My Wife Fired Me, So I Became Her Boss

The Blackwell Group was launching a new division. The chairman appointed his wife, Audrey, as its president, giving her carte blanche to build her own team.

Everyone assumed I’d be her VP. Friends were congratulating me in advance, celebrating our joint ascent up the corporate ladder.

But on the day the official announcement went out, I received a termination notice. And the intern Audrey had been so close to, the one who always seemed to be whispering in her ear, was named Vice President.

Later, Audrey tried to explain. “Leo has depression, Cole. He’s incredibly sensitive. He needs the validation more than you do.”

She straightened my tie, her fingers cool against my skin. “Besides, he’s already thought of you. He said you could be his personal driver. The pay is great, and the hours are easy. See how thoughtful he is?”

I looked into her eyes, searching for a hint of a joke. There was none. She was dead serious.

I gently removed her hands from my collar and met her gaze with the same unnerving sincerity.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll support my wife’s decision.”

1

The next morning, dressed in a black driver’s uniform, I had the car waiting outside Leo’s apartment building on time.

I waited for nearly an hour. Three calls to his phone went straight to voicemail.

Finally, with only ten minutes left before the workday officially began, he sauntered out of the lobby doors, rubbing sleep from his eyes. He pulled open the rear door and flopped onto the leather seat without so much as a glance in my direction.

“Let’s go.”

I said nothing, just put the car in drive.

The morning rush hour had the interstate in a gridlock.

From the back seat, Leo’s impatience grew.

“What are you doing? Don’t you know any shortcuts?” he whined. “Audrey won’t be happy if I’m late on my first day.”

We finally pulled up to the office building, thirty minutes late.

The second I put the car in park, Audrey’s call came through. Her voice was sharp enough to cut glass.

“Cole! Where are you? Do you have any idea what day it is? It’s the executive morning briefing! How is Leo supposed to command any respect when his own driver makes him late on day one?”

Before I could get a word in, Leo’s voice cut in, dripping with faux-distress.

“Audrey, don't blame Cole. It’s his first day as a driver. It’s an adjustment.” He paused for effect. “He was trying so hard to get here on time, he even ran a few red lights for me.”

That sent Audrey into a fresh spiral of fury.

“Cole! Are you doing this on purpose? Are you so bitter about being let go that you have to sabotage Leo’s first day just to make yourself feel better?”
“You are such a disappointment.”
“Forget about this month’s paycheck. You’re not getting it.”

She hung up with a sharp click.

Leo sat up. The wounded look vanished, replaced by a smirk of pure satisfaction.

“Tough break, Cole. Must sting, driving me around.”

He laughed softly and swung his leg over the center console, planting a mud-caked leather shoe on the back of the passenger seat.

They were the shoes. The custom Italian leather ones Audrey had a friend bring back from Milan for my birthday last month.

Now they were on Leo’s feet, sullied with dirt, staring me in the face.

“Guess that’s what happens when you’re not good enough,” he said, pushing the door open. He sauntered toward the building, whistling.

I sat there in the silence of the car, staring at the muddy footprint on the seat back. My knuckles were white on the steering wheel.

A little while later, a few of the senior managers came down for a smoke break after the meeting. They saw me in the car and ambled over.

“Jesus, Cole. You’ve got the patience of a saint,” one of them said, leaning against the window.

“Getting ridden like that by an intern? We could hear Audrey tearing you a new one from down the hall. If it were me, I’d have driven this thing straight into the river.”

Another one just smirked. “I don’t know, man. Maybe he’s got some kind of special kink for this.”

I ignored their jeers and pulled out my phone. A new text from Audrey had just popped up.

“Honey, I’m sorry. I was just angry. I have to establish Leo’s authority in front of everyone, otherwise they’ll walk all over him. Don’t take it personally. I’ll deposit double your salary into our account tonight. Your old office is gone, per company policy. Just relax in the car for a bit. I’ll come down and have lunch with you.”

I stared at the message, then deleted it and locked the screen.

Establish his authority?

Using my dignity as his stepping stone.

Audrey, you really are a wonderful wife.

She didn’t come down for lunch.

She sent her assistant with a sad-looking boxed salad, explaining that she had to take Leo out with the department heads for a ‘get-to-know-you’ lunch.

I tossed the cold salad directly into the nearest trash can.

2

Three days later was our fifth wedding anniversary.

I’d made reservations at Le Ciel Bleu, her favorite French restaurant, and bought the diamond necklace she’d been dropping hints about for months. I wanted to surprise her.

At five p.m., I texted her: “Hey, are you free tonight?”

She replied almost instantly: “Have to take Leo to meet a huge client. It’s going to be a late one. Don’t wait up.”

A follow-up text came a second later: “It’s his first time leading a pitch. I need to be there to guide him.”

I stared at the screen, my thumbs hovering over the keyboard. I typed out a single sentence: “Do you remember what day it is?”

After a long moment, I deleted it, letter by letter.

I canceled the reservation and tossed the velvet jewelry box onto the passenger seat.

Restless and angry, I called a few friends and met them at a hole-in-the-wall taco joint on the other side of town.

We had just ordered a round of beers and a platter of carne asada when two familiar figures walked through the door, hand in hand.

It was Audrey and Leo.

Audrey wore a playful, giddy smile I hadn’t seen in years. She was pointing at the greasy, handwritten menu on the wall, laughing about something with him.

She used to despise places like this. She’d complain that the smoky air would ruin her thousand-dollar perfumes.

Now, I heard her say to him with genuine excitement, “See? Places like this have so much more soul.”

Then I noticed it. Leo was wearing a bespoke suit.

The one Audrey had commissioned for me as my anniversary gift.

My gaze locked onto the fabric, the perfect tailoring.

Leo must have felt my eyes on him. He turned his head and saw me. He froze for a second, a flicker of panic in his eyes. Then, as if on purpose, he jerked his arm, knocking a full glass of orange soda all over himself.

“Oh!”

Audrey gasped and immediately grabbed a fistful of napkins, kneeling down to dab at the stain on his pants. The gesture was so tender, so careful, as if she were handling a priceless artifact.

I couldn’t sit there anymore. I stood up and walked toward their table.

“Audrey,” I said. My voice was a raw whisper.

She looked up, and her face hardened the moment she saw me.

“What are you doing here?”

My eyes went past her to the suit on Leo’s back.

“I thought you were meeting a client.”

Audrey got to her feet, her expression a mask of annoyance.

“The meeting finished early. Leo said he was craving tacos, so I brought him here.”

“And the suit?” I asked, nodding toward Leo. “How do you explain that?”

“He was meeting a major client, Cole. He couldn’t show up looking shabby, could he? I just lent him your suit.” She looked at me as if I were the unreasonable one. “Can you stop being so petty? It’s just a piece of clothing.”

“You’re a driver,” she added, her voice dripping with disdain. “It’s not like you have anywhere to wear something that nice.”

“Petty?” I let out a bitter laugh. “That was my five-year anniversary present!”

The color drained from Audrey’s face. Her eyes darted away for a second.

“I’ll… I’ll buy you a better one later.”

Just then, Leo, who had been silent, stood up. He draped a proprietary arm around Audrey’s shoulders, pulling her close.

“What can I say, Cole?” he said, his eyes gleaming with triumph.

“Someone’s got to pick up the slack when you can’t even hold down a job. Your wife has been under a lot of stress.” He leaned in. “Someone has to help her out. At work… and at home.”

His last words were loaded, his eyes locked on mine in a direct challenge.

And Audrey just stood there, letting him hold her, not saying a single word.

My friends had seen enough. They stormed over, getting in Leo’s face.

“Who the hell do you think you are?”

“You’re a goddamn leech, living off a woman, and you have the balls to act like this?”

The scene devolved into shouting. One of my friends looked ready to throw a punch.

I quickly stepped between them, grabbing my friend’s arm.

“It’s not worth it. Let’s just go.”

They stormed out, one of them cursing me under his breath for being a doormat.

After they were gone, I stood by the door of the taqueria, waiting silently for Audrey to come out. I needed to talk to her, away from all of this, to get a straight answer about what was happening.

I waited until after midnight.

3

At one in the morning, Audrey and Leo finally stumbled out, both clearly drunk.

Leo was unsteady on his feet, practically hanging off Audrey as she supported him on the walk to the car.

When they reached my car, Leo suddenly spun her around, pinning her against the passenger door. He lowered his head, his lips finding the soft skin of her neck.

“Audrey, you’re so good to me,” he murmured.

Her body went stiff. She seemed to want to push him away, but when she raised her hands, they landed weakly on his shoulders, clinging to him.

“Leo, stop… I’m still married to Cole.”

“Who cares about him? He’s just some loser you kicked to the curb.”

Leo’s mouth moved to her earlobe, then trailed down her jawline.

Audrey’s resistance melted away. A soft whimper escaped her lips. She closed her eyes and gave in.

I was standing not twenty feet away, watching the whole sordid scene.

Something inside me snapped. A roar of pure rage tore from my throat as I lunged forward, shoving Leo away from her with all my strength.

He stumbled backward and fell to the pavement.

My eyes, burning with betrayal, were fixed on Audrey.

She looked at me as if I had just shattered a beautiful dream. Then, she drew back her hand and slapped me hard across the face.

“Cole! Are you insane?!” she screamed, her voice filled with a cold, venomous disgust.

That slap shattered the last, desperate illusion I had been clinging to.

Audrey didn’t even look at me again. She turned and rushed to Leo’s side.

“Leo, baby, are you okay? Did he hurt you?”

He whimpered in her arms like a child who’d scraped his knee.

Ignoring me completely, they hailed a cab and disappeared into the night.

I drove home alone. The house was cold, empty, devoid of life.

I was about to step into the shower when my phone buzzed. It was a notification from my bank.

[Alert: Your joint savings account has been frozen. Current balance: $0.00.]

Audrey.

Because I had trusted her, trusted our marriage, every dollar I’d ever earned was in that account.

Below the bank alert was a text from her.

“I gave you a chance to walk away with your dignity, Cole. You chose not to take it. After the scene you made tonight, you don’t deserve my respect. You think you’re so tough? Let’s see how tough you are with no money.”

I had never kept a secret stash.

I was penniless.

4

The next morning, a frantic ringing jolted me from a nightmare.

“Cole! It’s your father! He had a massive heart attack, he’s in the hospital! They’re taking him into surgery now!”

My world went numb. I raced to the hospital, arriving just as they were wheeling my father into the operating room. A nurse handed me a clipboard. “Sir, we need a deposit of one hundred thousand dollars for the surgery to proceed.”

I jammed my hands in my pockets, a pointless gesture. I remembered. I had nothing.

With a trembling hand, I dialed Audrey’s number.

It rang for a long time before she answered, her voice thick with sleep.

“What? What do you want this early?”

“Audrey, now! Transfer me a hundred thousand dollars! My dad had a heart attack, he needs emergency surgery!”

There was a pause on the other end, followed by a cold, sharp laugh.

“Are you serious, Cole? You’re so desperate for money you’d use your own father as an excuse?”
“Do you really think I’d fall for a lie that pathetic?”
“I’m busy prepping Leo for a client meeting. Don’t bother me with this nonsense again.”

She hung up.

I tried calling back, but it went straight to a busy signal.

Swallowing every last ounce of my pride, I started calling my friends, my brothers, anyone who would listen.

“Hey, Mark, it’s Cole… Listen, man, I’m in a really tight spot… Can I borrow some money…?”

As I was hunched over, whispering humbly into the phone, I looked up and saw two familiar figures walking down the hospital corridor.

It was Audrey, with Leo on her arm.

She wasn’t meeting any client.

She was speaking to him in a soft, gentle voice, guiding him toward the psychiatric wing of the hospital.

When she saw me squatting on the floor, her expression instantly soured. She must have felt a pang of guilt, because she walked briskly toward me, already pulling her phone out of her purse.

But before she could do anything, Leo suddenly flinched, his body seizing as if he’d been electrocuted. He clung to Audrey’s arm and let out a theatrical shriek.

“Ah! Don’t come near me! You’re scaring me!”

He cowered behind her, pointing at me, his body trembling like a leaf.

Audrey immediately spun around to shield him, her face contorted with rage as she turned on me.

“Cole! Look what you’ve done! You’ve triggered him!”
“Leo is having a severe anxiety attack! Are you trying to kill him?!”

I just stared, baffled by the ridiculous performance.

“What did I do? My father is waiting for life-saving surgery. I don’t have time for your little drama.”

Audrey’s neck flushed with anger. She held Leo tight and spat her words at me.

“Leo’s first big project failed today because you decided not to show up for work. Your absence cost the company millions in lost orders.”
“You pushed him to this point, and you still have the nerve to ask me for money?”

So that was it. She was pinning Leo’s failure on me.

“If it weren’t for the fact that we were once married, you wouldn’t even have a job as a driver!”

She guided the trembling Leo into the therapist’s office. Before closing the door, she looked back at me, her eyes like ice.

“You go to the office right now. You walk into that boardroom and you take full responsibility for this disaster. You make it clear that Leo had nothing to do with it. You do that, and I’ll transfer the money.”

My chest felt tight enough to burst. I wanted nothing more than to wipe the smug expressions off both their faces. But then I thought of my father on the operating table, and my head sank. I was ready to accept.

Just then, my phone buzzed. A new notification.

A transfer of three hundred thousand dollars had just been deposited into my personal account.

I thought it was from one of my friends, but then a text message came through.

I read the message, and the crushing weight of humiliation and rage began to lift. I took a deep, steadying breath.

Audrey poked her head out of the office, her voice sharp with impatience.

“Cole! What are you waiting for? Get to the office and confess!”

I didn’t look at her. I simply turned and walked toward the payment office, my back straight.

“Cole! Stop right there! Did you hear me?!”

Her frantic screams echoed behind me, but for the first time in a long time, my steps felt light.

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