Deborah said it, then immediately clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Oh no, Maud—did I say something I shouldn't have?"

Then she pulled out her phone, opened her photo album, and held up a picture of me sitting inside a Maybach for the entire room to see.

"Maud, I just happened to see you that day, I swear I wasn't trying to say anything! You're not going to hold it against me, right?"

Her words turned every pair of eyes in the room on me—scrutinizing, contemptuous.

"Wait, Maud's been cheating? No wonder she's throwing a fit over a glass of juice and demanding a divorce. Shameless!"

"I was wondering how she could bear to give up a man like CEO Harding. Turns out she already had someone lined up on the side!"

Thaddeus's face darkened instantly. He jabbed a finger at the man in the photo and rounded on me.

"Who's that pretty boy? Are you divorcing me for him?"

I was done wasting breath on any of them. I sent Thaddeus the divorce appointment I'd already booked.

"Tomorrow morning, ten o'clock. The registration office."

I turned to leave.

Thaddeus rushed forward and blocked my path, his eyes full of earnest sincerity.

"Honey, I know I've been busy with work, I know I neglected you. And I don't blame you!"

"As long as you're willing to cut things off with that man on the side, I guarantee you—I'll pretend none of this ever happened. Just come back to me!"

His words sent a wave of emotion through the room.

"Maud, if you have even a shred of conscience, you should know you're wrong! Don't throw away a family for some random man!"

I shook Thaddeus's hand off without a trace of warmth.

"This divorce is happening."

Something flickered in his eyes. He hadn't expected me to actually mean it.

"Honey, tell me. What do I have to do to make you stay?"

Looking at that false, devoted face, I swallowed down the nausea churning in my stomach, turned around, and poured ten glasses of peach juice.

"You love peach juice so much? Go ahead. Drink every last one."

Thaddeus stared at the row of glasses lined up in front of him, and his expression went cold.

"Maud, you know I'm allergic to peaches. One sip could kill me. You're trying to force me to die!"

I raised an eyebrow and let out a cold laugh.

"Then why did you drink the peach juice Debbie poured for you just now and come out perfectly fine?"

"Or was what you drank not peach juice at all?"

The crowd heard me and turned to Thaddeus, confusion spreading through the room.

"That's right—CEO Harding's peach allergy is supposed to be serious. Last time we went out to eat, the kitchen squeezed a little peach juice into a dish for flavor, and he took one bite and swelled up all over. Nearly died!"

"So how come he drank a whole glass of Debbie's peach juice and nothing happened? I watched him finish the entire thing!"

The murmuring hit a nerve. Thaddeus's face twisted with rage, and he swept the entire row of glasses off the table. They shattered across the floor.

"Maud, when did you become this unreasonable?"

"You want a divorce that badly? I'd love to see how you survive without me!"

Shattered glass and sticky peach juice spread across the floor, and my eyes stung looking at it—because Thaddeus had always been certain that a caged bird he'd fed for five years would never actually dare to fly.

The others piled on, one after another.

"You're a housewife. How are you going to survive once you leave CEO Harding?"

"Exactly! You've been out of the workforce for years. What company is going to hire a woman your age with zero experience?"

Not a word of it reached me. I held my eyes steady on Thaddeus.

"We're done. Courthouse. Tomorrow!"

Thaddeus's face went dark.

"Fine! You want a divorce so badly? Let's see how you survive without me."

"You've lived off me for five years. I'm cutting your cards off right now—fend for yourself."

He pulled out his phone and made a call, freezing every card under my name.

I didn't bother with him. I turned and walked toward the door.

A server stopped me before I could leave.

"Ma'am, you poured ten glasses of juice and haven't settled the bill. Will that be cash or card?"

I looked at the POS machine in her hand and understood instantly.

Thaddeus watched me with a sneer.

"Weren't you just full of fight? Since you're so set on divorcing me, don't think you're spending another cent of my money. You poured the juice yourself, so you pay for it yourself."

He'd frozen my cards. He knew I couldn't pay. This whole thing was about making me bow in front of a room full of people.

Deborah was watching me too, lips curled.

"Maud, this is a five-star hotel. Juice is two hundred and eighty a glass. You poured ten—that's two thousand eight hundred. And you don't have a single cent on you, do you?"

"Looks like you'll have to wash dishes in the kitchen to pay it off!"

My nails dug into my palms hard enough to break skin.

"Two-eighty a glass still beats whatever you give away for free."

Something shifted behind Deborah's eyes, and her expression went cold.

"Maud, you'd better get on your knees and apologize to Thaddeus right now. You think a man like him grows on trees? Walk away and no one else is picking you up."

I let out a cold laugh.

"You like garbage. I don't."

Thaddeus's expression hardened the second the words left my mouth. He turned to the server.

"Take her to wash dishes."

"Maud, I'll be waiting for the day you regret this."

I looked at him and smiled.

"Then you won't be waiting. You'll never see that day."

Because the one who should regret it was him.

My hands were nearly raw by the time I came out of the kitchen, fingers swollen and stinging, and my legs barely held as I stumbled through the hotel lobby toward the exit—but Thaddeus's driver was already walking over.

He looked at me with open amusement.

"Maud, CEO Harding says that since you two are getting divorced, everything you're wearing was bought with his money. He'd like you to take it off and return it."

I stared at the driver, teeth clenched so hard my jaw ached.

Thaddeus knew perfectly well all I had on was a black evening gown. He was telling me to strip in public.

He wanted to break me.

When I didn't move, the driver's smirk widened.

"A housewife who lives off her husband, and you're dumb enough to throw your marriage away over a glass of juice. Starting to see how hard life gets without a man to take care of you?"

I ignored every word. I clenched my teeth, reached behind me, and pulled the zipper.

The driver had his phone out before the dress loosened. He opened a livestream and pointed the camera straight at me.

"Come watch, everyone! This woman wanted to divorce her husband because he drank a glass of juice. Unbelievable!"

The viewer count spiked. Comments flooded in, every one of them mocking me.

"Divorcing over a glass of juice? That's got to be a first in human history."

"Thinks she's a princess. Thinks the whole world should cater to her. Guess her husband stopped playing along."

"Stripping in public? How is that any different from a stripper?"

I clenched my teeth and peeled the dress off, inch by inch.

At least I was still wearing a base layer underneath, so I wasn't fully exposed on camera.

Only after I'd pulled the gown off did Thaddeus finally step out of the car.

He rushed to shrug off his own jacket and drape it over my shoulders.

"Babe, no matter what—you're my wife. All you have to do is turn around, and I'll be standing right here."

I looked up into that fake, rehearsed face and whipped the gown straight into it.

"Thaddeus, you make me sick."

I turned and walked away.

I hadn't gone far before a Mercedes came speeding up from behind and pulled to a smooth stop beside me.

Thaddeus and Deborah sat in the back seat, watching me with cold eyes.

"Maud, apologize to me and Debbie right now. Do that, and I'll forget tonight ever happened and let you come back."

Deborah chimed in right on cue.

"Thaddeus just landed a ten-million-dollar contract with Blue Horizon Group. His net worth is about to multiply overnight. Pretty soon you couldn't climb your way back to him if you tried."

I met Thaddeus's eyes with a slow, contemptuous smile.

"Thaddeus, if I'm not mistaken, your contract with Blue Horizon Group hasn't actually been signed yet."

"Let's see if you're still smiling tomorrow."

His face went rigid, eyes narrowing to something ugly and venomous.

"Maud, since you don't know what's good for you, don't blame me for forgetting we were ever married."

"You want a divorce? Fine. We'll see each other in court. And you'll walk out with nothing."

He floored it, and the Mercedes tore off down the road.

The moment he was gone, I walked straight to the Maybach parked under the streetlight.

As soon as I got in, my assistant handed me the tablet.

I tapped open the surveillance footage immediately.

There, in the family lounge across from the banquet hall, Deborah was straddling Thaddeus with her top hiked up.

"Thaddeus, baby… like what you taste?"

The footage hit my stomach like a fist—I doubled over the wastebasket and threw up everything I had.

Greg watched me, his expression grim.

"CEO Henson, I've already notified the contracts department to cancel the signing with Thaddeus Harding's firm. They should get the news first thing tomorrow morning, and I'd expect them to come running to Blue Horizon Group the moment they do."

My gaze hardened.

"I'll be at Blue Horizon Group, waiting for them to come beg."

Thaddeus had won me over with what I believed was his whole heart. To protect his pride as a man, I gave up everything and made myself invisible so he could shine.

I'd burned through every connection I had to pave his way. And this was what I got in return.

That night, I went back to my estate, worth over a hundred million.

I was about to rest when my phone rang.

It was Greg.

"CEO Henson, we have a problem."

"Thaddeus didn't just livestream what happened tonight. He had the footage edited to make it look like you stripped in public to seduce another man, with zero shame."

My heart sank. I pulled up the latest news immediately.

My name was sitting at the very top of the trending list.

Every link I tapped opened a video of me taking off the gown in front of the driver.

Thaddeus had even had someone photograph me getting into my assistant's car. Now the entire internet was calling me a slut who'd sleep with anyone.

"This kind of woman is trash. Stripping for a random man right there on the street."

"Did you see her face during the livestream? She was enjoying it. That's who she is down to the bone."

"She's probably been cheating on Thaddeus for years. He loved her so much, and she fed his heart to the dogs."

I was about to turn off the phone when a flood of new messages came pouring in all at once.