When I was eight, Ethan and I were kidnapped to a remote private island.

He protected me through those dark days, and after rescue, I begged my parents to adopt him.

On our seventh wedding anniversary, I opened his phone and found his messages with my enemy Victoria:

"I've taken care of the brakes. Her parents are dead, no one can stop us now."

"Carter Group will be yours soon. Marrying Sophia was just a means to an end."

The son I'd loved for six years was his mistress's child.

The man I'd trusted with my life was my parents' killer.

Our decade-long love story was nothing but an elaborate trap.

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1

In the bedroom, Ethan was sleeping soundly, a smile still playing on his lips.

I continued to scroll through his chat history, my fingers trembling on the screen.

Just yesterday, his friend had tried to reason with him:

"Do you really not have any feelings for Sophia at all? You're so bewitched by Victoria, have you lost your mind?"

"Victoria has never been a good person, not even when we were kids. She's making you bring down the Carter Group; it's obvious she's just using you."

"Would a woman who truly loves you let you get blood on your hands? Snap out of it!"

"Sophia will find out sooner or later. Stop now before it's too late. If this blows up, it will end badly for everyone."

Ethan's replies made my chest tighten:

"What I have with Victoria is true love. She's in a difficult position. She's been burdened by her family's vendetta since childhood, and this was the only way she could ask for my help. I understand."

"My only regret is that we met too late."

"We have a child together. She's Alex's biological mother. I can't abandon her."

"Don't worry about it. Sophia is wrapped around my little finger. She hasn't suspected a thing in so many years, and she won't start now. This is the last time. As soon as I get the shares, I'll be done with her."

The cold words stabbed my heart like daggers.

So, from the very first day of our marriage, he had been plotting to betray me.

All these years, he convinced me to focus on our family, to give up countless major projects. I thought it was because he cared about me, but it turns out he was simply paving the way for Victoria.

When Alex was sick, I stayed up all night at his bedside, and Ethan seemed moved to tears. It was all an act.

I’ll never forget the day Alex was born. I had a difficult birth, bleeding so badly. When I woke up, Ethan was holding the baby, telling me that our baby was perfectly healthy.

What he didn't know was that in my daze, I heard a nurse whisper, “What a shame.” The truth is, my own child didn't survive. He replaced him with Victoria's child!

When my parents passed away, he acted devastated, crying with me all night. And the whole time, the murderer was right beside me.

Laughable. Utterly laughable.

For over a decade, I’ve been nothing but a clown, a puppet dancing to his tune.

Looking back on those sweet memories, they were all tainted with poison now.

When I had an emotional breakdown on the island, he comforted me so gently. It turns out he was just trying to win me over.

When my first startup failed, he sold his luxury watch and designer suits to support me, saying he loved me for me, not for my money. It turns out it was all just a ploy to earn my trust.

He helped me handle all the complex social and business affairs, freeing me from any worries. It turns out he was slowly stripping me of my power all along.

Every passionate kiss, every sweet nothing he whispered, every intimate night we spent together—it was all part of an elaborate deception he planned for Victoria.

He even murdered my parents.

How much must he love that woman to be so ruthless?

I’ve been the world's biggest fool.

I've been sleeping next to a murderer and never had a clue.

Tears streamed down my face uncontrollably, and my body trembled violently.

Ethan turned over, and I quickly locked my phone and shoved it back under his pillow.

He opened his eyes, still drowsy.

"Babe? Why are you still awake?"

Seeing the tear stains on my face, he was instantly wide awake, his face a mask of concern.

"Why are you crying? What's wrong?"

"It's nothing... I just miss my parents."

Ethan sighed and pulled me into his arms. "Your parents passed away two years ago. Aren't you over it yet?"

"Honey, I'm so sorry." His voice cracked with emotion. "It's all my fault for not taking better care of your parents. I've been feeling so guilty. If I had just insisted they get their annual check-ups, maybe we would have caught the heart problem sooner, and the accident could have been avoided. I'll spend the rest of my life making it up to you."

Tears streamed down his face as he spoke, and he buried his face in my shoulder.

Then, his tone shifted. "Every time you're stressed from work, you start to overthink things. It's been so hard watching you carry the company all by yourself these past few years. Why don't you sell off some of your shares? I can't bear to see you so exhausted."

His performance was flawless.

Sweet nothings rolled off his tongue so easily, without a single crack in his facade.

In the past, I would have been completely swept away by his words. Now, it just made me sick.

As he buried himself in my arms, I had to fight the desperate urge to shove him away.

Ethan seemed to sense that something was wrong. "Babe, what's with you today? You feel a little... off."

"Nothing," I said, forcing my emotions down. "Do you like the villa I bought today? I also made an appointment with an interior design firm to have your studio redesigned."

Ethan used to work at a top architectural firm, a position built entirely on my company's resources and connections.

Later, he opened his own private studio and never let me have anything to do with it.

Now I understood. That place must be hiding countless secrets.

I didn't sleep a wink that night.

The next day, after confirming Ethan was out, I headed straight for his office.

His assistant met me at the door.

"Didn't Ethan tell you? I'm having the studio renovated. I'm just here to check on things before the crew arrives this afternoon."

"Oh! Of course. Right this way. Here's the key to Mr. Walsh's office."

The assistant handed me the key.

I pushed the door open, and the first thing I saw was the photo frame on his desk.

It wasn't a photo of us, not a picture of Alex, but a solo portrait of Victoria.

She was wearing a form-fitting red dress, her gaze seductive, a victorious smile playing on her lips.

I put my old tech skills to use and hacked into his computer. It was filled with records of funds transferred from my company.

Trade secrets, client lists, partner information—altogether worth tens of millions of dollars.

Even the stock dilution plan had been orchestrated by Victoria herself.

I had already forwarded all of last night's chat logs to myself, and now I copied this new evidence onto a flash drive.

With all of this, my victory in court was all but guaranteed.

I had raised their illegitimate son for six years and lost my parents to their schemes. There was no way I could let this go.

Since they were so impatient, I would grant them their wish.

I pretended to know nothing, drafted the divorce papers and hid them away, then told Ethan I had to go on a business trip for a week, leaving him in charge of the company.

I was giving them the perfect opportunity to make their move.

But I wasn't powerless. The day of the shareholders' meeting would be their judgment day.

As I left the studio, I heard Ethan's assistant muttering behind my back:

"She's such a failure, running a perfectly good company into the ground,  yet she still puts on this 'powerful woman' act."

I had long grown accustomed to such rumors.

After all, since I had taken over, Carter Design had indeed been going from bad to worse.

That night, I installed pinhole cameras and recording devices in every corner of the house.

High-definition video, stereo sound—they could capture the buzz of a fly.

Early the next morning, the surveillance feed came online.

Victoria was in the kitchen, bustling around in my silk robe, the fabric clinging to her andoutlining every perfect curve.

Ethan wrapped his arms around her from behind, his hands roaming restlessly over her body. "Baby, once we're rid of Sophia, we'll take Alex to Paris. I get so excited just thinking about our life as a family of three, I can barely sleep."

"Meeting you, I finally understood what a soul-devouring love truly is."

Victoria turned and kissed him. "Babe, you haven't told anyone about going abroad, have you?"

"Of course not. You told me to keep it a secret, so I haven't even told my best friend."

The two of them embraced in a passionate, lingering kiss, their movements growing more and more heated.

My heart was torn to shreds.

How dare they be so shameless in my own home!

And clearly, this wasn't the first time.

Victoria had been my sworn enemy since we were children. Her family's business went bankrupt a few years ago, and she fell from the lap of luxury into the gutter.

How could she possibly be content with clawing her way up from the bottom?

At first, she tried to bribe employees at my company to dig up dirt on me. When that failed, she constantly resorted to petty tricks, causing people to gossip and slander me.

I didn't pay it much mind.

But over the past few years, she's been gaining more and more prominence, one-upping me at every turn.

My company's resources were drained, my parents blamed me for being a disappointment, and everyone called me useless.

At my lowest point, Ethan would hold me and say he didn't care about superficial fame, that all that mattered was our family being safe and happy.

I believed his damned lies and became even more complacent.

It turned out that the sweetest home was hiding the most venomous snake.

I picked up my phone to call Ethan.

On the monitor, he reluctantly pulled away from Victoria's embrace. Seeing the caller ID, he immediately schooled his features before answering.

"Babe, are you done with everything over there? Did you miss me?" His voice was sickeningly sweet.

"I just woke up from a dream about my parents. They said there are bad people in the house who want to hurt you and Alex, so I want to do a good deed to pray for our protection."

Ethan's expression faltered for a moment, but he still replied gently, "Of course, sweetheart. Whatever you say."

The moment he hung up, he showed his true colors.

"Psycho! Always going on about her dead parents, it's so fucking annoying."

"If her parents hadn't died, how could I have helped you so easily? We would have been found out long ago."

"And now she wants to donate to charity? That's my money!"

Victoria caressed his chest, comforting him. "Don't be angry, baby. It'll all be over soon."

I turned off the surveillance feed and went out to see my parents' former lawyer.

I asked him how many of my assets the prenup could protect.

The lawyer flipped through the documents. "Although you have a prenup, many of your properties are directly in Ethan's name, which will be very difficult to get back. He's also acquired significant resources in recent years as your husband, so dividing the assets will be complicated."

"However, you could donate the assets in his name under the guise of charity."

I nodded.

Ever since I was ten, I had shared everything good my parents gave me with Ethan. To be able to claw anything back from him now was already a victory.

It was only while filing the donation paperwork that I discovered Ethan had already transferred his mansions to Victoria.

I thought about all the years he'd given me such ordinary gifts, telling me that expensive things were meaningless and that true feelings were what mattered most.

But for Victoria, he had offered both his fortune and his heart.