The doctor examined me and confirmed that both the baby and I were fine; my due date was still a few days away.

The pain had been nothing more than Braxton Hicks contractions, brought on by stress.

Lying on the hospital bed, I stared blankly at the ceiling, my mind drifting back three years to the day I married Jack.

At the age of twenty, I erased my true identity and moved to Milan. I didn't want anyone to love me just for my last name, so I did it.

That was where I met Jack. Back then, he was a newly graduated intern with nothing but ambition and a humble background. He had seemed earnest, diligent, and reliably kind.

I still remembered the day our supervisor singled me out for unfair treatment, forcing me to finish the entire department’s financial report alone overnight.

Without a word, Jack stayed behind to keep me company, working alongside me until the early hours of the morning.

On another occasion, the supervisor falsely accused me of company theft and threatened to fire me on the spot.

Jack had defended me fiercely and declared he would resign alongside me if I was dismissed.

In that moment, I firmly believed I had found the person I wanted to spend my life with.

We got married quietly, with no lavish banquet.

My father had never approved of Jack.

It was not because Jack came from an ordinary background. My father had never cared about that. What bothered him was something else. He thought Jack was too eager to prove himself, too good at saying the right things, and not nearly as capable as he wanted people to believe.

“He has ambition,” my father once told me. “But ambition without judgment is dangerous. And a man who wants power before he learns responsibility will eventually hurt the people closest to him.”

I refused to listen.

I told my father Jack only needed a chance. I said he was hardworking, sincere, and unfairly underestimated by everyone around him.

So my father gave him that chance.

Through the Bellandi family’s private investment fund, he became the anonymous investor behind Jack’s new company.

Jack never knew the money came from my family.

To him, it looked like a miracle. A mysterious investor had recognized his potential, trusted his vision, and handed him enough capital to build the life he had always dreamed of.

For the past three years, Jack had been running the company built on Bellandi money. To the public, he was a remarkable self-made entrepreneur who had risen from nothing and built a thriving business from scratch.

No one knew the truth.

Jack lacked sharp business instincts and decisive judgment. Every critical partnership, every major contract, every decision that truly expanded the company had been reviewed, corrected, or quietly arranged by me and the Bellandi team behind the scenes.

Jack thought he had built an empire.

In reality, he had been standing on one the Bellandi family had lent him.

All core collaborators were well aware of this unseen truth.

Six months ago, Jack returned from a business trip with a quiet, timid young woman in tow.

“This is Lily,” he had explained to me with a sympathetic tone.

“She just graduated from university, and her mother is critically ill in the hospital. She’s drowning in medical debt and struggling to make ends meet. I hate to see her suffer, so I want to give her a hand.”

I arranged a comfortable apartment for her and privately covered all her mother’s exorbitant medical expenses.

In the beginning, Lily treated me with excessive deference, waiting on me hand and foot.

Yet she was clumsy and inexperienced at work, making frequent costly mistakes.

Jack would fly into fits of rage, repeatedly threatening to terminate her contract.

Every time, I softened his anger, persuading him to give the newly graduated girl more time to adapt.

I had genuinely thought I was helping a vulnerable, hardworking young woman.

Now, it was painfully clear.

From the very start, Jack and Lily had been acting out an elaborate lie, tailored just to deceive me.

The hospital room door swung open, pulling me back from my memories.

Tom stepped inside. Two equally composed men in matching formal attire followed closely behind him.

“Miss Ella, everything has been fully arranged.”

He placed a sleek black premium bank card on the bedside table.

“All medical fees have been settled. I’ve booked a private luxury suite on the top floor, and you may move there at your convenience.”

I nodded faintly in acknowledgment.

Tom then handed me a thick sealed folder.

“I’ve compiled all the latest investigation records. Jack and Lily have been in a romantic relationship for half a year. Over these months, they have misused corporate funds to travel to Paris, Rome, and the Maldives, splurging on countless luxury goods. This folder contains their flight records, hotel check-in documents, and explicit photos of the pair.”

I flipped open the folder, and the candid snapshots burned sharply into my vision.

“Additionally,” Tom continued in a solemn tone, “I anticipated potential trouble. Yesterday, our team retrieved all valuable belongings from your residence and relocated them to a secure location.”

“We have also increased security around the private senior residence to protect the Don and Donna,” Tom continued. “Lily claimed your parents’ expenses were too high and moved them to the cheapest room. We reversed the change immediately using our own funds.”

My fingers tightened around the edge of the blanket.

My father had told me more than once that after my child was born, he and my mother planned to retire completely. They were tired of carrying the weight of the Bellandi name. They wanted to hand the family over to me.

And to Jack.

My throat tightened at the thought.

Before all of this, my parents had truly intended to accept him. My father had already begun preparing the transfer of several family businesses under my name, with Jack positioned beside me as my husband and future partner. My mother had even said that if Jack proved loyal, the Bellandi family would treat him as their own son.

That was why they moved into the senior residence ahead of time.

They wanted to adjust to a quieter life before the baby arrived.

Tom’s phone vibrated abruptly.

He answered the call, and his expression darkened noticeably after listening to the report.

“Miss Ella, Lily led a group of staff to the senior care facility moments ago. She demanded their immediate eviction. She claimed you could never afford such expensive fees and even... slandered you by saying you stole the money from the company.”

I jolted upright in the hospital bed, my muscles tensing with suppressed fury.

“There is no need to worry,” Tom quickly reassured me. “We acted in advance. Our security team transferred your parents to the private family estate before Lily arrived. They are safe and completely undisturbed.”

I exhaled a long breath and leaned back against the pillow.

“Ella,” his deep voice was steady and unflappable, “I am aware of everything that has happened.”

“I’m sorry for making you worry, Father.” My tone remained gentle. “I will resolve all of this properly.”

“Very well.” He paused briefly, his tone firm yet measured. “Bear in mind, we no longer engage in brutal or underhanded tactics. Handle this matter through legitimate, legal channels. Make them pay for every reckless choice they have made.”

“I understand.” I ended the call, my gaze turning cold and unyielding.

I had originally planned to swallow this bitter betrayal and let them make a clean, dignified exit without dragging things through the mud.

But they crossed the unforgivable line by targeting my parents and my unborn child. From that moment forward, I would show them absolutely no mercy.

Early the next morning, before we arrived, Tom had already informed me that Jack and Lily had fired all the senior employees I had personally promoted over the years.

I instructed Tom to give each of the dismissed employees a generous severance package and tell them I would personally invite them back to the company.

When we arrived at the corporate headquarters, an all-staff meeting was underway in the main conference hall.

Lily stood confidently on the stage, holding a projector remote. A stream of my personal spending records flashed across the large screen.

“Take a good look, everyone!” Lily’s voice trembled with feigned grief and indignation.

“This is Ella Hale! While Jack exhausts himself working day and night to sustain this company, she idles at home, spending money without restraint. A single dress costs thousands of euros; a bottle of perfume is worth a small fortune...”

“At this rate, the company will eventually be drained dry by her reckless extravagance! I froze her cards and limited her spending purely for the sake of the company and every employee here!”

Murmurs rippled through the crowd, and most employees nodded in silent agreement.

I leaned casually against the doorframe, my arms folded across my chest, watching her theatrical performance with quiet detachment.

Lily finally caught sight of me. Her eyes lit up with malicious triumph, and she pointed directly at me.

“Ella! How dare you show your face here! Every penny you spend is Jack’s hard-earned money! I demand you repay every cent you have wasted over the years to the company!”

The meeting concluded shortly after. Employees filed past me one by one, staring with judgmental, peculiar glances.

The gaudily dressed woman sauntered over. She was Lily’s distant cousin, Monica, who had secured an administrative position in the company solely through Lily’s recommendation. She rolled her eyes at me, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

“If I were you, I’d hide myself away in shame. Living off a man’s money and acting so entitled is utterly shameless. Lily is completely right; you deserve to be driven out for good.”

I stood completely still, saying not a single word in response.

Tom took a tiny, almost imperceptible step forward.

I brushed my fingers against his wrist.

He froze mid-movement, his eyes darting to me, blazing with suppressed fury.

Monica saw my silence as weakness, and her voice rose even louder, shrill with triumph.

“Look at her! She has nothing to say for herself! She knows I’m right! She’s nothing but a useless leech sucking Jack dry!”

She turned directly to me, holding up the envelope for every employee in the hall to see.

“Ella Hale, I am here to formally terminate your employment with this company, effective immediately.”

A collective murmur rippled through the crowd.

She stepped closer, jabbing a finger hard at my chest. “So pack your things and get out. Now. Before you ruin all of our livelihoods.”

Just then, the elevator doors slid open. Jack stepped out hand in hand, looking pleased with themselves. Spotting the commotion and Monica’s triumphant expression, they exchanged a knowing smile and strode over.

“What’s going on here?” Jack asked, feigning perfect confusion.

“Jack, thank goodness you’re here,” Monica gushed, practically bowing to him. “I just terminated Ella.”

Jack turned to me, his face softening into a look of practiced, fake concern. He reached out to touch my arm, but I pulled away sharply.

“Ella, I’m sorry it had to come to this,” he said, his tone dripping with false sympathy.

“But Monica is right. Even though you’re still my wife, you can’t keep behaving like this. I know Lily froze your cards yesterday, and you’re upset, but you really have been spending far too much money lately. And your parents’ private suite at that care facility…”

“It’s just unnecessarily extravagant. We can’t afford to waste money on luxuries like that right now.”

A murmur of approval swept through the crowd.

“Jack is so reasonable,” someone whispered.

“Imagine putting up with a wife like that for three years.”

“He’s way too good to her.”

Lily stepped forward. She looked at me with a mixture of pity and malicious triumph.

“Ella, we’re only doing this for your own good,” she said, her voice sickly sweet. “You’ve been so spoiled your whole life, you don’t understand the value of hard work. Jack has been working himself to the bone to keep this company afloat, and you just sit at home spending his money.”

Jack nodded gravely.

“Now please, Ella, just go home. The investor will be here any minute, and we can’t afford to have them see this mess. The past few months have been tight financially, and if they get upset and pull out, everything I’ve built will be gone. Now, Lily, may I please ask you to call the investor?”

Lily walked away with a triumphant smirk, casting me a contemptuous glance over her shoulder.

Just then, a phone rang.

Every head turned slowly, in unison, toward the sound.

My phone, tucked in the pocket of my simple tailored dress, was ringing.