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The CEO Husband Seeks Power, Not Love
NovelShort
Hoàn thành
Everyone in the kept-man circle knew one rule. No matter the temptation, a married woman was never to be touched But my wife was the only exception. She had big breasts, slim waist, fair skin and I, h...
Chương (5)
第1章
Everyone in the kept-man circle knew one rule. No matter the temptation, a married woman was never to be touched
But my wife was the only exception.
She had big breasts, slim waist, fair skin and I, her husband, was very weak and easy to bully.
Anyone could touch her right in front of me and I would not dare say anything.
“I heard Mr. Griffin used to be very controlling. When Miss Sloane hired a male secretary, he even caused trouble all the way to the Sloane Family elders.”
“That was because Miss Sloane spoiled him too much. Later, she stopped caring. Look at him. He became so obedient, just like a servant.”
When my friends saw me being talked about like this by those kept men, they were furious.
They wanted to drag me away and force me to divorce Esme Sloane.
I quickly stopped them and said, “First, she did not know that I had already arranged for her to undergo sterilization surgery. She could not have an illegitimate child to compete with my son for the inheritance. Second, she spent money freely and lived wildly, so the real power of the Sloane Family would eventually fall into my hands. Finally, she indulged herself every day and shortened her own life. I should be thanking her—why would I get a divorce?”
——
My friends left, feeling satisfied.
As soon as I got home, the person sitting on the living room sofa made me freeze.
The man on Esme’s body seemed startled when he saw me. He suddenly stopped and shrank back.
Esme stared at me and let me watch as she placed a kiss on the man’s lips.
“It’s fine,” she said. “He wouldn’t dare do anything.”
The man gently put a hand on her waist, his face full of innocence.
“I’m sorry… I didn’t know you had a husband.”
“Really?” I sneered.
It was the first time I spoke up when Esme cheated. Not because I felt heartbroken. I was just surprised.
It was fine if other people did not know I had a wife. But there was no way this boy did not know.
Back in the orphanage, he had looked at me with firm eyes and said he wanted to become a strong, upright man.
I took him away. I contacted friends and sent him abroad to study medicine. He grew up exactly according to the path I planned.
When he heard about Esme’s cheating before, he had been full of anger.
He had even spat at Esme’s photo.
I did not care who was with Esme. But when it was Tyson Japper, I could not accept it.
Had he not said he wanted to become a strong, upright man?
“But I heard Mr. Griffin was famous for being very controlling,” he said. “I was afraid he would…”
Tyson could not finish his sentence.
Esme stood up and stepped between him and me.
“I was the one who led him on,” she said. “If there’s a problem, come to me.”
My gaze paused for a moment on the man behind her.
I sighed.
Then I turned and went into the bedroom.
After closing the door, I heard her gentle, coaxing voice outside.
“Alright, don’t worry. That ‘control freak’ reputation was from the past. He won’t do anything to you now.”
I leaned back by the window and let out a puff of smoke.
She was right. When I first got married, I was not like this.
If Esme dared to say even one extra word to someone shady, I would scare that person so badly that they would never dare approach her again.
Even when she only hired a male secretary, I caused trouble all the way up to the Sloane Family elders.
Her girlfriends once mocked her for marrying a control freak.
But she said that listening to her husband was a form of love
She said those women were just jealous because they did not have a husband.
She said she was willing to be controlled by me and no one was allowed to call me a control freak.
Under my supervision, her business grew bigger and bigger.
One day, without warning, she suddenly pushed me away—the one who had always stood between her and those ill-intentioned men.
“Are you done yet?” she snapped.
Only then did I realize that Esme was no longer the small business owner she used to be.
She was now Miss Sloane, a well-known female CEO.
She had her own authority now.
She no longer hid the kiss marks on her neck. And right in front of me, she dismissed the special assistant I had carefully chosen for her.
第2章
She replaced him with a male secretary she liked.
Over the years, men came and went by her side, one after another.
Those same girlfriends who used to call me a control freak now held her hand and laughed, saying, “This is how a woman should live!”
In the living room, the woman’s voice was a little too loud.
I had never known that Tyson was the kind of boy who would show off and provoke others.
I put on my headphones and said nothing.
After everything ended, Tyson knocked on my door, lipstick marks still on him.
“Davis, I want to… explain.”
“Oh, no need.”
I was about to leave when he hurriedly stopped me.
“I really did hate her before! But…”
He paused.
I stared at him.
As if he had made up his mind, he took a deep breath and said, “But one day, I realized that what I had risked half my life to get… I could get it just by sleeping with her. And that was exactly what you could not give me. I did say I wanted to be a strong, upright man, but my body was also my own resource. Why could I not use it?”
After saying that, he looked at me as if waiting for my reply.
But I did not answer. I only looked at him for a moment, nodded, walked past him and left.
“Davis!” His voice came from behind me. “Is it because you look down on me that you would not talk to me more?”
“You are overthinking it.” My tone was calm, without any emotion, just like the first time I saw Esme bring another man home.
I turned around quietly.
I chopped up the small wooden carving she made for me and burned it as firewood.
Then, when she was under anesthesia for a gastroscopy and colonoscopy, I told my people to damage her fallopian tubes as well.
Since I could not stop people from changing,
I at least had to protect the things that would not change.
Such as power.
Such as wealth.
Such as my son’s inheritance.
But this time, Esme went too far. She came to me and spoke seriously, “I’ve thought about it. Let’s give your acting CEO authority to Tyson.”
My hand paused while I was handling documents. “Him? A college graduate who just finished school not long ago?”
“I know he lacks experience,” she said. “That’s why you’ll stay by his side and guide him. If he doesn’t know something, teach him more. If he does something wrong, you’ll be there, so nothing will go wrong.”
I closed the folder. Only then did I understand what Tyson meant by “risking half his life” to get something.
Indeed, sleeping with Esme might really be enough to obtain the power in my hands.
That method might work Tyson.
But it did not work for me. Esme and I have been husband and wife for too many years.
That kind of transaction no longer held any weight.
The only card I still held was our shared past. So I began to use a man’s tears.
After all, many of those kept men had moved her this way.
But I could not cry at first. So I began to remember.
I remembered when I was fifteen, when my stepmother threw me out of the house and Esme held an umbrella over me.
I remembered the day my mother died, when my depression returned and she took care of me, washing me and helping me change clothes.
I remembered the nights when my stepmother refused to give me food, she hid hot roasted sweet potatoes against her chest and gave them to me.
Her skin blistered from the heat, all so I could eat something warm.
My tears suddenly dropped onto the table.
She froze.
I quickly wiped the corner of my eyes.
“Esme,” I said, “How did we end up like this?”
“Davis?” Esme stood up in surprise.
I wiped my eyes even more often.
“I thought we still had our past. As long as I did not make trouble, I thought I could at least stay with you until old age. But now that I see it, I overestimated myself after all.”
第3章
She stood there, frozen for a moment. Then she came forward and wiped away my tears.
“Just pretend I never said it.”
I had protected my power. But I was not happy for long.
On the third day, she rushed into my office, gripping my hand, her eyes red,
“Tyson ran away in anger. Davis, just pity me and give him the position!”
Tyson had run away from home. He did not answer calls, did not reply to messages and his location was inaccurate.
This kind of threat was nothing unusual. But when used by a pretty young boy, the success rate was usually quite high.
Sure enough, Esme had completely lost her head. She directly stripped me of my position as acting CEO.
This time, crying would not work for me because Tyson was crying even harder.
I crossed my legs and exhaled a puff of smoke.
But he did not know yet that Esme’s agreement did not mean the Sloane Family agreed.
Esme’s mother, Beatrice, made one phone call to Esme. That very night, thirty to forty members of the Sloane Family held a family meeting.
“If you dare let that man take charge of the Sloane Group, we dare make sure he dies without a burial!”
Esme was confused, but the Sloane Family was not.
They knew very well how Esme had changed from an ignorant street girl into a CEO under my supervision.
They also saw clearly how I stepped in to exercise her authority and managed the Sloane Family properly after her true nature was revealed.
Under the unquestionable decision of Beatrice, Esme knelt on the ground, her fists clenched so tightly they trembled.
She looked at me, who was kneeling beside her and gritted her teeth as she spat out in a low voice. “Bastard.”
Even though my heart had been dead for many years, hearing those words still surprised me for a moment.
If the fifteen-year-old me had known that Esme would one day call me this, he would never have believed it.
I stood up and walked outside. It was snowing.
As I passed by a roasted sweet potato stall, someone called out from behind me, “Davis!”
I stopped. Esme gritted her teeth, “I’m sorry…”
I did not look back and kept walking forward.
No matter how much Tyson won Esme’s favor, he had no ability to go against the entire Sloane Family.
So I firmly remained in the CEO position.
But Tyson was not the kind of person to give up easily.
Just because I left work a little late, he managed to intercept me and take the advantage. He pressed a handkerchief soaked in medicine over my mouth and nose.
A few men dragged me into the car.
In a daze, I could see Tyson driving while talking on the phone, “Yeah, ten more minutes to Paradise on Earth. Make sure those women are ready.”
After hanging up, he glanced at me through the rearview mirror, “Mr. Griffin, you rely on the Sloane Family to bully me, right? If they find out you’ve been messing around, will they still protect you? Even your son studying abroad …”
He suddenly laughed, “Probably going to have to do a paternity test!”
I didn’t even have the strength to grab my phone, lying in the backseat like a dead fish. I watched the navigation get closer and closer to Paradise on Earth.
My last hope was the emergency call. But my emergency contact was not Esme. She probably didn’t have time to care about me.
I pressed the emergency call button and completely passed out.
In a daze, I heard Tyson shout in surprise, “Who are you! Who allowed you to stop my car?”
“Damn it! How dare you hit me!”
When I opened my eyes again, I was already lying in the Sloane Family home.
My emergency contacts were Beatrice and her husband, Garreth.
第4章
I walked out of the room weakly. Downstairs, almost all the Sloane Family elders were present.
Tyson had been thrown in front of Beatrice, along with a dashcam recording.
“You even dared to do this to a member of the Sloane Family,” someone shouted. “Do you have a death wish?”
“No, no, that’s not it, I—” Tyson had never seen the authority of the Sloane Family before. Now, with so many people looking down at him, he could barely speak properly.
“No! Let go of me! Ah!”
Two bodyguards grabbed him from both sides and lifted him up.
He raised his head and saw me. “Davis! Save me! Davis!”
Just like countless times before, he thought of me when he was in danger. But he ignored the fact that this time, the danger was caused by himself.
I turned my head away.
“Davis!” He had never sounded so desperate.
Until the door was opened. Esme kicked aside Beatrice’s guards,
“Mom, if you want to touch him, you’ll have to go through me first.”
“Esme,” I said, looking down at her. “Do you know what he did to me?”
Esme looked at me. “Sorry, but… I’m pregnant.”
I froze.
“His.”
I was shocked.
Esme’s medical report was still in my drawer. Every time she went in for a check-up, the report would first pass through my hands.
Before it was given to her, my people would alter the reproductive system section to read “normal.” However, the last original report I received still showed damaged fallopian tubes.
If she were pregnant, it could only be a stillbirth.
Before I could speak, Beatrice and several others stopped the meeting. “We need to discuss this matter carefully.”
In fact, there was no need for them to hide away to discuss it at all. My people already knew exactly what they were talking about and I didn’t even need to listen to understand their concerns.
In the Sloane Family, I was an outsider holding absolute power. Of course, they had reservations.
They had looked down on Tyson before because he had challenged me, their stabilizing pillar.
But now Tyson had made Esme pregnant. He could now balance me. If it was a boy and one day I did not obey, they could easily let Tyson and his son take my place.
Having multiple levers over me was always better.
“Davis, we thought about it. The child is innocent and you have so much power that you can’t handle it all. Let’s give a little to Tyson,” Beatrice said.
Tyson’s eyes lit up.
I just shook my head with a smile. “What do you mean?”
Beatrice frowned. “You’re the son-in-law of the Sloane Family. Do you not even listen to us?”
“No,” I said. “I mean, if we are going to give it, give it all to Tyson.”
Now, even Tyson did not understand me. “I see that Esme really likes him. Since that’s the case, I shouldn’t ignore him either. From now on, let Tyson take full responsibility as acting CEO. I will step back behind the scenes.”
The Sloane Family’s eyes lit up. I turned and met Esme’s gaze. Her expression was complicated.
She stepped forward and held my hand tightly, “You’ve been wronged.”
‘Wronged? You’re the one carrying a nearly stillborn child—you’re the one wronged!’
I held back any reaction and said, “I told you before—if things stayed like this, maybe I could still stay by your side until old age.”
She held my hand even tighter.
Even the year my mother died, when she feared I might jump into the river, she had never held me this tightly.
Tyson got what he wanted. But I forgot this boy had a huge appetite.
Before Esme could say anything to me, he suddenly fell. How could I not see that he was pretending to be unconscious?
第5章
But I still nudged Esme toward him.
Tyson was sent to the hospital with great fanfare. It was clear that the Sloane Family took this “new son-in-law” very seriously. Everyone was there.
I also sat in the corridor waiting.
Esme came forward and the first words she said were to me, “Davis, Tyson…wants a title.”
I was stunned for a moment.
“I know this is unfair to you, but we haven’t had any children all these years. He’s the only man who made me pregnant, so he should get a little reward.”
She solemnly took my hand, “Don’t worry, we’re only doing a fake divorce. After the child is born, we’ll remarry.”
That was a lie.
I was no longer a child who could be fooled. But honestly, I never intended to keep this marriage.
Stepping back behind the scenes was just an excuse to calm the Sloane Family. What I truly wanted was to take all I had accumulated over the years and leave far away, leaving a stillborn child behind for the Sloane Family.
Esme and I got our divorce certificate in the morning.
In the afternoon, Tyson held a wedding with her and I was also among the guests.
The Sloane Family had originally feared I wouldn’t go. They did not expect me to accept happily.
This was the second time I saw Esme this drunk. The first time was at our own wedding.
She collapsed into her friends’ arms, just like when she married me, repeating over and over, “I like him, I really like him. I finally married him. Guys, do you know how happy I am?”
I stood opposite her with the flower on my chest, saying “groomsman.”
“Davis.” She staggered and grabbed my hand, placing it on her face.
It was burning hot.
“I’m drunk, Davis. Can you make me some hangover soup?”
Her friends handed her a whole bottle, already packaged. But she pushed it away,
“I want him to make it himself.”
During the most critical time in her career, she came home drunk every day. My good soups were all because she had trained me.
I poured a cup of plain hot water and handed it to her. “Esme, from now on… take care of yourself.”
She held the cup in a daze, her drunken eyes watching me walk away.
Her friends nudged her, “Hey, aren’t you going to chase him? After all, he’s your ex-husband.”
She smiled, “What ex-husband? Isn’t he my husband?”
I stood at the door and looked back.
She took a sip of water, her eyes full of confusion.
I slowly closed the door, holding a plane ticket for one hour later in my hand, along with proof that she was infertile.