I Hired My Husband's Mistress

The day I broke up with my boyfriend, I was sitting in my husband’s car when I watched him buy a box of bandages for his mistress. Gavin Hart had always said he didn’t believe in love. What he wanted was novelty. The rush of something new. I laughed when I heard that. Funny. I didn’t want love either. I wanted his money. His power. And the life that came with his name. Marriage is never just about two people. I thought my affair was the betrayal that would destroy everything. Later, I realized it was the least important secret in our marriage. Chapter 1 My tears had barely dried, but I was already wearing a flawless smile. A few hours earlier, I had broken up with my secret boyfriend. Now he was just my ex. He said we weren’t right for each other. He said he was tired. I understood perfectly. “We’re not right for each other” and “I’m tired” were just softer ways of saying, “You don’t have money,” and, “You’re not good enough for me.” The funny part was, before I had even recovered from the sting of being dumped, I had to sit in Gavin Hart’s car and play the role of his perfect wife. Outside the window, the city was coming alive under the evening lights. Inside the car, it was silent. Gavin was focused on his phone, his long fingers gliding across the screen as if he were reviewing a multimillion-dollar contract instead of sitting beside a wife who had just had her heart broken. I stole a glance at him. His profile was still perfect. Cool. Precise. Untouchable. To him, I was probably nothing more than a decoration in one of his mansions. Something that looked good in the right setting. Then his phone rang. The sound cut through the silence. Gavin glanced at the caller ID, and the faintest trace of warmth softened his cold expression. It was not for me. My heart went cold. He answered the call, lowering his voice into a gentle murmur. “Hey. Don’t fuss. I’m on my way.” I knew that tenderness was not meant for me. The way he spoke to her was nothing like the cold, commanding tone he used with me. He ended the call and turned to me. “We’re going to the hospital. Nora got hurt.” For a second, my mind went blank. Then humiliation washed over me. He was not asking. He was informing me. He wanted me, his wife, to go with him to visit his mistress. The insult made my whole body go cold. I stared at the blurred city lights outside the window, my stomach twisting as though I might throw up every grievance I had swallowed over the years. But in the end, I only said quietly, “Okay.” At the emergency room, Nora Quinn had a cartoon Band-Aid wrapped around one finger. The swelling was so slight it barely looked worse than a mosquito bite. Yet she was curled against Gavin’s chest, eyes shining with tears, looking heartbreakingly fragile. Gavin held her hand with ridiculous care, soothing her over and over. “Does it hurt? I’m sorry. I should’ve taken better care of you.” He sounded like he was comforting a child who had gotten hurt at preschool. I stood a few steps away and watched the entire performance. Strangely, I felt calm. I almost wanted to laugh. Nora wanted attention. And I was just there to watch her get it. When she saw me, a flash of triumph crossed her eyes before she quickly hid it beneath a watery gaze. She slipped out of Gavin’s arms and gave me a small, timid bow. “Mrs. Hart, I’m so sorry you and Mr. Hart had to come all the way here so late.” Her voice was sweet enough to make my teeth ache, but there was confidence beneath it. A challenge. I did not answer. I only gave her a brief, indifferent look. To me, Nora was not a rival. She was simply someone who had mistaken temporary attention for victory. Chapter 2 She thought she had Gavin’s heart. What she did not understand was that men like Gavin never paid for emotion. They only invested where they saw value. So Nora’s little performance did not make me jealous. It only bored me. On the drive back, Gavin finally spoke. His voice was casual, almost careless. “So? Nora’s been good, hasn’t she?” I said nothing. I waited for him to continue. He did. “I don’t need love. I need novelty. She’s young. As long as she listens and doesn’t make trouble, that’s enough.” He laid out his rules for relationships as if he were discussing an investment portfolio. To Gavin, I was not a wife. I was a business partner who occupied an important position. And one who could be replaced at any time. Nora, on the other hand, was just a passing indulgence. I leaned against the cold window, and the last of my hope finally disappeared. This marriage. This life. It was even harder to bear than I had imagined. By the time we arrived at my parents’ house, my mother’s birthday dinner had already started. The dining table was covered with dishes she had spent all day preparing, but without one of the people she had been waiting for, the room felt strangely subdued. The moment Gavin walked through the door, the careless air he had carried at the hospital vanished. He put on the perfect expression instead. Polite. Humble. Charming. A faint floral perfume clung to him. It was subtle, but I caught it immediately. He walked over to my parents, greeted them warmly, and handed my mother the gift he had prepared. The wrapping was elegant. The price tag was obvious. Just like the flawless image he always showed the world. When my father saw Gavin, his tired face immediately broke into a smile. “It’s good you made it,” he said. “You work so hard, but you still have to take care of yourself.” He pulled out a chair for Gavin, poured him a drink, and fussed over him with an eagerness that was impossible to miss. My family was not poor. But next to the Hart Group, we were still the smaller party. For years, my father had walked carefully around Gavin, afraid of saying the wrong thing or displeasing him. Every time I saw my father force a smile in front of Gavin, something inside me twisted. Tonight, that feeling was worse than ever. It felt like something was lodged in my throat. And suddenly, I understood. Gavin was not only my husband. He was also the person with the power to decide how far my family could go. Throughout dinner, Gavin sat in the seat of honor, but his mind was nowhere in the room. His phone kept vibrating. Each time, he picked it up immediately, his fingers flying over the screen as he typed. Every now and then, he gave my parents a distracted reply, but his eyes never settled. To him, this family dinner was just another obligation he had to make a brief appearance at. He did not notice my mother’s expression shift from hopeful to disappointed. He did not notice my father’s smile slowly stiffen. He ignored all of us and disappeared into his phone. The delayed birthday dinner ended with the pale glow of Gavin’s screen and the quiet understanding between my parents and me. Late that night, Gavin shut himself in his study, claiming he had work to do. After washing up, I lay down on the cold bed and tried to push every absurd thing that had happened that day out of my head. Then my phone lit up. A text from an unknown number shattered the fragile calm. I almost ignored it. But something made me open it. “I’m sorry, Lily. Gavin found me. He paid me to leave you.” The two short sentences hit me like a blow. Chapter 3 I sat straight up in bed, my heart pounding. It felt as though someone had ripped away the thin layer covering my world and exposed the brutal truth underneath. My supposedly secret relationship had never been secret at all. Gavin had known from the beginning. He knew about every date. Every time I fell for my ex a little more. He even knew exactly how humiliated and heartbroken I had been when it ended. He had watched from the sidelines, letting me play out the entire ridiculous drama. Then, at the critical moment, he had lifted one finger and made it all collapse. A wave of nausea rolled through me. Not from the cold. From the realization that he had been playing me all along. My secrets. My feelings. The most private parts of my life. He had watched them, controlled them, and twisted them however he pleased. That was more frightening than him openly keeping a mistress. More frightening than the way he had dismissed my parents at dinner. He did not just want to destroy our marriage. He wanted to break me down until I had no strength left to fight him. In that moment, I finally woke up. I was no longer the Lily Winters who swallowed every insult in her marriage and begged for scraps of love. I stared at my reflection in the mirror. My face was pale, but my eyes were burning. Then, slowly, they turned cold. This had never been a simple affair or a messy marriage. It was a trap Gavin had carefully built around me and my family. And starting tonight, I was done letting him pull the strings. I got out of bed, walked to the study, and pushed the door open without hesitation. Gavin was leaning back in his executive chair, rolling a fountain pen between his fingers. When he saw me, a mocking smile curved his lips. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Your little secret romance fell apart, and now Miss Winters has finally come looking to her husband for comfort?” There was no effort to hide the ridicule in his voice. Or the satisfaction. He knew I had seen the text. He wanted to see me embarrassed. Helpless. Broken. But strangely, I felt calmer than ever. At last, the man in front of me had dropped every mask. I walked up to him and met his eyes. “What’s wrong, Mr. Hart?” I said coolly. “Tired of your mistresses already, so now you’re looking for trouble with your wife?” I gave a faint laugh. “Or is my affair just not elegant enough for you? In a miserable marriage, finding someone to lean on is a pretty normal response, isn’t it?” The second I finished speaking, Gavin’s expression darkened. The pen in his hand creaked under the force of his grip. He clearly had not expected me to talk back. He rose from his chair and walked toward me, his tall frame carrying an unmistakable threat. “Lily, don’t think your little games can stay hidden from me,” he said. “Your father’s company, your entire family, are in the palm of my hand. I can wipe them out overnight.” He paused, his voice cold and final. “I’m giving you two choices.” “Be a good Mrs. Hart. Keep up appearances, and your family can keep living comfortably.” “Or make a scene. Then your family goes under, and you lose everything along with them.” He was using the one thing I cared about most to force me back under his control. But he had made one mistake. He had underestimated how far I was willing to go. My mind began moving quickly, weighing every possibility. My family was my weakness. But Gavin had weaknesses too. I looked at his arrogant, untouchable face. And somewhere deep inside me, a cold thought took shape. I would not fight back just to get revenge. I would fight back to take back everything that belonged to me. Gavin Hart thought I was prey. I would show him who the real hunter was.