My Husband Cheated, So I Divorced in Style

Chapter 1

It was my seventh wedding anniversary.

Walter Brooks, the old butler who had worked at the estate for 7 years, was leaving.

His bags were already packed. Before he left, hesitation crossed his face. Then he lowered his voice and said, "Mrs. Carter, there is a hidden compartment inside the tall cabinet on the east side of Mr. Carter's study. You should take a look yourself."

With that, Walter walked away, his back slightly hunched.

I stared after him, confused.

Ethan Carter had bought this estate in the third year of our marriage.

Money had been tight then, so I had handled all the furnishings myself.

We hadn't hired a maid.

I was the one who kept the house clean.

I had personally chosen every desk and chair in the study too.

Ethan wanted the tall cabinet, and I was the one who bought it.

When it was delivered and inspected, it looked perfectly ordinary.

But Walter wasn't the kind of person who made things up.

Ever since he became the butler of this estate, he had been professional, discreet, and careful with every word.

Of course, I had treated him well over the past 7 years too.

Every year, I gave him plenty of time off and generous bonuses. When his grandson fell ill, I was the one who found the right contacts and arranged for a top specialist, saving the child's life.

Now Walter had reached retirement age.

I gave him an extra 6 months of salary and another 50,000 dollars out of my own pocket.

It was my way of thanking him for all the years he had devoted to this estate.

Walter often said I was the best employer he had ever had.

Just then, my phone vibrated.

I took it out and saw a w******p voice message from Walter.

I tapped it open, and the old butler's strained voice came through.

Walter: Mrs. Carter, Mr. Carter said he has an urgent business trip tonight. Please don't take his word for it.

My heart lurched. The bad feeling in my chest grew even stronger.

The next second, a w******p message from Ethan popped up on my screen.

Ethan: Honey, something urgent came up. I have to leave on a business trip tonight. I won't be home.

I stared at the message. It matched Walter's warning almost perfectly. My hand trembled around the phone.

Every year on our wedding anniversary, Ethan would come home with only half an hour left. But he had never missed it completely.

Every time, he would hug me with guilt written all over his face and explain himself.

"I am still building the company. This is the most critical stage. Every major decision depends on me. Honey, I promise. Once the company goes public, I will spend an entire anniversary with you from beginning to end."

I had never thought much of it. I even worried that his endless work would ruin his health, so I signed up for cooking classes and learned to cook well enough to make his meals myself.

This year, his company had finally gone public. I thought we would finally spend a full anniversary together.

But now he wasn't even willing to give me the last half hour.

I stared at the message for a long moment. Then I stopped hesitating, slipped the phone into my pocket, and went upstairs.

I entered the study.

My gaze swept over the room before finally landing on the tall cabinet on the east wall.

I walked over, reached inside the cabinet, and ran my hand along the inner panel inch by inch.

When I reached higher up, I could no longer touch it from the floor. I brought over a folding ladder, climbed onto it, and kept searching by touch.

On the side of the top shelf, my fingers finally found an uneven patch.

Click.

The sound was faint, yet it landed like a hammer blow. My searching hand froze for an instant.

Slowly, I turned on my phone's flashlight. A sharp white beam shone into the cabinet.

There it was, a narrow hidden compartment about the size of a small storage cubby.

A document box sat inside.

My breathing quickened. I took out the box and opened it.

Inside were a USB drive, three property deeds, a photo placed face down, and a folded report.

I opened the property deeds first.

When I saw the owner's name, I froze in shock.

Chloe Davis was my college roommate and Ethan's former classmate.

She was also the wife of Ethan's executive assistant, Daniel Hayes.

How could it be her?

No.

Every property listed on those deeds was in Silverlake District, the wealthy neighborhood of Bayridge.

Chloe couldn't afford these places.

And Ethan had hidden the deeds here.

The answer was obvious.

Ethan had bought them.

The moment I realized that, pain twisted sharply through my heart. I felt like an absolute fool.

Back then, Ethan had bought the estate we lived in as our marital home, and we were still paying off the mortgage.

Yet the three estate homes he bought for Chloe had all been paid for in full.

I pressed my lips together and forced down the spasm of pain in my chest. Then I picked up the photo.

The first thing I saw was a line of words.

Ethan: Today Chloe and I made it official. I am the happiest man in the world.

The watermark on the photo read 10:06 a.m., June 8, 10 years ago.

The photo had been taken 30,000 feet in the air. In it, Ethan and Chloe were kissing passionately.

My throat tightened so badly that I almost tasted blood.

When he had bought this estate, he had said its location matched the time we first met.

He had even said, "It means our love will always be as intense and sincere as it was when we first met."

But in truth, 168, Unit 10, Building 6 recorded the beginning of their affair.

With shaking hands, I unfolded the report.

The ultrasound report made everything painfully clear: Chloe Davis was listed as the mother, and Ethan Carter as the father.

My face went pale, and a tight cramp seized my lower abdomen.

I thought of the three rounds of IVF I had gone through.

Every time I lay on the operating table, enduring the pain of egg retrieval, I survived by imagining whether our child would look more like him or more like me.

Now I understood. All that pain and all that hope had been nothing more than tools Ethan used to cover up the truth.

The child I had longed for with him was already growing inside his mistress.

All at once, I remembered what had happened 5 months earlier.

Ethan had come home and told me he had given Daniel a full year of paid paternity leave.

Because Chloe was pregnant.

At the time, I had even praised him for being a considerate boss who cared about his employees.

It turned out he had only been celebrating the fact that he was going to be a father.

For a moment, my expression went blank.

For 7 years, for 2,555 days and nights, I had wiped that cabinet every single day, never once imagining that Ethan's betrayal had been hiding right behind it all along.

I had poured everything into this home and believed I was truly part of it. In the end, I was only a tool he could use.

My vision darkened. I forced myself to calm down, took the document box, and walked out of the study.

I sat down in front of my laptop and inserted the USB drive. Ethan's deep voice suddenly rang out.

"Year after year, we will be together forever."

I looked up at the video playing on the screen.

Ethan was gazing at Chloe with deep affection, making promises about their future.

Chloe smiled sweetly, showing her small canine teeth. "Okay."

Ha.

That cheating pair actually had the nerve to talk about forever.

I was so angry that I laughed.

I photographed and copied every piece of evidence, then sent everything to an email account labeled "G."

After that, I opened my contacts, slid my finger to the entry marked "Star Attorney, Grace Miller," and hit call.

"Grace, Ethan cheated on me. I want you to investigate every part of his finances. I want a divorce."

On the other end, Grace's voice turned cold. "Ethan betrayed you? He can rot for all I care. Don't worry. I'll dig up every asset he has and make sure you don't get screwed in the divorce."

My voice choked.

"Thank you."

10 minutes later, I put the document box back where it had been, restored the hidden compartment, and returned to the bedroom.

Then I gathered my courage and dialed a number with no saved contact name, one I hadn't called in 7 years.

The call connected after one ring.

It felt as if a wet ball of cotton were lodged in my throat. I barely forced the words out.

"I am divorcing Ethan Carter. Is there still a place for me in the family?"