Rise Of The Wasted Shadow Wife

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Seven years have passed since Alessia last looked into the face of Axel, the face that once made her feel special, then plunged her into the darkest abyss of her life. From the day the divorce papers were thrust into her hands, with the cold words that their marriage was invalid, Alessia died. The innocent, naive, and hopeful Alessia had been buried deep.

Now, standing in the mirror of her elegant, Laura Smith, the brightest young lawyer in a prestigious law firm. Her jet-black hair is neatly tied up, her makeup is firm but elegant, and the look in her eyes no longer holds hurt but strategy. There is no longer a trace of the frail woman who once wept silently with her hands pressed to her pregnant belly on nights of betrayal.

Laura Smith is the result of a vengeful ember forged by time.

That morning, Veritas & Co.'s office was filled with the hustle and bustle of her passing assistants. Laura enters with a determined stride, greeted respectfully by her colleagues. She heads to the main boardroom, where the firm's partners have gathered to discuss the latest high-profile case of a business feud between two prominent property conglomerates, and Laura has been appointed as the injured party's counsel.

Just as she opened the case file, the name popped up like a thorn in her chest.

Axel Anthony.

Laura did not blink when she read the name. Her body momentarily stiffened, but only for a second. She lifted her chin and stared straight ahead.

"Mr. Axel will be our adversary," said one of the senior partners. "He's stubborn and manipulative." But I'm sure you can handle him, Laura."

"My pleasure," she replied calmly.

Behind a faint smile, Alessia was now Laura, drawing up the first steps of a long game she had been planning for years. She would never forget who threw her away like a useless piece of property, and more than anything, she would never let Axel live comfortably on the ruins of her life.

On a quiet night, Laura reopened the small black box she always kept in a hidden drawer of her apartment. Inside were the divorce papers that had once plunged her into despair. A black-and-white ultrasound photo of the child she never got to raise. And a photo of Axel with another woman, Nadine, who she later learned was Axel's legal wife, a woman she never knew existed during their marriage.

At the time, Alessia thought Nadine was her enemy. But fate plays tricks on everything.

Three years after she got up and started living as Laura, someone sent an anonymous envelope to her new office. Inside was only one handwritten sentence.

"You are not the only one betrayed."

And over time, those anonymous messages became conversations. Gradually, they exchanged information on Nadine and Laura. Two women who had been loved by the same man and then discarded in different ways. Nadine was his legal wife, but Axel treated her no better. Hidden away, locked up in a mansion like a bird in a golden cage. Never invited to appear in public, never even given the space to be a full wife.

Nadine held a grudge, and their grudge found a common ground for Axel Anthony's destruction.

The day of the first trial. The courtroom is full of journalists and young lawyers eager to witness the duel between two great figures. Laura sat on the plaintiff's side, looking cold and unflappable. Axel sat across from her, not recognizing the woman in front of him as his ex-wife, whom he had thrown out in a vicious accusation.

But as their eyes met, Laura saw something in Axel's eyes of doubt. Perhaps the voice or the look in her eyes was familiar, but Axel was too arrogant to believe that the woman he had once trampled could stand on equal footing, even against him in the legal arena.

Laura smiled with a knot. The game had begun.

In a fancy restaurant, Nadine sits in the corner, her face covered by a newspaper as if she is reading. In front of her, Alma sat with a cup of jasmine tea.

"Does he suspect you?" Nadine asked.

"No, he doesn't recognize me."

Nadine nodded. "Good. Let him be. Let's drag him down slowly until he can't get up again."

Laura looked at Nadine. "Are you sure you want to see this through to the end? It'll expose a lot of her rottenness, and you'll be in the public eye too."

Nadine smiled sarcastically. "I died as his wife a long time ago, Laura. Now it's time for me to live as the woman who avenges all wounds."

The two women toasted with their tea. Allies in the shadows and enemies in the light to the man who had destroyed them.

That night, Laura sat on the balcony of her apartment. The wind blew softly, carrying the scent of impending rain. She stroked the thin necklace around her neck, the only relic from her past that she had not thrown away. A small necklace with the initials A.S.—Alessia Samantha, her former name.

"For you, my child," she whispered softly, "I will make sure the one who abandoned you can never laugh again."

And in the shadows of the glittering city, two women have begun the long road to the deadliest of vengeance, not with guns, but with law, strategy, and wounds that never heal.