Her Open Betrayal

On our seventh anniversary, police called. A couple claimed my company's product poisoned their child. At the station, I saw Tristanher exfiling the report, with Vivienne, my wife, beside him as his wife. She looked at me coldly, stating, We have a three-year-old. That's how it is. We'd reconciled four years ago. I pulled out the divorce papers I tore up back then, now reprinted, and said, "Let her be with him openly."

I thought back four years, after three years of marriage. To protect Tristan, she falsely reported me ten times. Each release led to fights that put me in the hospitaleleven times total. Then, on a Middle East trip, our hotel was hit. She shielded me from debris; I shielded her from bullets. In hospital beds, holding hands, she tearfully promised to send him away for good. I tore up the divorce papers, saying we'd try one last time. She erased him completely, even tattooed my name over her heart, vowing I'd never regret it. Now, it all felt like a sick joke.

Tristan eventually left the precinct with red eyes, holding his son tightly in his arms.

He left because I had verbally backed him into a corner.

Faced with my absolute command of corporate law and product liability, he was trembling with rage, entirely unable to utter a single word in his defense.

When we got home, I strode through the front door. Vivienne followed closely behind, her brows furrowed in annoyance.

"Could you not have a better attitude? What kind of man bullies a father and his sick child?"

Bullying?

I spun around abruptly.

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with my company's food products. It is glaringly obvious that he fed his kid something he shouldn't have and is trying to pin it on me to extort a settlement! Are you completely blind to that? Who is bullying who here?!"

Vivienne frowned, clearly displeased with my tone.

I took a step closer, my voice dropping. "You know exactly how pristine my manufacturing formulas are. Yet you still stood by his side and helped him call the cops on me."

A cold, mocking laugh escaped my lips. "You really are exactly the same as you used to be."

She let out a heavy sigh.

"You really lack empathy sometimes, Victor."

I froze.

"The child is only three years old. He is a first-time father. Seeing his kid poisoned like that, it is natural for him to panic and make a mess of things. If you cannot be understanding, fine. But there was no need to back a single father into a corner over a small mistake and beat him down like that."

She paused, looking me up and down.

A cruel, mocking smile suddenly tugged at the corner of her lips.

"Oh, right. You are someone who can never be a father. No wonder you cannot possibly understand what someone with a child feels."

I stared at her in sheer disbelief.

The next second, a sharp slap echoed through the room, landing hard across her cheek.

"Vivienne! Who is the reason I can never be a father?! Have you conveniently forgotten?!"

The memory seemed to finally crash into her.

She lowered her eyes, dodging my furious gaze.

But I refused to let her hide.

"Back in college, you got drunk and picked a fight with a group of guys. They came at you with a broken beer bottle. I took that hit for you! That jagged glass shredded my abdomen, and that is why my fertility is practically gone!"

A flicker of guilt finally crossed Vivienne's face.

I offered a bitter, hollow smile.

"If I had known you were fighting those guys that night defending Tristan, I would have let them kill you."

Her lips parted, trembling slightly. "I... I am sorry. I misspoke."

"You have misspoken a lot over the past seven years."

I stared at her, my voice turning eerily calm. "To put it plainly, you never cared about me. You never cared about this marriage. If you did, those words would never have left your mouth so easily. Have you ever misspoken in front of Tristan?"

She remained silent.

I answered for her. "Never, right?"

"I..."

"Vivienne." I cut her off. "Save the excuses. You don't care, and that is the truth. Just like I told you before, that was your absolute last chance."

I looked at the spot on her chest where my name was inked.

And I sneered.

"You only talk a big game about cherishing our final chance."

"I already moved him underground! What more do you want from me?"

I looked at her, entirely stunned by her twisted logic.

She ran a hand through her hair, looking incredibly frustrated. "In the past four years, have you ever seen a trace of him or his son in my life? No, right?"

I could barely breathe. "Vivienne..."

"Enough, Victor." She frowned deeply. "If you hadn't been so petty and unreasonable today, you wouldn't have even found out. You wouldn't have ruined the peace between us. We could have lived a perfectly good life together."

When a person is pushed to the absolute limit of their anger, they actually start laughing.

My company receiving a legal complaint was normally a matter for my corporate legal department. I never needed to show my face. But I had recognized the phone number on the complaint. It was Tristan's. I investigated it personally and uncovered the sickening truth of her ongoing affair.

Vivienne sighed softly.

"Just pretend this never happened. Victor, please don't destroy the relationship we worked so hard to repair."

I laughed.

I slammed the freshly printed divorce agreement onto the coffee table.

"If you truly cherished this relationship, you would have never kept in touch with him!"

"What are you doing?"

Seeing the words 'Divorce Agreement' printed in bold at the top of the page, Vivienne's breathing hitched visibly.

"Take this back!"

She reached out to tear the papers, but I pinned them down with a heavy hand.

"Vivienne, I meant what I said. Four years ago was our final chance."

"Victor..."

"Three days." I stared straight into her eyes. "Give me an answer in three days."

"Victor! Victor!!"

I turned and walked out the door without looking back. She didn't chase me. She just stood there alone, staring at the legal document, her fingers trembling slightly.

I waited for two days.

Vivienne gave me no answer. She completely ignored the messages I sent.

I decided to head back to the house to force the issue.

But the moment I stepped onto the front porch, I heard the clinking of wine glasses and laughter coming from inside.

"Vivienne, it is the last day for that divorce agreement. Are you really not going to make a plan?"

"A plan?" Vivienne laughed coldly. "He is the one crossing the line! He is the one who owes me a plan!"

What?

My hand froze on the doorknob.

"We have been married for seven years. I can forgive the past, but bringing Tristan back here was a bit much, so I understand why he brought out the papers. But we have loved each other more fiercely than any normal couple for the last four years. Even when we fought, he never actually used a divorce to threaten me."

I could hear the rustle of paper as Vivienne waved the agreement around.

"Has he ever considered how much damage throwing a tantrum like this does to our relationship?"

I gritted my teeth.

One of her friends glanced toward the hallway and suddenly stopped breathing. They saw my shadow under the door but chose not to alert her. Instead, they asked another question.

"But Vivienne, what if Victor is actually serious this time?"

"Serious?" Vivienne laughed, a light, dismissive sound. "We have literally bled and almost died for each other. We are not going to fall apart that easily."

"Then why did you have a kid with Tristan? I really thought you had turned over a new leaf for Victor."

I heard the sound of Vivienne clinking her glass against theirs.

"When you have a life-and-death kind of love, you don't need to be as cautious and serious as you were in the beginning. We saved each other's lives. He and I are bound for life. He could never truly leave me."

I sucked in a sharp breath.

My heart hammered against my ribs, fueled by pure, unadulterated fury.

I quietly let go of the doorknob and walked away.

It seemed it was time to bypass the negotiations and go straight to litigation.

While I was having my executive assistant, Carter, prepare the lawsuit materials, Vivienne finally sent me a message on the third day.

[Instead of wasting time throwing a tantrum, you should expedite the compensation for Tristan's losses.]

Immediately after, a digital copy of a court summons was forwarded to my phone.

It was a lawsuit filed by Tristan.

He was officially suing my company for severe food safety violations, claiming our product directly caused his child's life-threatening poisoning.

I hadn't expected him to keep pushing after I had humiliated him at the precinct. But a persistence like that meant someone powerful was backing him.

I called Vivienne immediately.

"Did you file this for him?"

Vivienne let out a soft chuckle. She didn't answer.

The silence was an admission.

"And if I refuse to pay his extortion fee?"

"Husband, you need to think this through. The legal team representing him in court will be my corporate litigators."

My breath caught in my throat.

"Why be so stubborn about this? Just admit fault and pay the man."

I gripped my phone tightly.

"This company is a legacy brand founded by my grandfather. We have built a pristine reputation over decades. You want me to admit fault to a fabricated claim and destroy the Valiant Group's entire brand image?!"

Vivienne sighed.

"Do you really have to make things so difficult for a father and his son?"

"You are the ones making things difficult for me!" I ground my teeth together. "Tristan fed his own kid garbage, and you know it!"

Vivienne went completely silent.

When she finally spoke again, her voice had turned ice-cold.

"Then you are on your own. Good luck."

The dial tone echoed in my ear.

I stood in my office, gripping the phone so hard my knuckles turned white.

Carter, my head of legal and operations, looked at me with deep concern. "Mr. Victor, Vivienne's corporation has already sent us the formal notice. Her legal team is entirely undefeated in both domestic and international courts. We..."

I clenched my fists.

"We fight. I will personally lead the defense with you."

Carter's eyes lit up with sudden hope.

On the day of the trial, when I walked into the courtroom as both the defendant and the lead defense attorney, Vivienne was visibly stunned.

She never knew that I possessed a fully certified, top-tier legal degree.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. It was a message from her. I ignored it entirely. I faced her elite legal team head-on.

Throughout the entire proceeding, Vivienne's expression grew darker and darker. She quickly realized that her million-dollar lawyers were not omnipotent gods. And she realized that I had been hiding my true capabilities from her for years.

When the judge entirely dismissed Tristan's frivolous lawsuit for lack of credible evidence, Tristan threw a massive, screaming tantrum right in the middle of the courtroom.

I shot Vivienne a cold, mocking smirk.

Her face was an unreadable mask.

But as we were exiting the courthouse, she intercepted me by the heavy oak doors. She smiled, a deeply calculating look in her eyes.

"You are vastly more capable than I ever imagined, Victor."

"What is the matter? Is the CEO planning to file an appeal for her little kept man?"

"No." She smiled softly. "Since my husband is so brilliant, why would I ever want to make an enemy out of you?"

I frowned, completely unable to read her angle.

She turned on her heel to leave. "I wish you and your business continued prosperity, Mr. Victor."

"What exactly is she plotting?" I muttered to myself.

That night, I stayed at the corporate headquarters. I personally audited the warehouse inventory and conducted a rigorous check of all our security and fire suppression systems. Only when I was certain there were no vulnerabilities did I finally relax.

Carter walked with me as we left the building late that night.

"Thank god you were there, Mr. Victor! Otherwise, those corporate vultures would have swindled our entire quarterly profit! Vivienne is so ruthless, actually ordering her team to bleed us dry just to line Tristan's pockets. It was so obvious Tristan screwed up his kid's diet! Her bias is sickening!"

"Exactly! Who is she even married to?!"

Carter quickly clamped a hand over his subordinate's mouth, nervously checking my expression.

I just stiffened for a fraction of a second before offering a tired smile. "It's fine. Let's go home."

Carter smiled in relief. "Yes, sir!"

We had barely driven out of the industrial park when a deafening explosion shattered the night sky behind us.

Carter violently pulled me down as the shockwave rattled the car windows.

A blistering wave of heat washed over us.

I whipped my head around.

Above the manufacturing plant, a towering inferno of orange and black tore into the sky.

"Mom! Dad!"

I threw the car door open and sprinted back toward the flames like a madman.

Carter and the security team tackled me to the asphalt.

"Mr. Victor! It's too dangerous! You can't go in there!"

"My parents' belongings are in there!" I screamed, struggling against their grip.

"Sir, stop!" They held me down with everything they had.

Fire engines and police cruisers flooded the scene, sirens wailing. Yellow caution tape was rapidly strung up. Every single first responder blocked my path.

My breathing was ragged, my lungs burning. "Their things are in the main office! Everything they left behind! Let me go!"

"Even if they are, they are gone now, son!" a soot-covered firefighter yelled over the roar of the flames, his voice full of pity.

I stared at his blackened face.

Every ounce of strength evaporated from my body.

I slowly turned my head.

Parked in the shadows just beyond the police line was a familiar black Rolls-Royce. Behind the tinted glass, a face was illuminated by the dashboard lights.

Vivienne was sitting in the back seat.

She was casually watching the destruction. When she noticed me looking, she raised an eyebrow and offered a slow, deliberate smile.

In the passenger seat, Tristan was holding his son, a sickeningly triumphant grin plastered across his face.

Vivienne stepped out of the luxury car, her heels clicking against the pavement.

"You humiliated Tristan completely in front of a judge today. You owed him a little compensation."

I could not form a single word. My vocal cords were paralyzed.

"Don't worry, the inventory is gone, but I will personally wire you the funds to cover the damages. Don't blame him. This was entirely my idea."

My throat constricted so violently I tasted blood.

Everything inside that building was a piece of the legacy my parents and grandfather had built. When I was five years old, my mother used to carry me through those very halls, showing me the machinery, telling me the story of how our family built the brand from nothing.

They would stroke my hair and say, "This will all be yours one day. You have to protect it."

"Mom, Dad... I am so sorry."

The world went pitch black. The burning sky spun violently before my eyes, and gravity vanished.

Vivienne's smug, composed expression instantly shattered into sheer panic.

"Victor!"