My wife, Jolene Stephens, and I both cheated.

The difference was that she chose to betray me while I had been made to cheat.

She got me blackout drunk the same night her affair with Leon Homes came to light. Then, she stripped me naked and left me in a hotel room with a stranger.

She posed my unconscious body in degrading positions and took photos to create evidence of my "affair."

Both our cheating photos were exposed consecutively, and the public outrage against her little lover was offset.

A huge wave of nausea rolled over me, making me dry-heave over the sink. My body was covered in red marks.

The thought of what the stranger had done to me drove me to fits of terror.

My wife watched as I scrubbed my skin until it split and bled before saying quietly, "I didn't have a choice. Leon's from a conservative family. It would destroy him if word got out that he was a homewrecker."

The internet tore me apart overnight.

My grandfather, Bruce Tillman, the only kin I had left, suffered a heart attack after seeing the news and was rushed into the emergency room.

I had to protect her just to protect myself.

So, I repeated the lie she needed me to tell under a wall of flashing cameras and microphones. "Neither of us cheated. Ms. Stephens and I had already separated long ago."

He's Different

Jolene finally softened as she saw how compliant I was. She stood in the shadows, having already sent her little lover, Leon, somewhere safe.

She tried to reassure me as she said, "This will be the only time. It happened so suddenly that I…"

I stared at her through clenched teeth. "Then, where did all these marks on my body come from?"

My chest felt so tight I could barely breathe. I felt filthy. Some marks looked like bruises from someone grabbing me. Others looked like kisses. It was as if I'd really gone through some sick, degrading night with a stranger. Even worse, I had no fucking idea who had touched me.

I'd grown up protected and privileged.

Suffice it to say, I had never experienced such a violation in my entire life.

Jolene froze for a moment before finally understanding what I meant and rushed to explain, "Don't panic. I made those marks. No one touched you. I just took the photos."

I dug my nails into my palms. "If I were your lover, would you make Leon take those photos to protect me?"

She avoided my gaze. "I don't know. He's different."

I knew I was never her first option for her lover, let alone her husband. I bit so hard into the inside of my lip that I tasted blood before shoving her out of the room. The sight of her made my stomach roil violently.

Jolene and I had grown up together.

We shared the same social circle and background. We were the perfect match that everyone envied. And we had been happy for a while after we got married, but that ended when she started cheating.

She never made it public and only confessed it to me in private. "We'll keep everything discreet. No one will challenge your position. Society won't look down on you."

Love was optional in a circle like ours.

Unfortunately, I loved her. So, I got angry and blew up at her. At one point, I genuinely wanted to blow everything up the way powerful men in movies do and drag everyone down together.

Alas, my upbringing got in the way, and I chose to look the other way. Still, I never expected my compromise would only make them bolder. My grandfather, Bruce, must have been devastated by the news to land himself in the hospital.

Jolene only remembered that her lover couldn't handle public criticism, but forgot that the old man who treated her like his own granddaughter was suffering from heart disease as well.

She had forgotten that Bruce couldn't be put through such a wringer.

Regardless, I pulled myself together quickly. At the end of the day, it was only a divorce. And honestly? With loveless marriages running rampant in our circle, divorces were no big deal.

Signing the Papers

I went to Jolene's company. It was lively with a crowd of people fawning over Leon.

She brought me into her office and was displeased when she saw the divorce papers in my hand. "There's really no need for this. The scandal will blow over soon enough."

She could now openly show affection for Leon in public.

They held hands like a deeply in-love couple. I even heard they had gone back to his hometown to meet his family. Their relationship had gotten the green light from the public.

I had to bite my tongue to stop myself from growling at her. She had not once visited Bruce at the hospital. I felt sorry for him as he had always treated her like his own granddaughter.

Heck, he would always take her side when we got into a spat.

He would say stuff like, "Jordan, I know you're strong-willed and pragmatic, but girls don't like that in relationships."

Bruce was very entrenched in his traditional values, so he preferred to sweep things under the rug to maintain family harmony. They didn't realize that a relationship couldn't be maintained when one party had stopped putting in an effort.

Judging by her lifestyle choices, our relationship had long since expired in her eyes. So what was the point of me holding on to such tatters?

Still, I placed the pen in front of her. "Do you really think the netizens are that stupid? A real divorce will shut them up. I don't want Grandpa getting stressed again when he wakes up."

Leon chimed in as well, "Jordan has a point."

Jolene's expression softened slightly. "We can remarry once this blows over. I told you that you will always be my husband."

I twitched my lips into a facsimile of a smile but said nothing else.

Frankly, I didn't care. I hadn't brought up divorce in the past because our families' companies were deeply intertwined.

However, I had quietly shifted my company's focus on hers bit by bit over the years. Our companies barely had any collaboration with each other at this point in time.

This was all thanks to Jolene herself.

She once ruined a newly established subsidiary of mine just to avenge Leon, and it happened just because I had simply frozen one of my own bank cards.

Leon couldn't use it in the mall and got ridiculed because of it. So, she ruthlessly exposed my company's core intel.

She lay back on her lounge chair and said casually, "Jordan, you're the one who embarrassed Leon with your dirty little tricks. Besides, it's our shared property. I can do whatever I want with it."

My company collapsed because of her pettiness. A year of hard work all gone just like that. My employees sat in the office, their heads lowered as the knowledge that all their effort had gone to waste rammed into their heads.

I slammed my fist into the wall in rage. "I didn't do anything of the sort. Do you even understand what this means? What am I supposed to tell my staff? Do you even know how much time and research have gone into R&D?"

She didn't listen. She only had eyes for the teary-eyed Leon. She even put the cash flow issue on Bruce's company just to make me apologize to Leon. I was worried that it would affect the old man, so I swallowed my anger and reluctantly went to apologize to him.

It was only later that Jolene realized she had been mistaken.

It turned out that she had taken my card and given it to Leon herself. All I had done was freeze my own account.

She came to me to apologize and even suggested we spend our anniversary together. "I didn't realize I took the wrong card. I'll make it up to you and give you another company, but you don't need to explain everything to me."

I nearly laughed out of sheer incandescent rage.

She hadn't listened to a single word I said and had already decided that I was at fault. She was the one who had refused to listen to me, even after I tried to defend myself.

Still, it didn't matter. We never did celebrate that anniversary because Leon had a headache. That was the day I started to separate all my assets from Jolene.

Just You Wait

Leon clung to Jolene after we filed for divorce. "We should register our marriage too. You promised me."

She was looking at me, but I remained calm and indifferent. Oddly enough, it felt like she was upset by my non-reaction and left with Leon.

Bruce woke up that same day, too. He was eager to know the truth. "Did you really cheat?"

I wiped his face as I explained, "No. We broke up long ago. It wasn't cheating."

He couldn't understand how this had happened. "How could that be? You two are such a perfect match. You even told me you guys were planning to have a baby."

He slammed his cup on the table. "Tell me the truth. How did this happen?"

I stayed quiet as tears welled up in my eyes. He seemed to catch on to something in my expression and sighed. "Forget it. I rarely see you like this. You're an adult. I shouldn't interfere."

I let out a breath of relief. I could feel at ease as long as he let it go. He had high expectations for Jolene. He was probably the one who wanted us to stay together the most.

…

Jolene had arrived but froze at the doorway when she heard his words. I quickly led her to the next room for fear that she might upset Bruce.

She lowered her head. "Actually… you could have told Bruce the truth. You didn't need to protect my reputation. That way, he wouldn't pressure you. Jordan, we were a great team, but the love is gone now. Your grandfather is right. You're too rational."

I nodded at the second half of her words, but I nearly snorted at the first half. I wasn't hiding the truth for her sake. I simply didn't want Bruce getting upset or blaming himself for ever arranging our marriage.

I'd rather do this to keep his emotions stable.

As for her, she didn't matter to me anymore.

Just then, a scream came from Bruce's hospital ward. Leon was yelling, "Sir, I visited out of kindness!"

Followed by Bruce's violent coughing. "Who let you in?"

My heart jumped into my throat, and I rushed back into the ward to see Bruce on the ground, coughing violently while pointing at Leon. "Get out! I don't want to hear your nonsense!"

Leon clutched his face and collapsed into Jolene's arms. Bruce, overwhelmed with rage, coughed up blood and pointed at them both before losing consciousness. I was terrified and immediately called for nurses. He was rushed into the emergency room again.

Jolene snarled at me outside the ward, "How could Bruce hit Leon? Look at what he did! He shouldn't have done that, no matter how angry he is. Leon only visited out of kindness."

Her endless excuses irritated me. "That's enough. I will investigate this. Don't think I'll let him off if he did something wrong."

I glared at Leon, wanting nothing more than to tear him apart, but she immediately shielded him. "Jordan, Bruce is at fault…"

She kept blaming him, completely uninterested in the truth. Only when the doctor came out did she finally stop. "Bruce Tillman's family?"

I stepped forward, but the paper slipped from my hands the moment I heard the critical condition notice. The last thread of rationality in me snapped completely, and I lunged at Leon. "What did you say to my grandfather?"

Jolene held me back tightly. "Jordan, don't shift the blame onto Leon. He just came to visit. He didn't do anything."

My eyes went red. She froze for a moment. I felt the last smidgen of hope I had for her to see sense die inside.

I was only so rational because they killed the emotional side of me long ago. I glared at them both with pure, unadulterated hatred as I hissed with venom, "Just you wait."