The pain in my stomach was unbearable. My face had gone white. I finally snapped, shouting into the phone:

"I told you! I'm at the hospital! My mother is in critical condition! She needs surgery and they're waiting for payment!"

"The card I used wasn't Shelagh's. It was mine! Transfer the money back into my account right now, or I'll report you for theft!"

Silence on the other end. A few seconds passed, then the line went dead.

Julius sent a text:

"Mr. Fox, where do you think your money comes from? Ms. Henson gave it to you."

"And that's your mother, not Ms. Henson's. Why should Ms. Henson have to pay for it?"

"I've already frozen every account under your name and made sure no one will lend you a cent. Once you swear you'll never waste Ms. Henson's money again, I'll consider reactivating your accounts."

My blood boiled the second I read that message.

I dialed the corporate lawyer.

"You have ten minutes. Get someone to the City Central Hospital with the payment. Now."

"And tell Shelagh she either fires that new assistant of hers immediately, or she can stop being CEO altogether."

My family's fortune was worth a hundred billion dollars, and I was the only heir of my generation.

Rather than some arranged marriage for business, I wanted to find someone I truly loved and spend my life with them.

But I didn't want to attract the kind of women who only cared about my background and my family's wealth.

So I hid my identity and entered the company as an ordinary office worker.

That year, I met Shelagh, fresh out of college and just starting at the firm.

Top of her class at a prestigious school. Dirt poor. But gentle and impossibly resilient.

I noticed her the very first day.

Her blouse had been washed so many times it was nearly see-through, but it was spotless and perfectly pressed.

She was always the first one in and the last to leave.

While everyone else complained about overtime, she'd quietly go back and double-check an entire floor's worth of reports on her own.

A few times when I stayed late, she'd come over with her cheeks flushed pink and set a cup of coffee on my desk.

Then she'd pull my computer toward her and say,

"Let me help you finish up. That way you can get home sooner."

My heart wouldn't stop pounding.

The moment I truly fell in love with her came during an incident at work.

A male colleague stole my project, presented it first, then turned around and accused me of plagiarism.

The female manager backing him up went straight for the kill: she wanted me fired, wanted me held liable, threatened to sue me for leaking proprietary information and make me pay damages.

Shelagh, who was on the verge of a promotion, slammed her palm on the table and stepped right in front of me.

"Homer Fox would never do something like that! I'll vouch for him myself!"

"If you insist on firing an innocent man, then this company can't tell right from wrong, and I don't want to be here either! I'm leaving with him!"

She tore off her badge, grabbed my hand, and pulled me all the way out of the building.

I caught her arm and stopped her, my voice tight with worry:

"Have you lost your mind?! Your parents are counting on your paycheck for your dad's surgery! Your little brother and sister still need your salary for school! If you quit, what happens to all of them?"

She looked at me, eyes brimming with tears, her voice breaking:

"But I can't stand watching you be treated like that!"

The moment those tears fell, something inside me shattered.

I pulled her into my arms and let out a long breath.

"Will you marry me? I'll sweep every hardship out of your life."

After the wedding, I respected her ambition to build a career of her own, so I handed the company over to Shelagh to run.

I stepped back to care for my mother, who had suddenly fallen ill.

And Shelagh didn't disappoint. Under her leadership, the company thrived.

Until six months ago, when she came to me with a proposal: she wanted to recruit a group of underprivileged graduates from her alma mater.

I agreed.

Julius Swanson was one of those recruits.

Within a month of joining the company, he'd been promoted all the way up to executive assistant to the CEO.

That's when the office gossip started reaching my ears.

Someone from the secretarial pool came to me with a tip.

They said Julius had been bringing homemade lunches to Shelagh's office, and the two of them would eat together, holed up in there for the entire lunch hour without coming out.

Shelagh's explanation was simple:

"Julius works incredibly hard, and he's talented. I can't hold it against him just because he's young and fresh out of school, can I?"

"As for the lunch thing, it's because he's so dedicated. He helps me process documents through the lunch hour, so he just started bringing his food to my office."

"There's nothing between us. But if you think it's inappropriate, if you're jealous, I'll reassign him. Just say the word."

I wasn't the type to doubt my partner over rumors and hearsay.

On my own time, I reviewed Julius's credentials and sat in on a few meetings he'd managed.

Everything was organized, measured, well-executed.

I genuinely admired the guy's potential. I paid off his student loans and his family's debts out of my own pocket.

I even arranged a raise and a promotion to chief secretary.

I told the staff to knock off the gossip and stop spreading rumors about someone who didn't deserve it.

I thought I was investing in a promising young man with a bright future.

Turns out I was feeding a snake.

It started with the locks. He claimed he needed constant access to the apartment to pick up documents for Shelagh, so he changed the door code to his own birthday.

When I confronted him about it, he apologized with this wounded, pitiful look on his face.

That same night, he took a drunk Shelagh out and neither of them came home. His phone was off. Hers went straight to voicemail.

I searched for them for an entire day and night, nearly called the police,

before Shelagh finally called to say she was already back at the apartment.

I rushed home and found him standing in my kitchen, wearing my pajamas, making Shelagh breakfast.

When he saw me, he put on a sheepish smile.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Fox. I'm so dumb, I just can't remember your door code. Ms. Henson had too much to drink, and I couldn't get in, so I had no choice but to take her to a hotel for the night. But don't worry, nothing happened."

My temper flared. I was about to say something when

Shelagh's face went cold. She pointed at the front door and told him to get out.

"You can't remember a six-digit code. You can't figure out how to turn on a phone. Maybe the chief secretary position is too much for you. Don't bother coming in tomorrow."

The color drained from Julius's face.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Henson, I swear it wasn't on purpose! Please don't fire me! My mother needs surgery, two hundred thousand dollars, and I'm counting on my salary to help cover it!"

"If you let me go, my whole family is finished!"

Shelagh stared at him, ice-cold.

"Don't apologize to me. Apologize to my husband. You're the reason he's angry. If he doesn't forgive you today, I don't care if you cry yourself to death, you're gone."

Julius dropped to his knees in front of me, slapping himself across the face, one cheek then the other.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Fox. I was just afraid that knocking on the door in the middle of the night would wake you up and affect your health."

"I'm stupid, I have no social skills, I messed up! Hit me! Yell at me! Just please, please don't fire me!"

I looked at him on the floor like that, and in the end, I said nothing. I just told him to leave.

Shelagh wrapped herself around my arm afterward, clinging to me.

"Honey, how are you so kind? He made you angry and I was ready to fire him on the spot!"

"But you said you'd forgiven him, so I had no choice but to go along with it! Don't worry, I'll make him work extra overtime as punishment!"

Back then, I still felt a warm glow from those words. It never once crossed my mind to doubt Shelagh's loyalty.

But Julius kept pushing, again and again.

He could even control my cards and accounts with ease.

To say Shelagh wasn't backing him from behind the scenes...

That was impossible.

But I couldn't bring myself to believe it.

The Shelagh who had once loved me with everything she had, who gave up her whole world for me,

would treat me like this for a man she'd known less than six months.

My mother's surgery was over. Shelagh still hadn't shown up.

The corporate lawyer briefed me on the situation.

"Ms. Henson took the secretary to an off-site meeting. She said they won't be back until tomorrow."

He watched my expression carefully, choosing his words with caution:

"I pulled up the attendance reports from the past two weeks. The two of them have been leaving for off-site meetings regularly, but the locations they've been going to are all..."

He handed me a report. Every destination listed was a resort town, a vacation hotspot. Not a single one matched any city where we had partner companies.

"I also spoke with some employees at the company. They said Julius Swanson frequently posts on social media about going out with Ms. Henson... screenshots of their trips together. Would you like to see them?"

He handed me his phone. The screen was filled with screenshot after screenshot.

Every single one was a carefully curated nine-photo grid posted by Julius.

The captions read things like:

"Thanks to Ms. Henson for driving me home tonight! This is our private time, just the two of us."

"I mentioned how exhausting the overtime was, and a certain someone gave me an overtime bonus... a Patek Philippe watch I've been eyeing for months!"

"I said I wanted to see the Eiffel Tower, and she flew me there that same night. If that's not love, what is?"

The lawyer continued:

"We looked into Julius Swanson's college history and discovered he had a sponsor throughout his time at university. That sponsor was Ms. Henson."

"His college roommate said he used to brag about having a wealthy older woman taking care of him. That woman was Ms. Henson."

Hearing with my own ears that Shelagh had betrayed me long ago felt like a blade twisting between my ribs.

I could barely breathe.

The lawyer placed another document in front of me and said quietly:

"There's one more thing. We found this. I think you should see it."

I opened the folder. One glance, and my legs buckled. I nearly collapsed.

It was a prenatal exam report. Five months along.

I had known nothing about this.

I had begged Shelagh, countless times, to have a child with me.

My mother was fading fast. Her only wish was to live long enough to see my child born.

I offered Shelagh shares, stock options, savings, jewelry. Everything I had. I got on my knees and pleaded.

Shelagh either refused me with cold indifference or exploded into screaming arguments.

"I'm at the peak of my career and you want me to go home and have a baby! Is that how you love me?!"

"You want a kid so badly, go find someone else to have one with! We can get divorced for all I care! I am NOT doing it!"

Seeing how violently she resisted the idea,

I assumed her childhood had left her unprepared to become a mother,

and I stopped pressing the issue.

I never imagined she had gotten pregnant behind my back.

The lawyer hesitated before speaking again:

"Perhaps the child is yours..."

I let out a cold laugh but didn't bother responding to that. All I said was:

"Take me home first. I need to cool down."

But when I got home, I found the entire place had been locked down.

The heirlooms my parents had collected over the years, the calligraphy and paintings they'd treasured, the expensive jewelry and accessories,

all of it was being carried out in boxes.

I rushed over and grabbed one of the movers:

"What do you think you're doing? Put my things down!"

They shook my hand off without a flicker of expression, kept loading everything in, then turned to me and said:

"Going forward, your jewelry, accessories, handbags, and formal wear will be managed by Mr. Swanson. If you wish to use any of them, please submit a five-thousand-word formal company request. Only after Mr. Swanson signs off will you be granted access."

I was shaking so hard I couldn't stop, seething, and pulled out my phone to call Shelagh.

Julius answered instead. He sounded cheerful, completely unbothered:

"Only been one day and you already have the energy to go bother Ms. Henson again? I knew it. You were just faking it for the money."

"Mr. Fox, how could you curse your own mother to death just to squeeze out some cash? You really have no shame."

I choked down the fury rising in my throat:

"Julius Swanson! Who gave you permission to touch my jewelry? Tell your people to return everything to me right now, or I'm calling the police and filing theft charges!"