemed different. We'd always used the cedar-scented body wash at home, but for days, she carried this sugary floral scent.When I asked, she brushed it off by saying, "The pantry at the office stocked new toiletries. If I stay late, I would just shower there since I don't want to come home and wake you."It was a perfect excuse, but the unease in my mind sprouted like mad.On another late night, she texted to tell me that she might pull an all-nighter and told me to go to sleep first.I tossed and turned in bed before finding myself checking the security camera footage again.The office lights were on, but Celeste's seat was empty.Frowning,

Celeste had explained the human figure as the mannequin being repositioned.In the heat of our confrontation, that explanation seemed to make sense. However, I finally noticed a flaw.That mannequin was specially ordered by Celeste for its realistic shape and weight of a human, made of a solid fiberglass core. A full-grown man might manage to move it and run around, but for a woman like Celeste, simply lifting it required a great effort.In the security footage, the mannequin had swiftly flashed by. There was no way she could have moved an object weighing at least 100 pounds with such speed in the dark.It had to be a man! He had to be hiding from me!Just as I was about to dial her number to confront her, something in me snapped back to reality.I'd acted on impulse once, and without solid evidence, doing anything now would only push me deeper into disadvantage. So, I shifted my approach and started looking at Celeste's finances.While helping sort through some bills, I reviewe

I shut my phone and forced myself back into bed. This time, I couldn't risk alerting Celeste again.I had sincerely apologized to her for my previous behavior, the security cameras, and the scene at her office, by blaming it all on stress from my long business trip and the situation with Felix. It had made me paranoid and constantly overthink.Celeste seemed to lower her guard. Her attitude toward me seemed to return to the affectionate warmth we once had.The gentler she became, the more tightly strung my nerves felt.On Friday afternoon, I arranged a meeting with the office building's property manager using my leverage as the largest investor in the firm leasing the floors. I asked to review the floor plan of the entire building, then pretended to review fire safety layouts and load-bearing walls.Casually, I pretended to turn to the floor plan of the 22nd floor, where Celeste's company was located. Just as I suspected, the dimensions on the floor plan didn't match the renovatio

Celeste never admitted to her cheating affair. Instead, she went on the offensive.She called her parents, then mine, crying into the phone and sobbing out accusations that I'd fabricated proof just to smear her reputation. She claimed that everything I'd done was to run off with some mistress and force her to leave the marriage with nothing.Overnight, I became the target of everyone's outrage. My phone blew up with calls of my parents' furious shouts and her parents' scathing condemnation, crashing on me like a tidal wave of blame.No one trusted me, but it was fine. I'd handled my compiled proof over to my lawyer, Adam Marshall.A week later, Adam sent Celeste a formal legal notice, along with divorce papers and a comprehensive file of proof attached. The contents of the divorce papers were simple—Celeste would voluntarily forfeit all marital assets and return the full investment I'd injected into her company, totaling 58 million dollars.Celeste refused outright. She hired o