I had to hold it together. Now wasn't the time to bring up divorce. With what I had on him so far, filing now wouldn't hurt him badly enough.

I was going to drag him all the way down. Three years of marriage, and I would make him answer for every single one.

Early the next morning, he knocked on the bedroom door, careful and soft. ：“Babe, the company's sending me on a last-minute trip. I'll be back in about a week.”

“Take some time to cool down. We'll talk properly when I get back.”

I didn't answer. After he went downstairs, I stood by the window and watched him climb into the white Mercedes.

The moment Martin was gone, I logged into his phone cloud backup.

His password hadn't changed. Still our wedding anniversary.

Everything was there in the cloud: every chat log, every photo, every video. Most of them were about Eleanor Butler. The earliest message dated back to last March.

“Baby, it's getting cold today. Bundle up!”

“You're so sweet, hubby. Love you!”

Last March. He'd told me the company had landed a major project. Working until the small hours every night, sometimes sleeping at the office.

Now the truth was obvious. He'd been in the thick of a new romance with Eleanor.

I kept scrolling.

“Does your wife know you transfer money to me every month?”

“She doesn't handle the finances. No way she'd find out. Relax, she's too stupid to notice.”

“But what if she finds out about us?”

“Then we divorce. Honestly, ever since I got with you, I've been done with her. Just looking at her face makes me sick.”

My hands were shaking so hard I could barely hold the phone. I wanted to tear Martin apart with my bare hands.

Everything I'd given him, and to him it was just proof I was gullible.

How had I ever been blind enough to fall for this man?

Over the next two days, I gathered every piece of evidence I could think of.

Martin's bank statements showed that starting last March, he'd been transferring twenty thousand dollars a month to Eleanor like clockwork.

On our anniversary last year, he'd sent me a fifty-dollar digital gift. And I'd been so stupidly happy about it the entire day.

On my birthday, he'd been at some off-site meeting. Didn't even call.

On Eleanor's birthday, he'd booked a Michelin-starred restaurant. Twenty-three thousand on the card.

But the thing that broke me was a photo I found in his cloud backup: a purchase contract for a condo at Moonview Bay.

Martin had taken me there once to look at the units. I'd fallen in love with a river-view apartment the second I saw it.

I handed him my savings for the down payment. Spent months counting the days until it was finished, dreaming about moving in.

Then he told me the developer's funding had collapsed. The project was dead. The down payment was gone.

And I'd been fool enough to comfort him. Told him not to make himself sick over it.

Now, staring at the names on that purchase contract—Martin Delgado and Eleanor Butler—I finally understood. I was the biggest joke under the sun.

I was nearly done compiling everything when a friend request from Eleanor popped up on my phone.

The moment I accepted, she started sending photos.

Their fingers laced together. His face in profile while he slept. The soup I'd spent hours making for him, dumped into a trash can.

I knew exactly what she was doing. Trying to provoke me. I didn't give her a single word.

The harder she pushed, the quieter I stayed.

And the quieter I stayed, the more it gnawed at her.

A guilty conscience doesn't fear a fight. It fears being ignored.

Sure enough, three days later, she couldn't hold back anymore.

The doorbell rang, and Eleanor Butler appeared on my doorstep.

She was younger and prettier than in her photos, her belly slightly rounded. Four months along, at least.

She looked me up and down with open appraisal, not bothering to hide her contempt, and said in a tone dripping with superiority:“I'm Eleanor Butler. Mind if we have a little chat?”

She didn't wait for my answer before stepping right into my home.

Her gaze swept the outdated decor, and that mocking look deepened.“Juliana, you've been married to Martin for three years and this is where you live?”

When Martin and I got married, he told me the company was in a critical growth phase. No money for a wedding, let alone renovations. We rented this apartment, and every piece of furniture in it was secondhand.

When I didn't respond, Eleanor continued:“I won't waste your time. Some things are better said face to face.”

“Martin and I have been together for two years. We're truly in love. Being with you makes him miserable — unhappy every single day.”

“If you really loved him, you'd let him go.”

Then she deliberately thrust out her small bump, preening as she told me:“I'm pregnant. Four months.”

“And you? Three years of marriage and you couldn't give him a single child.”

“Juliana, do you know what matters most to a man once he's made it?”

“Legacy. An heir. Someone to carry on his bloodline.”

“What you can't give him, I already have.”

“So tell me, what exactly do you have left to compete with?”

“Walk away now while it's still civil. That's got to be better than dragging this out until it gets ugly for everyone. Don't you think?”

She pulled a divorce agreement and a check for a hundred thousand dollars from her bag, set them both in front of me, and smiled:“Consider the check my way of compensating you.”

“After all, you've put in the years with Martin. You deserve something for your trouble.”

I flipped through the divorce agreement. It required me to leave the marriage with nothing.

I laughed coldly:“Did Martin send you here?”

“And if I don't sign?”

The mockery on Eleanor's face thickened:“Martin doesn't know I'm here. This is between us women. He doesn't need to know.”

“Signing or not signing won't change anything. He sleeps next to me now. In three years of marriage, how many times did he even touch you?”

“If you hadn't bankrolled his startup back then, you think he would've married you at all?”

“Juliana, wake up. Martin never loved you.”

Eleanor pointed at the wedding photo of Martin and me hanging on the wall, that same smug smile on her lips:“You've been keeping that spot warm long enough. It's my turn now.”

Eleanor had come here today to force my hand.

Whether this was Martin's idea or she'd taken it upon herself to show up and provoke me no longer mattered.

I looked at her, expression blank:“You done?”

“Martin and I are still legally married. That baby in your belly? The law calls it a child born out of wedlock. If you want the less polite version, it's an illegitimate child.”

“This hundred thousand dollars. Is it from your own savings, or did Martin give it to you?”

“Because if it came from him, that's marital property. And you'll have to pay it back.”

“Oh, and that condo at Moonview Bay? Purchased with income earned during our marriage. Legally, half the title belongs to me. So don't assume that just because your name's on the deed, the place is yours. Understood?”

“You think you won?”

“Eleanor, you're just parading around with what's mine, pretending that makes you the winner!”

Eleanor's face twisted with rage, and she was about to fire back when Martin burst through the door.

The second he saw Eleanor standing there, the color drained from his face.

His expression went dark. He turned on her, voice tight and urgent. “What are you doing here? Who told you to come?”

Eleanor's whole demeanor shifted instantly. Her lip trembled, eyes welling with tears, voice breaking into a sob. “I just wanted to talk to Juliana, to clear things up so she wouldn't misunderstand you!”

“But she wouldn't listen. She called me a cheap homewrecker, said the baby in my belly is a bastard, said she's going to take me to court and make sure I rot in prison……”

“I'm so scared……”

That little performance hit exactly where she wanted it to.

Martin wrapped an arm around Eleanor to comfort her, then turned and snarled at me. “Juliana, you have a problem with someone, you take it up with me!”

“What couldn't wait until I got home? You had to go after a pregnant woman while I was out? What the hell is wrong with you?”

Vicious. He was calling me vicious. That was rich.

I pulled out my phone, opened the photos Eleanor had been sending me over the past few days just to taunt me, and said calmly. “She's been sending me photos of the two of you all week. Intimate ones.”

“And you're calling me vicious, Martin?”

“I couldn't be vicious enough to compete with the two of you if I tried.”

Martin's face froze. He turned to look at Eleanor.

She shook her head frantically, tears streaming, the picture of wounded innocence. “That wasn't me. I never did that. She's lying……”

I cut her off. I pulled out the divorce agreement I had already prepared, tossed it at Martin, and said coldly. “Sign it, Martin.”

“If you won't sign, I'll file in court and let a judge handle the divorce.”

He stared at me, genuinely stunned. It clearly hadn't occurred to him that I'd be the one asking for a divorce.

Eleanor snatched the agreement before he could react, flipped through it, and her face went white. She shrieked at me. “You want Martin to leave the marriage with nothing? Hand over every asset to you?”

“Juliana, have you lost your mind?”

“Absolutely not. I don't agree to this. What gives you the right to demand he leave with nothing? This is a joke!”

Martin's expression had hardened too. He scanned the terms I'd drafted, then said flatly. “There's no way I'm signing this. The most you'll get from me is a few hundred thousand in compensation……”

I cut him off with a cold smile. “If you don't sign this agreement, you can watch your whole life fall apart.”