I was bitten by poisonous mosquitoes, running a high fever with aching joints, so weak that I asked Vanessa Scott to take me to the hospital.

But she snapped impatiently, “It’s just a mosquito bite. Why are you being so dramatic? Just take some Tylenol at home. What’s the point of going to the hospital?”

With her makeup perfectly done, she went to the airport to pick up Jason Clark.

I called 911, and on my way to the hospital in the ambulance, I saw a photo Jason had just posted on his social media.

In the picture, he was holding a woman’s hand tightly, and at a glance I recognized it as Vanessa’s.

Jason captioned it: “No matter how late, the one I love most will always come to pick me up and take me home.”

I clicked “like” on his post and left a comment:

“Congratulations, I hope you two end up together. By the way, tell that beloved woman of yours that I’ve left the divorce papers on the living room couch. She can come home and sign them whenever she has time.”

Moments after I commented, Jason deleted the post.

Right after that, Vanessa called me.

Weakly, I picked up, but before I could say a word, she scolded me furiously:

“Ethan Miller, are you insane?”

“What nonsense are you spouting on Jason’s social media?”

“He just came back from a business trip where he landed a huge client. I went to the airport to pick him up—it’s only right. What are you jealous about?”

“Do you have any idea how much damage your comment could do to his reputation?”

“Stop trying to scare me with divorce papers. You’re nothing but a dependent husband in the Scott Family. If you leave me, you’ll walk out with nothing. Who would want you then?”

“Tomorrow at the office, you’re going to apologize to Jason in front of all the employees, or I won’t forgive you!”

Before I could answer, she hung up.

Inside the ambulance, the paramedic gave me a strange look and quietly asked, “Your wife?”

“She doesn’t know you’re in an ambulance right now?”

I replied tiredly, “She’ll be my ex-wife soon.”

That night, I finally gave up completely on Vanessa.

Back then, I had married into the Scott Family because her parents insisted on it. Although Vanessa was reluctant at first, she was eventually moved by my sincerity and agreed to marry me.

Not long after our wedding, Mr. and Mrs. Scott died in a car accident.

It was around that time Jason joined Scott Corporation.

While I was busy handling her parents’ funeral arrangements, I also devoted myself to stabilizing the company by keeping key employees from leaving and bringing in new clients.

During those days, I slept no more than four hours each night, pouring my heart and soul into the work.

In the end, not only did Scott Corporation avoid collapsing after her parents’ death, it even grew stronger—and most of the credit belonged to me.

Yet during that period, Vanessa promoted Jason to be her assistant.

Jason was slick and smooth-talking, especially skilled at flattering women. Vanessa’s attitude toward him clearly crossed the line between boss and subordinate.

I argued with Vanessa about it more than once, but each time I was the one who ended up apologizing first.

I had truly loved her.

But she always mocked me, saying things like:

“If my family didn’t have money, would you really have agreed to be a dependent husband in the Scott Family?”

“Ethan, without my family’s wealth and connections, you’d still be nothing more than a poor boy from the Midwest countryside.”

“Don’t think that just because you’re my husband you get to control me.”

“Remember your place—you’re just the dependent husband of the Scott Family. If this were ancient times, someone like you wouldn’t even have the status of a household manager.”

She used cutting words like that more than once to wound me, and with each blow, my love for her eroded a little more.

I took a deep breath, picked up my phone, and said into the receiver, “I’m going to divorce Vanessa.”

After the ambulance brought me to the hospital, I had no money to pay for treatment.

Vanessa had frozen my bank card.

Just like the time Jason had a birthday and Vanessa gave him an expensive watch. Overjoyed, Jason hugged her and kissed her cheek right in front of me.

Blinded by rage, I punched him in the face.

In return, Vanessa slapped me hard in front of everyone, called me petty and jealous, then froze my bank card, leaving me to survive on bread and tap water for a month.

Jason and I had clashed several times, and every time, Vanessa punished me by cutting off my access to money, calling it a “lesson to teach me a little humility.”

She even humiliated me publicly, sneering, “Everything you eat, wear, and use comes from me. Don’t make me unhappy, or you’ll end up on the streets, begging for food.”

Jason would deliberately provoke me, mocking me as Vanessa’s obedient lapdog.

The only reason I endured was not just because of my love for Vanessa, but because I still felt indebted to Mr. and Mrs. Scott for all they had done for me.

But that debt had long since been repaid.

And my marriage with Vanessa had reached its end.

Not long after, a young, elegant woman arrived at the hospital. Without hesitation, she arranged to have me transferred to St. Mary’s Private Hospital, the most expensive facility in the city.

She held my hand tightly, her eyes filled with worry as she said, “The test results are back. You’ve been infected with Chikungunya virus. The fever and joint pain will last for days.”

“This virus has been spreading along the coast recently. There’s no cure yet—only painkillers to ease the symptoms.”

Then, with anger in her voice, she added, “Is Vanessa out of her mind?”

“You’re seriously ill, and instead of taking care of you, she goes to the airport to greet Jason, that worthless freeloader? Clearly, she doesn’t care about you. You should’ve divorced her long ago.”

The woman before me was Olivia Carter, the beloved daughter of the powerful Carter Family.

Compared to them, the Scott Family was a joke. If the Carters wanted to crush them, the Scotts would collapse overnight.

Olivia and I had practically grown up together.

As a child, she was frail and sickly, so Mr. Carter Sr. took her to live in the Midwest countryside for many years.

My grandfather treated her with herbal medicine and acupuncture, while I spent my days playing by her side. She stayed until she was fifteen, then returned to the city with her grandfather.

When she left, she clung to me, crying, begging me to wait for her, promising she would marry me one day.

After my grandfather passed, I left the countryside too. By chance, I saved Mr. Scott when he suffered a heart attack.

Mr. and Mrs. Scott arranged housing and work for me, treated me with kindness, and eventually encouraged me to marry Vanessa.

Before I married Vanessa, Olivia sought me out, crying as she asked why I hadn’t waited for her, why I hadn’t called when I left the countryside.

Back then, I didn’t know her true identity, so I had played with her freely, without hesitation.

But as we grew older and I learned who she really was, I realized the vast gulf between us.

She was the heiress of the Carter Family, and I was nothing but a poor boy from the countryside. We weren’t from the same world.

But Olivia didn’t see it that way.

She told me seriously, “Grandpa admires you and hopes I’ll marry you.”

“You’re the only heir to the Miller Family’s Secret Acupuncture Method. Just for that alone, you have the right to marry into any wealthy family.”

“We’ve been childhood sweethearts. Your presence has been imprinted on my heart. No other man will ever take your place.”

“I’ll always wait for you.”

And she meant it. Even after I married Vanessa, Olivia kept waiting.

When she heard how badly Vanessa treated me, Olivia more than once wanted to teach her a harsh lesson, though I always stopped her.

So when I finally decided to divorce Vanessa, the first person I called was Olivia.

It wasn’t because I wanted to slip seamlessly into a relationship with her—I wasn’t that shameless.

It was because I knew Vanessa’s nature: she would never willingly sign divorce papers. I needed Olivia’s help.

At that time, Chikungunya fever was spreading everywhere. Along the coastal cities, countless people were bitten by infected mosquitoes, and most needed weeks to recover. For some with weaker constitutions, the joint pain could last months.

After a bit of treatment, I regained some strength. I immediately took out my family’s silver needles and applied the Miller Family’s Secret Acupuncture Method to myself.

By the next morning, I was almost fully recovered.

At dawn, Vanessa called.

Her tone was icy: “Ethan, I told you to come to the office today and apologize to Jason in front of everyone. Why aren’t you here yet?”

“Don’t make excuses. You only got bitten by mosquitoes yesterday. A little fever is nothing. Even if you have to crawl, you’d better show up at the office today.”

Before I could respond, Olivia snatched the phone from my hand and said coldly into the receiver:

“You left your gravely ill husband at home and ran off to greet that freeloading assistant at the airport. And now you expect Ethan to apologize to him in public? Vanessa, has a horse kicked you in the head?”

Vanessa was stunned for a moment, then erupted in rage: “Who are you? How dare you speak to me like that? Who gave you the—”

Before she could finish, Olivia cut her off sharply:

“If you don’t cherish Ethan, plenty of others will.”

“Vanessa, you’re going to regret this.”

Without waiting for a reply, Olivia hung up.

I looked at her helplessly and said, “You’ve provoked her—now she’s definitely going to lose her mind.”

Olivia scoffed, “A woman that ungrateful deserves to be provoked. It’s about time someone forced her to see reality. She isn’t the center of the universe, and not everyone has to revolve around her.”