All Chapters of I Ruined My Ex-Husband and It Was Worth It: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

57 Chapters

The Accident

‎‎‎Sarah‎‎‎‎The rain was fucking relentless that night.‎‎I remember gripping the steering wheel of my Range Rover, squinting through the windshield as sheets of water hammered against the glass. The highway was a goddamn nightmare, cars crawling at twenty miles per hour, I couldn't see shit, and my phone wouldn't stop buzzing with messages I didn't want to see.‎‎Marcus had texted me seventeen times.‎‎"Where the fuck are you?"‎‎"You're late for dinner with James and Victoria."‎‎"Don't embarrass me again, Sarah."‎‎The last one made me grip the wheel harder. Embarrass him. As if showing up late to a dinner party was the same as him staying out until 3 AM on "business calls" that ended with lipstick on his collar and the smell of Chanel No. 5 that I definitely didn't wear.‎‎I was pregnant. Six months pregnant with our first child, and my husband was having an affair.‎‎I'd known for two weeks. I'd found the texts on his iPad when I was looking for flight information.

The Betrayal

‎Sarah‎‎‎‎Three months later, I was watching my own funeral from the back of a church I didn't believe in.‎‎I wore a dark wig, oversized sunglasses, and a black dress that made me invisible. The mourners were mostly people I'd never seen before Marcus's business associates, his family, people who wanted to be photographed looking sad for social media.‎‎The church smelled like lilies and old wood. That heavy floral smell made my stomach turn. Someone—probably Victoria had picked these dark purple flowers.‎‎Victoria sat in the front row, her hand on Marcus's shoulder. She was wearing black Chanel, her blonde hair perfectly styled, her makeup was perfect despite the fact that she was supposedly devastated by her best friend's death.‎‎She looked fucking thrilled.‎‎Marcus was playing the grieving husband perfectly. His eyes were dark, his hand trembled when the priest asked people to share memories. When he stood to speak, his voice cracked at exactly the right moments.‎‎"S

The Resurrection

‎Sarah‎‎‎‎My son was born on a Tuesday in March.‎‎I named him Alexander, because it meant defender of men, and I was going to need him to know that he had a mother who fought back. The birth was private just me and a doctor Diane had arranged, in a safe house in Marin County where nobody would think to look for a dead woman.‎‎When I held Alexander for the first time, I made a promise, his father would never know he existed. Not until I was ready. Not until I had destroyed everything Marcus had built on the foundation of my corpse.‎‎‎‎The first message arrived on what would have been my birthday.‎‎‎‎It was a press release, forwarded by a Google Alert I’d set up for “Bennett & Associates.” The subject line was professional, Bennett & Associates Announces Rebrand and Leadership Transition Under New Vision.‎‎‎‎I sat in the sunlight of Diane’s spare room, now my room, Alexander sleeping in a bassinet beside me, and opened it.‎‎‎‎There was a glossy new logo, and the

The Long Game

‎Sarah‎‎‎‎My first day at Bennett & Associates was hard.‎‎I walked into the office as Emma Hayes, design consultant, and I saw my life through the lens of a stranger. The logo that I'd designed was still on the walls. The color palette that I'd chosen. The furniture I'd sourced was still being used by everyone.‎‎But my name was gone.‎‎Instead, there was Marcus's and ‎‎Victoria's names.‎‎My best friend had worked her way into the hierarchy of my own company.‎‎‎‎“Emma Hayes,” I announced to the receptionist, a young man I didn’t recognize. “Design consultant for the Napa Valley project. Marcus Richardson is expecting me.”‎‎“Of course, Ms. Hayes. He’s in a meeting, but Victoria can show you around.” He gestured toward the open-plan office.‎‎I found her at her desk—my old desk, I realized with a shock reviewing designs. She looked exactly like she had at the funeral.‎‎She was wearing a ring on her left ring finger. A ring that looked suspiciously like the engagemen

Day Of Reckoning

‎Sarah‎‎‎‎Today makes it six months of pretending, of smiling at their stolen happiness, six months of watching them walk my halls. Six months of invisible smiles as they passed my desk, their hands linked, their future built on my grave, and I had it all. Forty million dollars, traced and documented, proving my husband and my best friend— now fiancés are thieves and traitors.‎‎‎‎On a Friday afternoon, I called a meeting.‎‎‎‎They entered the conference room hand-in-hand, Victoria’s engagement ring bought with my company’s profits caught the light.‎‎‎‎“Emma,” Marcus said, his tone politely bored. “What’s so urgent?”‎‎‎‎I stood. My fingers went to the nape of my neck, releasing the auburn wig. I pulled it free, letting my own dark, shorter hair fall. Next, the blue-tinted contacts. I placed them on the table with a soft, deliberate click. Finally, the glasses.‎‎‎‎The silence was deafening, like a vacuum sucking the air from the room.‎‎‎‎Victoria’s hand slippe

THE GHOST IN THE MACHINE

‎‎Sarah‎‎The office was chaos the moment they left.‎I stood in the conference room, papers still on the table, and watched through the glass walls as security escorted Marcus and Victoria to the elevator. Marcus looked like a man walking to his execution. Victoria was pale enough that I thought she might vomit.‎The rest of the office had gone silent. Everyone had heard the screaming and had seen them leave with a security guard flanking them like they were criminals which, technically, they were.‎I let them stare.‎I sat back down at the head of the table, pulled out my phone, and called Diane.‎"It's done," I said before she could speak.‎There was a beat of silence. Then "How bad?"‎"They signed. Full confession, complete transfer of shares. Everything is mine again."‎I could hear the smile in her voice. "You're officially Sarah Bennett again."‎"I'm officially a ghost with a legal signature." I stood up and walked to the window, looking out at San Francisco sprawling beneat

THE FALL

‎‎Marcus‎‎Monday morning came like a storm.‎I stood outside Bennett & Associates, my hand on the glass door, and I couldn't push it open. Victoria was next to me, wearing sunglasses even though it was cloudy. Her jaw was so tight I thought her teeth might break.‎"We have to go in," she whispered.‎"I know."‎"We signed the papers, we don't have a choice."‎I knew that. Every choice I'd made in the last eighteen months had brought me to this exact moment, standing outside my own company as a junior associate, a thief and a fool.‎When we walked in, the office went quiet. Like the kind of quiet that felt like you were been led for an execution.‎Sarah sat in her office—my office, the one I'd taken after she "died" and she was looking at designs with a focus that made my stomach turn. She didn't even look up when we walked past.‎She didn't need to, she knew exactly where we were and exactly how much we were suffering.‎That was the point.‎‎My desk was in the junior section. A sm

BREAKING POINT

‎Victoria‎‎I couldn't breathe.‎That was the first thing I noticed when I woke up on the third Monday of working at Bennett & Associates. The air felt too thick and my chest felt too tight. I lay in bed in Marcus's apartment, our apartment, though I was starting to think of it as his and I stared at the ceiling and tried to remember who I used to be.‎The woman who'd woken up in this bed six months ago had been happy. Engaged and about to take over a forty-million-dollar company with her fiancé.‎Now I was a junior associate being paid $40,000 a year, slashed at seventy percent, working for the bitch I'd betrayed.‎The bitch who'd come back from the fucking dead.‎I got out of bed and went to the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. I didn't recognize the person staring back, my blonde hair was dull and my face was bloated from crying. There were dark circles under my eyes that no amount of concealer could hide.Sarah had done this to me.‎That bitch had done this to me.‎Th

FRACTURES

‎‎Victoria‎‎"Then we run," I said. "We get money from somewhere and we run."‎"With what money?" Marcus asked. His voice was rising. He looked around to make sure no one was listening. "Sarah has my salary cut at seventy percent. I'm making nothing. You're in the same situation." He grabbed the counter. "Victoria, we can't run. We can't hide. We can't do anything."‎"So what do you want to do?" I snapped. "Just sit here and wait for Crowley to kill us?"‎"I don't know!" Marcus looked at me like I was supposed to have the answer. Like I was supposed to fix this. "I thought that if we just got through this, if we just paid back Sarah's money, everything would be okay. But it's not okay. It's never going to be okay."‎I pulled away from him. "This is your fault."‎"My fault?"‎"Yes, your fault!" I was angry now. Angry at him. Angry at Sarah. Angry at myself for being stupid enough to trust him. "You're the one who went to Crowley in the first place. You're the one who thought you coul

UNRAVELING

‎‎Marcus‎‎I sat on the edge of the bathtub and stared at the white tile wall.‎Seventy-two hours.‎That was all I had left before Crowley's deadline. Seventy-two hours before my whole life fell apart, before Crowley's guys found me and made sure I knew what it meant to owe a man like him money.‎I thought about running away, I thought about vanishing. I thought about ending it all right there in the bathroom.‎None of those ideas felt real.‎I ran my hands through my hair and tried to think. My mind was full of panic, and something darker something like anger.‎I had made mistakes. Yes. I had been greedy. I had stolen from Sarah I had broken her trust.‎But did I deserve this?‎Did I deserve to have my whole life ruined by a man I had never met? Did I deserve to spend my days looking over my shoulder, waiting for Crowley to destroy me for good?‎I thought about Sarah and how she came back from the dead, how she planned all of this just right, how she let me suffer at work, knowing

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