Divorcing My Fake Poor Husband

It was our fifth wedding anniversary, and instead of a candlelit dinner, I was behind the wheel of my sedan, grinding out another shift as a rideshare driver.

The passenger door swung open, and a woman slid into the back seat. My breath hitched when I caught her reflection in the rearview mirrorunderneath her designer trench coat, she was wearing absolutely nothing from the waist down.

She was shivering, her teeth chattering from the Chicago winter, but her eyes were sharp, brimming with a cruel sort of provocation. "Never seen a girl having a little fun before?" she snapped.

"Everett likes it this way," she continued, her voice dripping with a smug, breathless pride. "He says the risk of being caught outdoors is the only thing that really gets him going. It keeps him on edge."

She let out a sharp, jagged laugh. "Not like that pathetic housewife of his. He says she doesnt even know how to look at him, let alone touch him."

The womanRoxy, according to the appleaned forward, her smile widening. "Get this: just to impress me, he hired some guys to stage a kidnapping. He told his wife it was some old 'business rivals' coming for his head."

"And the idiot actually fell for it! She showed up to trade herself for him. They put her through hell for twenty-four hours straight while he and I watched."

"Tell me," she whispered, leaning closer to the partition. "Isn't that just madness? He loves me so much hes willing to destroy his own wife just to give me a thrill."

I slammed on the brakes. The screech of tires echoed through the quiet street, but all I could hear was the blood roaring in my ears. My body went cold, paralyzed.

A few months ago, I had been beaten into a coma trying to "save" my husband, Everett. I walked with a permanent limp now, a constant reminder of the night I thought I was being a hero.

1.

I forced my hands to stay steady on the steering wheel, my knuckles white.

"So," I said, my voice sounding like it belonged to someone elsesomeone far away. "This... boyfriend of yours. How did you two meet?"

Maybe it was a coincidence.

The name 'Everett' wasn't exactly rare. And the Everett I knew was a man of quiet habits, a low-level office drone who complained if the heating bill was ten dollars too high. He wasn't some adrenaline junkie playing sick games in the woods.

"He's not my boyfriend," Roxy said, lounging back against the leather seat, looking utterly bored with her own wealth. "Hes my benefactor. My sugar daddy, if you want to be gauche about it."

"Ive been his 'special project' for five years. Since the day I graduated. He tucked me away in a corner office at his firm."

"A million-dollar salary just to look pretty."

I felt a microscopic surge of relief. My Everett was a nobody. He made less than I did.

On my last birthday, Id ordered a small cake, and hed made me return it, calling it an 'unnecessary extravagance.' Hed scolded me for 'wasting' money when I made him a bowl of noodles with two eggs.

Frugality is the only way we survive, Margot, hed always tell me.

Roxys lips curled into a sneer.

"His wife is such a loser. She has no idea who shes actually sleeping next to. A billionaire playing 'poor' just for the psychological experiment of it all."

"Its hilarious, really. Shes out here breaking her back driving an Uber while he spends more on one of our lunches than she makes in a year."

I bit my lip so hard I tasted copper. My heart was a frantic, trapped bird in my chest.

"Last year," she went on, her voice a sing-song of malice, "my vacation happened to fall on the same day his wife ended up in the ER. Some car accident."

"He didn't even blink. He skipped out on signing her consent forms and took me on a ten-country tour of Europe instead."

"I got upset because we were five minutes late for the private jet, so he bought me three supercars just to stop me from pouting. Fifty million dollars, just like that."

A wave of nausea hit me.

Last year, after the accident, I was hovering on the edge of death. The hospital had called Everett dozens of times, but there was no answer.

When he finally showed up days later, he told me hed been in a dead zone for a 'crucial business trip.' Hed cried by my hospital bed, holding me, telling me hed never leave me for work again once we finally 'made it.'

Hed brought me three little plastic toy cars. I had to save up for weeks to get these for you, babe, hed said. To remind you of the life well have someday.

I forced the car back into gear, my vision blurring.

Roxy didn't notice. She was too busy with her own reflection.

"I think Everett actually loves her, in his own twisted way," she mused. "Thats why he gives me the money but keeps her as the 'wife.' But who cares?"

"He told me himself: shes boring. Gray. A piece of stale bread compared to the fire I give him."

I forced a pale, hollow smile into the mirror.

"Yeah. I bet."

Roxy seemed satisfied with that. She suddenly slapped her forehead.

"Oh, I almost forgot."

She reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a pair of lacy, discarded silk panties.

"Ill pay you double the fare if you drop these in the mail for me. Address it to the 'little woman.'"

"Today is their five-year anniversary," she cackled. "Everett told me to pick out a 'gift' so she wouldn't get suspicious about him being out late."

She handed me her phone to show me the delivery address.

My last shred of hope withered and died.

It was my house.

2.

Roxy pulled her phone back, a look of smug charity on her face.

"Im honestly too kind, helping him manage his domestic trash," she laughed. "But a woman whos been cheated on that long? She deserves the leftovers. Shell probably see the silk and think hes finally being 'romantic.' God, I cant wait."

I gripped the steering wheel so hard the plastic groaned. I wanted to turn around and wrap my cord around her neck, but I forced myself to breathe.

If they wanted to play games, fine.

I hoped theyd still be laughing when I saw them in court.

I discreetly tapped the 'record' button on my dashboard dashcam. "He sounds devoted to you," I said, my voice eerily calm. "I hope you get that wedding ring soon."

She tossed her head back, eyes burning with a manic sort of triumph.

"Oh, it's coming. That useless woman can't compete with me."

"Do you know how much he spoils me?" she bragged, leaning in again.

"I mentioned I had a headache this morning, and he hired two separate medical teams to stay on call for me twenty-four hours a day. He even bought me a brownstone right across from his office. If I so much as sneeze, hes there."

A sharp, stabbing pain flared in my chest.

I didn't know Everett had that kind of tenderness in him.

In five years, he had never even remembered my birthday. Id asked to go to the beach once, and hed lectured me on the cost of gas.

He 'forgot' I was allergic to mangoes every time he bought groceries.

To 'save money,' I lived on a five-dollar-a-day food budget. Id spent years hovering around free sample stations at Costco, once fainting from hypoglycemia and being rushed to the hospital by a stranger.

Everett had seen all of it. And he had smiled and lied.

Hed even taken my meager earnings from my rideshare shifts, claiming he was 'paying off our debts.'

"Hes... incredible," I rasped, the lie burning my throat.

Roxy kicked her bare feet up on the back of my seat.

"Thats nothing. You want to hear the best part?"

Her smile turned into something jagged and cruel.

"A few months ago, I got bored. I told him I was jealous of how much time he spent at home with that 'thing.' So, to cheer me up, he staged that kidnapping."

My face went ghost-white. My hands shook.

A game. It was all a game to make her smile.

She was practically dancing in her seat now.

"I told him I hated the idea of her ever touching him again. Do you know what he did?"

My body convulseda phantom memory of the darkest night of my life. The humiliation. The screaming.

"It was so intense," she whispered, her eyes glazed with the memory. "She screamed all night long. And Everett and I were in the very next room... screaming for a different reason. I can still hear her sometimes. Its a rush."

I remembered it with terrifying clarity. I thought my world was ending when I heard hed been taken. I didn't call the police because I was terrified theyd kill him. I begged the 'debt collectors' to hurt me instead of him.

They tied me up. They broke my leg. They took away the last shred of my dignity as a woman.

And all that time, I thought I was protecting the man I loved. I didn't know he was ten feet away, tangled in silk sheets with her.

Id spent weeks crying in the hospital afterward.

Everett had sat there with his fake tears, whispering, Even if youre broken now, Margot, Ill never leave you.

I had actually felt lucky. I thought the tragedy had brought us closer.

"It was a bit much, though," Roxy added, her tone shifting to annoyance. "He felt 'guilty' afterward. Ignored me for a whole month. He even talked about 'coming clean' and telling her he was a billionaire, but I stopped him."

My voice was a jagged thread. "Why did he want to tell her?"

Roxy scoffed.

"He wanted to pay for some experimental surgery to 'fix' her. And her little brotherwhat's his name? Jamie? The kid needs a transplant. Everett was going to reveal everything just to save the brats life."

3.

"And you stopped him?"

My voice cracked, rising into a sharp, ragged edge.

Roxy mistook my horror for awe. She smiled, preening.

"Keeping him 'poor' was my idea. I told him it was the only way to test if she was really 'loyal' or just another gold-digger looking for a payout."

"He bought it. He decided to 'test' her for a little longer."

She sighed, looking annoyed. "But he still couldn't let go of the brother thing. He actually made an anonymous donation. Millions of dollars to the hospital under some charity's name. Such a waste."

"But Im a smart girl. I intercepted the wire transfer. Spent two weeks in Vegas with some male models instead. Best vacation ever."

The world began to spin. I couldn't breathe.

Jamie had needed two hundred thousand for his heart surgery. Id given up my own rehabilitation, choosing to remain a 'cripple' just to funnel every cent I had into his care. He was my only living relative.

But Everett had been so angry back then.

Hed insisted Jamie was faking it. He told me the kid was just trying to 'drain us' because he was lazy.

Wed had the most vicious fight of our marriage over it.

I never understood why he hated my brother so much. Now I knew. He thought Jamie had stolen the 'anonymous' millions hed sent.

After that fight, Everett 'disappeared' for a week.

Jamie couldn't wait any longer. I was desperate. I did the only thing I couldI sold a kidney on the black market to get the surgery money.

But when I hobbled into the ward the next day, Jamie was gone.

Missing.

All that was left on his empty bed was the two hundred dollars hed managed to save from his paper route.

I knew why he left. He didn't want to be a burden anymore. He chose to go off and die alone so I could have a life.

But he could have lived!

Everett could have saved him with a flick of his wrist! That money could have saved him ten times over!

I was shaking so hard my teeth were clicking. I bit my lip until I felt the hot burst of blood.

"Do you have any idea," I hissed, my voice a ghostly rasp, "that playing with people like this... people die?"

Roxy waved a hand dismissively.

"If theyre too weak to handle it, thats not on me."

"I actually went to the hospital myself to make sure that donation didn't reach him. I needed a new phone and some boots, so I pocketed the 'petty cash' they had on hand and left the kid two hundred bucks."

She laughed, looking out the window. "I bet the sister thought he saved it up himself. It was probably 'escort' money from some nurse, for all I know."

Then she turned to me, her eyes bright, waiting for me to join in on the joke.

She didn't see a driver. She saw a mirror for her own cruelty.

But she found herself staring into the bloodshot eyes of a woman who wanted her dead.

4.

The rage was a tidal wave, drowning out every sense of law, reason, or survival.

In that moment, Margot the wife died.

There was only a monster left.

"Want to know a secret?" Roxy asked, her voice light with a sense of total victory.

"Everetts been desperate for an heir. Ive made sure that never happens. Every time his wife got pregnant, I bribed the ultrasound tech."

"We told her the baby had 'genetic defects.' Made her terminate."

She tapped her chin, counting.

"Three, I think. Three little 'mistakes' gone."

She looked at me with a sickening confidence.

"Now that shes 'barren' from the trauma, I just have to get pregnant myself. The 'Wife' title will be mine by Christmas."

"And if she won't sign the papers? I'll let her stay. She can raise my kids while she scrubs my floors. Shes already used to being a doormat."

I stared at her pretty, hateful face.

Every moment of the last five yearsthe hunger, the pain, the loss of my childrenit wasn't bad luck. It was a screenplay written by her and directed by him.

"You animal," I whispered.

I lunged.

I reached back and grabbed Roxy by her hair, slamming her head against the partition. I took my seatbelt and looped it around her throat, pulling with every ounce of strength I had left.

I screameda primal, guttural soundas I began to rain blows down on her face.

Roxys nose shattered. Blood sprayed across the back of the car.

"You soulless bitch!" I roared. "Why wasn't it you? Why are you still breathing?"

She was dazed, thrashing like a landed fish. "You... you're dead! Everett will kill you! Hell kill your whole family!"

She spat out a piece of a broken tooth, still trying to look down at me.

"I did her a favor! I got rid of her brat brother! I saved her from having kids she couldn't afford! She should be thanking me on her knees!"

I was seeing red. Pure, literal red.

I grabbed the glowing, red-hot cigarette lighter from the dash and jammed it into her eye.

A scream ripped through the cara sound like a dying animal.

"Im going to make you pay in blood!"

Roxy convulsed, blood and fluid streaming down her face. "Help! Murder! Someone help me!"

The car swerved violently as she kicked at my seat, but I didn't care. I let go of the steering wheel entirely, keeping the belt tight around her neck.

I floored the accelerator.

"My three children! My brother! My life!" I screamed.

"Youre going to burn for all of it!"

The car shot forward like a bullet, hurtling toward the guardrail of the bridge, sixty feet above the black, icy waters of the river.

5.

"No! Stop! Don't kill me!"

"Ill give you money! Millions! Just stop!" Roxy shrieked, her voice thin with the sudden, cold realization of her own mortality.

I closed my eyes. I unbuckled my own seatbelt.

Lets end this together.

Once we hit that rail, once we fell into the abyss, the pain would finally stop.

Jamie, Im coming. Im bringing your murderer with me.

Im sorry, Jamie. Im sorry I was too blind to protect you.

The wind roared past the windows. The engine screamed.

But the impact never came.

Just as the car was about to shatter the guardrail, a heavy black SUV roared out from a side street, T-boning us at full speed.

The force of the collision sent my head through the windshield.

The world went white. Then red.

I was dragged from the wreckage like a piece of roadkill. I hit the wet pavement, my vision swimming.

Through the haze, I saw Roxy being helped up by several large men in suits. She was alive.

She walked over to me, her face a mask of gore and hatred.

"You thought you were so tough, didn't you?" she spat, clutching a piece of jagged glass from the broken window.

"Im going to take my time with you. Im going to make you beg for the 'mercy' of a bullet."

She drove the glass into my palm.

I screamed, the pain lancing through my arm, as she laughed, a high, broken sound.

She raised the glass again, aiming for my throat.

"STOP!"

A voice like a thunderclap echoed across the bridge.

Footsteps. Familiar, expensive shoes clicking on the asphalt.

Everettno, Jacksonstormed into view, his face contorted with fury. "Who touches whats mine?" he roared.

I looked up, my face a mess of blood and glass. He didn't recognize me. Not like this. Not in these clothes, covered in the filth of the road.

"Jackson..." I whispered.

I had loved this man for five years. I had sacrificed my body and my soul for him.

He didn't even look at me. He ran straight to Roxy.

"Roxy, baby, are you okay?"

He gathered her into his arms, stroking her hair as if she were a piece of fine porcelain. The tenderness in his eyes made me want to vomit.

Roxy leaned into him, sobbing theatrically. "Jackson, this psycho... she blinded me! She tried to kill us both! You have to do something!"

"If she stays alive, I can't live like this, Jackson! I'm scared!"

Jacksons gaze shifted to me. It was the coldest thing I had ever seen.

He walked over and ground his heel into my head, pressing my face into a freezing puddle.

I choked, spitting out mouthfuls of dirty water and blood.

"Roxy is my woman!" he hissed. "You touch her, you pay a hundredfold."

He waved a hand to his guards.

Two men stepped forward and began to crush my hands under their boots.

"Jackson, look at me..." I wheezed.

But my voice was drowned out by Roxys screech.

"Look at her! Still trying to beg for her life! Shes pathetic! Break her, Jackson! Do it for me!"

Jackson nodded, his expression one of pure disgust. "You made a mistake, driver. Now you live with the consequences."

"Break her limbs. Then bring her to the basement. Roxy can finish her there."

A guard raised a steel pipe, aiming for my arm.

I found one last spark of strength. I threw the guard off me and sat up, wiping the blood from my eyes with a trembling hand.

I looked Jackson dead in the eye.

His pupils dilated. The color drained from his face until he was as white as a sheet.

"Mr. Billionaire," I rasped, a bloody grin splitting my face.

"Whose limbs were you planning on breaking?"