The Betrayed Ex-Wife’s Ruthless Revenge!

CHAPTER 4 - I Intend to Make Them Suffer Forever!

VALERIE'S POV

I can't believe they had all abandoned me when I needed them the most.

Wasn't I really done for? I asked myself, smiling bitterly.

Everyone was gone. There was no one left to call for help.

Sheets of rain began pouring down on the city and I stood there like a mannequin – frozen, immobile.

I felt water drench my clothes, shoes, and hair. The cold rain slipped through my underwear and sent a chill in me. Despite that, I still couldn't move until I felt a rough hand grab me.

“Hey! Let me go!” Moisture burned my eyes as the stranger dragged me towards what looked like a car.

I got a response when the hand slammed me against the hood of a familiar car. Sirens blared, echoing through the air. The police?

“You're under arrest for the … ”

The rest of the words muffled through my ears as the sound of raindrops bled through my ears. I was getting arrested.

While in the backseat of the car, I stared at two silhouettes talking in front of the car.

I pinched my eyelids and gasped when I recognized one of the figures.

“Let her go,” Alexander had said to the officer who appeared at the door now. “It's the least I could do for her.”

Let her go? That bastard! He had lied to my face.

Our eyes met when he walked to the backseat, his driver holding an umbrella over him.

My heart slammed against my ribcage with a painful thud. Alexander had betrayed me.

The oxygen in the car thinned.

He smiled and shook the officer's hands. Then he leaned closer and mouthed to me. “Have fun in prison, love.”

No!

I tried to scream but no words came out. Numb… That was all I felt. And the same emotion that hovered in my chest when I arrived at Jail. The next morning, I was transferred to Logan Correctional Centre.

Alexander told me to have fun in prison but prison breaks you. There was no fun in that.

The walls of my cell were grey and the food tasted rotten in my mouth. The bed was hard and the mattress was thin and worn.

And that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was the stares I got whenever I walked by.

Not of rage, not of bliss but of pity.

They were stars of women — women whose stories were identical to mine. They had been betrayed, destroyed, and abandoned like I was. Sometimes, when they looked at me, I wondered if they saw their younger selves in me.

My first week in LCC was terrible. My second was worse and my third, I nearly took my own life. I hardly ate and hardly slept because of my roommate’s snoring or smoking. It was hell. Not until I met the woman who saved my life.

There were 5 — 5 powerful rich, powerful, and dangerous women.

Elena Hidalgo, Mary Terrence, Janet Howard, Susan Stern-County and Signora Stella Berlusconi.

These women weren't like the others. They weren't broken like I was or scared like I was. They ruled the prison like it was their empire.

And somehow, they decided I was saving.

One afternoon, in their bunker, I sat in the corner like I always did, eating the bento cake Elena had ordered for me. Emphasis on the power they had.

Before I could dig my fork into the cake again, a voice stopped me.

“Valerie…”

I looked up and saw Janet crouching in front of me. “Yeah?”

“You want revenge, don't you?” she asked and I froze.

“I know, Valerie. I can see it in your eyes when we deal with our enemies…” she continued.

I opened my mouth to speak, fresh hurt strangling my lungs as I recalled Alexander's betrayal. “He… he weaponized the biggest insecurity I had and used it to hurt me. He took another woman when we were still …”

A hand lifted my chin and my eye met Signora Stella, the leader of the group.

“Don't cry for that bastard. He's not worth it.” She said, her voice carrying a little Italian lilt.

The other chorused with a loud, cruel “Yes.”

Stella went on, drying my tears. “You want to make him suffer, don't you? You want to make him and his mistress miserable, don't you?”

I swallowed hard. She read right through me.

“You're not alone, Valerie,” She said, placing one hand on my shoulder. “You don't have to be weak anymore.”

Elena smiled. “It's only the beginning, Valerie.”

Mary added with a smirk. “You're about to rise, Valerie.”

“And when you do…” Susan added.

“You'll make them regret ever crossing you.”

Three years had passed, and it was finally time for me to walk out of prison.

The sky was still the same dull shade of gray it had been the day I was dragged here.

Now, I was out of the place I had been trapped in for 1,095 days. I expected to feel something—relief, anger—but I felt nothing. I was empty.

In the end, I was nothing but the hollow shell of a woman I used to be. The truth was glaring enough.

I had no family waiting for me. I had no home to return to.

I had spent the last 36 months watching my life rot away behind bars with no visitor, no family checking up on me to see if I still breathed. I didn't expect them to care but all of that was too much.

In my anger, I whispered their names like curses, burrowing the image of their faces in my mind as I recognized them as the people who buried me alive.

Alexander.

Sonia.

My parents.

My brothers.

To them, I had been nothing but an inconvenience. Unfortunately for them, the tables had turned. I was going to be their worst nightmare.

I walked out onto the snowy ground, the cold air biting at my skin. I was still wearing the same dress I had on three years ago—a short yellow sundress, now faded and wrinkled. I had no money. No cell phone. No one to call.

I trudged weakly through the snow when I felt a shadow hover over me. I looked up and found a man dressed in a black suit, holding an umbrella over my head.

I shifted away from him, startled by our close contact. “W - who are you?”

A smirk tugged at his lips. “Christopher. Christopher Slyvain.”

That name didn't feel familiar. Matter of fact, it meant nothing to me.

I opened my mouth to speak but he beat me to it. “I know who you are, Valerie Cassius.”

“Of course.” I turned my back and began to walk away. “Who doesn't know about the fallen billionaire heiress?”

“It's more than that.” Christopher had taken just a few strides. His footsteps had eaten much ground as he walked – perks of being impossibly tall.

“I know what you want, Valerie.” He said, holding out his umbrella.

I stared at it for a second before I took it quietly. “And what is this thing I want?”

Slowly, I watched Christopher peel his coat and put it around me.

“You want revenge, don't you?” He smiled and his eyes darkened.

My breath hitched. How did you know?

He took a step closer. “A little birdie told me but is it really necessary to know that? I can help you get what you want, Valerie.”

I scoffed. "You're nuts."

He chuckled, his expression as though saying, "I've been called worse."

“Why do you want to help me, a stranger?”

He mouthed those words to me and my eyes went round for a moment before I regained my composure.

I hardened my stare and clenched my fist. This man…

“So is that a yes?” He extended his hand. “Do we have a deal?”

“Yes. We do.”

And just like that, I had a partner and resources to carry out my revenge plan.

While in prison, I picked up a thing or two and it was this: People fear what they don't understand and they destroy what they can't control.

And that tactic would work perfectly against the person I used to fear — Dad. So, I made father my first target.

Gerald Cassius was a very prestigious businessman and was well-respected in the tech industry. He was a man who valued reputation above everything else and that was his second weakness.

So I started small.

With Christopher’s help, I began to spread rumors. Rumors that painted him as a corrupt and untrustworthy man. For men like him? It didn't take long for them to fall apart – One scandal was all it took to send Father right down to the ashes he had once buried me in.

One week after the incident, I sent him a letter.

It wasn't a threat or a sign. It was a simple sentence:

“You should've protected your daughter, Gerald.”

The panic set in almost immediately and by the weekend, father was already spiraling out of control. Just as I had predicted he would.

Next were my sweet, ever-living brothers.

All my life Bruno and Ralph had always turned their backs on me and even laughed at my downfall so I decided to hit them where it hurt – their finances.

I discovered their biggest business deal and ruined them all.

At the end of the day, Bruno had lost a multi-million dollar investment while Ralph had been accused of insider trading.

And the funny thing was none of them knew it was me.

And I wasn't done yet.

I broke them all but it wasn't enough.

One day in my home office, Andor strode into the room holding two mugs of coffee. “Who’s left?”

I took one mug of coffee and nodded to the whiteboard where Alexander and Sonia's pictures were pinned.

“Ah.” He smirked, taking a sip. “Tell me… how do you intend to make them suffer?”

“I intend to make them suffer forever.” I smiled, and for the first time since my downfall, I felt alive.