He Helped Me Fail 99 Times
The explosion wiped out my parents—and their company.
All I had left was some insurance cash and a pile of patents nobody cared about. I begged their old partners to back me. Crickets.
Then Alex Ross strolled in, played the hero no one asked for, and proposed.
Five years deep into our marriage, after my 99th FDA rejection, I finally cracked. I was in the garage when I heard his phone on speaker.
Mark's voice came through: "Dude, you're still handing Lily Emma's blueprints before she even files? How many times has she flopped now? Girl's relentless, huh?"
Alex? Straight-up ice.
"Ninety-nine. She'll quit soon."
"You're really tanking your wife to boost Lily's brand? Worth it?"
"Lily's launching her new product tomorrow at the Boston Medical Summit. Patent number 100. Watching her blow up from nothing... makes me proud."
"But it's all Emma's stuff. Your dad made you marry her for her brain, didn't he?"
"Don't bring up my father." His voice turned sharp. "He forced me to dump Lily. I just played along."
I sank into the driver's seat, frozen.
I wasn't a partner. Just a pawn—revenge bait for his dad and backup fuel for his ex.