All Chapters of A Joint Revenge by the Men She Fooled: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

I stared at the photo on my phone screen, unable to look away.The poster had blurred out the background, leaving only the back of a man in a bespoke suit, and the hand resting at his waist. That hand was slender and pale, with a plain platinum band on the ring finger.Someone else might not have recognized it. I couldn't have mistaken it for anything else. I'd spent an entire afternoon at the counter last month picking out that exact ring. The clerk had told me it was a new couple's design, meant to symbolize "the one promise."Melanie Parker had laughed as she slipped it on, then kissed my forehead and said, "Freddie, marrying you is the kind of fortune I must have earned over several lifetimes."And now that ring, the one that was supposed to carry "the one promise," was sitting in some stranger's post accusing his wife of cheating.I forced myself to stay calm and clicked on the poster's profile.His page was clean, almost entirely photos of his daughter. There was a little g

Chapter 2

Melanie and I met at a corporate cocktail reception.I'd just come back from finishing my MBA overseas, and my father wanted me to start from the ground up and learn the business firsthand. I was representing my department at an industry mixer that day, and Melanie was a project lead at another company.She wasn't the kind of beautiful that stopped a room, but she carried herself with an unmistakable polish, and the way she spoke, never fawning, never cold, made her stand out.Later, she started pursuing me. Her attentiveness was so quiet and constant that I fell completely under its spell. When I worked late into the night, she'd be waiting outside the office right on time, always with a cup of hot cocoa warmed to just the right temperature. Once, I mentioned in passing that I wanted a soufflé from some trendy little bakery. She waited two hours in line for it, and it was still warm when she brought it to my office. When my stomach acted up, she didn't just tell me to drink mor

Chapter 3

From that day on, Sean and I began working together in secret.We agreed to keep every conversation confined to a newly registered, encrypted messaging account, and to only reach each other during my one-hour lunch break. Sean's job was to keep Melanie steady, to keep playing the devoted, oblivious husband. Mine was to carry on with Melanie exactly as before: planning the wedding, picking out suits, booking the venue, drawing up the guest list.Melanie noticed nothing. She kept moving between the two of us without a hitch.Monday through Friday, she was my perfect fiancée, tasting menus with me, touring venues, choosing favors for guests, posting our sweet couple photos for everyone to see. On weekends, she was Sean's model wife, taking their daughter to the park, cleaning the house top to bottom, and wiring the household money to his account like clockwork.She even took a call once while we were out to dinner. I heard her say, in the gentlest voice imaginable, "Yes, I sent you

Chapter 4

The wedding day arrived quickly. It was set at the most luxurious five-star hotel in the city.Melanie had invited practically everyone she knew: college classmates, coworkers, business partners from her industry, and every aunt and uncle from her hometown she could think of. She was more excited for this wedding than anyone. To her, it wasn't just a wedding. It was her official coronation into high society.She stood at the ballroom entrance in the couture gown I'd paid over ten thousand dollars to have custom-made for her, her hair pinned into a flawless updo, her face glowing with satisfaction. Her bridesmaids crowded around her, giggling and teasing. "After today, you're officially the young lady of the Starr family!"Melanie laughed and swatted at them. "Don't be ridiculous," she said, though she couldn't hide the pride in her eyes.I sat in the groom's suite while the stylist finished my hair. In the mirror, I looked sharp in my tailored suit, every bit the confident groo

Chapter 5

The soft, romantic background music that had been playing suddenly felt like the score to some absurd farce.The whole room fell dead silent, hundreds of eyes locked on the man who'd just appeared, and on the child in his arms, blinking around with wide, curious eyes.Melanie had still been holding onto her tender, loving smile. The instant she recognized Sean's face, every trace of color drained from her own. She went rigid, as if she'd been struck by lightning."S…Sean?" The name scraped out of her throat in a whisper, barely loud enough for me to hear.She whipped her head around to look at me, her eyes flooding red, beads of cold sweat breaking out across her forehead. She finally understood. This wasn't a surprise. This was a trial meant to strip her lies bare in front of everyone."Freddie, let me explain, I'm sorry, I… I never meant to deceive you…"Melanie babbled, reaching for my hand. I recoiled, stepping back to avoid her touch, and looked at her coldly."Explain wh

Chapter 6

Sean walked onto the stage, the baby still in his arms. He looked down at Melanie, sobbing on her knees, his eyes rimmed red with years of grievance, heartbreak, and total disillusionment all tangled together.I walked over and handed him the microphone."Go ahead," I said quietly. "Say whatever you need to say."Sean took a slow breath before taking it from me. His hand trembled slightly, but his back stayed straight."Hello, everyone. My name is Sean Hudson. I'm Melanie's lawfully wedded husband."His voice was tight at first, but it steadied quickly."Just like the screen showed, I'm the legal husband of the woman kneeling here, Melanie Parker. We met in college, back when she was so broke she had to take out loans just to cover tuition. "I felt for her. All four years of school, I worked three jobs, enough to support myself and help cover her living expenses too."After graduation, she said she wanted to stay in the city and make something of herself, and she asked me to b

Chapter 7

Right then, I walked to a flower pillar at the edge of the stage and pulled a phone off its stand, hidden among the thick lilies.The screen was flooded with scrolling comments, cascading down like a waterfall."Melanie, do you see this?" I flipped the phone around so she could see the screen clearly. "This phone has been livestreaming since the moment the ceremony started. Your tears just now, your confession, your selfishness, the guests here weren't the only ones watching. Tens of thousands of people online saw every bit of it too."Melanie stared blankly at the comments still pouring down the screen. The stream had already passed a hundred thousand viewers, and the number kept climbing at a terrifying pace. The comments were sharper than anything said out loud in the room.[Holy crap, story of the year. The husband and the lover team up to expose the cheater!][Living off the rich guy to support her husband; wasting away her husband's youth to chase the rich guy. The math on

Chapter 8

Melanie's case moved through the courts faster, and ended far harsher, than anyone had expected.My father, once he learned the whole truth, was livid. He didn't just put the company's top legal team on the case. He personally stepped in and made sure Melanie's name was permanently blacklisted across her entire industry.In the courtroom, faced with the mountain of evidence Sean and I had gathered, everything from the marriage certificate and transfer records to chat logs and travel history, Melanie's defense attorney had almost nothing to say.Bigamy, compounded with fraud on a massive scale and embezzlement. The court combined every charge.On the day of sentencing, the sharp crack of the gavel echoed through the courtroom. Melanie was sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to return every dollar she'd defrauded.As for the divorce case between her and Sean, there was never any real question about the outcome. Since Melanie was found to be the party at fault and was fa

Chapter 9

The afternoon we got back from the prison, Sean brought his daughter over to my apartment.The little one could run everywhere on her own now. Clutching the limited-edition building blocks I'd bought her, she toddled over unsteadily, threw her arms around my leg, and looked up at me with those two little dimples, calling out in her sweet, babyish voice."Uncle Freddie!"My heart melted completely. I bent down, scooped her up, and kissed her soft little cheek. "There she is! What a good girl!"Sean watched us, his eyes full of quiet gratitude."Freddie, thank you." He came over and looked at me, sincere. "If it weren't for you, I might have spent the rest of my life in the dark, playing an unpaid nanny inside that lie with no end in sight. You're the one who gave me a second chance.""Don't say things like that." I patted his shoulder. "I already told you, she's the one at fault. We're both victims here. Now that she's gotten what she deserved, we owe it to ourselves to live bette

Chapter 10

It turned out my instincts had been right.Sean had a genuine gift for fashion design, sharpened by the years of hard-won life experience he'd accumulated. His style carried the sharp confidence of an independent man alongside a father's steadiness and warmth.When the first spring collection launched, we released a short concept video online. There were no glossy models in it, just Sean himself. He wore one of his own designs, a sharply tailored coat, walking out of a kitchen still humming with the smell of dinner, untying his apron, slipping on a pair of oxfords, and stepping out toward a sunlit office tower.The caption read: [I used to think love was a shelter from the storm. Then I learned the only person who could really shelter me was myself. Hudson Starr, for everyone breaking free of their cocoon.]Between the video's raw honesty and the momentum carried over from the wedding scandal that had gone viral across the entire internet, the brand exploded the second it launched.

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