Chapter 7
1116 Words
Right after their meeting started, Sophia got straight to the point.
"Evelyn, I honestly don't get you. You married Adrian for crying out loud! You could be living the high life, rolling in wealth right now, but you still have to put on that holier-than-thou act like you don't care a single bit about his money. Your monthly allowance went up from forty thousand dollars to forty-two thousand dollars, but I only give you forty dollars a month. The rest all stays with me. What can I do? Adrian never bothers checking how I distribute the allowance. He trusts me that much..."
Evelyn had already guessed this was exactly what was happening.
She cut Sophia off, her voice rough and gravelly. "Where are my grandma's ashes, really?"
Sophia ignored the question and kept rambling on with her own monologue.
"Do you know why Adrian stopped loving you out of nowhere? It's because I lied to him about one thing..." She leaned in close to Evelyn, her voice dripping with venom. "Three years ago, I set the whole trap. When you walked in on me selling company secrets a year back, and got beaten by Victor's goons and lost your baby, that was all planned by me. Adrian thinks you seduced Victor for money and sold him our company secrets. Of course, he stopped loving you!
"But the truth is, I was the one who seduced Victor! I was the one who leaked the company secrets for cash! Too bad, right? Now you're just some gold-digging tramp who'd sell anything for money in his eyes, and I'm the loyal woman who's stuck by him through thick and thin! He'll never believe you, not ever!"
A sharp, agonizing pain shot straight through Evelyn's heart, and a flood of old memories came crashing down all at once.
A year earlier, she was three months pregnant. One night, Adrian was working late in the office, and on a whim she decided to pack him a hot meal and bring it over to him.
When she hit the narrow alley off the company building, she spotted Victor from their rival company waiting there.
Out of the shadows, a figure hidden behind a hat and face mask crept up to Victor, furtively pressing a USB drive into his hand, saying the drive held all of Carter Group’s commercial secrets.
Panic shot through Evelyn instantly. She fumbled for her phone to record the exchange, but ding, her device accidentally blared a notification out loud.
Panicked, Victor immediately barked at his bodyguards to grab her, and they smashed her phone to pieces before she could even react.
In the brutal scuffle that followed, Evelyn lost her baby unexpectedly. Even so, she fought like a wild thing, tearing the USB drive out of their grip and holding onto it tight to protect Carter Group’s secrets.
When she finally woke up in the hospital, her first shaky move was to hand that drive over to Adrian.
But all she got in return was a gaze burning with utter disappointment.
Back then, she’d foolishly thought he was only upset about their lost baby, and she’d carried that heavy guilt around with her for months.
She never could have guessed he’d mistaken her for the traitor leaking company secrets... and that every bit of this mess was Sophia’s deliberate, twisted plan!
Worst of all, her poor, innocent baby was completely innocent in all this!
Evelyn shot to her feet, her voice cracking with rage. "Sophia, how can you do all this? Aren’t you afraid of karma?"
Sophia snorted a dismissive laugh. "Karma? You gave that man your whole heart and soul, didn’t you? Look at you now... you’re worse off than a stray dog. Isn’t that the truth?"
With that, she tossed down an address and hurried off to her date with Adrian.
Evelyn’s chest tightened. She didn’t waste another second. She headed straight for the address.
But when she got there, all she found was a smashed portrait of her grandmother and an empty funeral urn.
Tucked inside the urn was a cruel, taunting note.
Evelyn, I dumped your grandma’s ashes down the drain a long time ago. You can be as angry as you want, but you can’t touch me. Adrian will always protect me! Go ahead and tell him if you don't believe me. He'll just think you're throwing a crazy tantrum.
Those glaring, cruel words on the note stabbed straight into her heart like a red-hot blade.
Her hands trembled uncontrollably, and her eyes burned with unshed tears. But deep down, she wasn’t even a little surprised.
Hatred burned hot and surged through her over and over, until finally it cooled into sharp, steady calm.
She pulled out her phone and snapped a clear photo of the taunting note.
Mark my words, Sophia. This blood debt, I will make you pay.
In the weeks that followed, Adrian lavished Sophia with attention so open and obsessive it was impossible to miss.
He crushed every other bidder at auction to win one luxury treasure after another, blowing unfathomable sums just to fill the sprawling mansion he’d bought for her.
He spent a small fortune to buy a star and put her name on it, so her name would glow among the cosmos.
He even built a whole private amusement park just for her, claiming he wanted his little girl to stay innocent and carefree forever.
His over-the-top displays of affection drove netizens wild with envy, and the couple's names topped the trending search charts for over ten days straight.
At long last, the 30-day divorce cooling-off period drew to an end.
Evelyn showed up at the civil affairs bureau bright and early. She knew Adrian had already bribed the staff to finalize the paperwork ahead of time. She was just here to pick up her certificate.
Right then, a video popped up on her phone from Sophia. It was Adrian, right there with her, helping her try on a wedding dress.
In the clip, Adrian wraps his whole body around Sophia from behind, pressing soft kisses along the side of her neck.
Sophia beamed, glowing in a diamond-encrusted wedding gown that cost millions.
Evelyn said nothing. She grabbed her own copy of the divorce certificate and left the civil affairs bureau.
A car glided smoothly to a stop right in front of her, and the driver called out, "You here for the airport volunteer pickup, right?"
Evelyn nodded, climbed in, and pulled the door shut behind her.
The car pulled straight toward the airport. She was off, carrying her grandmother's blessings with her, straight toward a brand-new life!
And Adrian? Evelyn was done with him, forever.
- Writer
