After My Father's Death, I Left My Billionaire Husband

The office was spotless. Not a single trace of a woman's presence anywhere. But his desk, his bookshelves, were covered in photographs of me. Every stage of my life, framed and displayed. Jesse settled me onto the couch, his voice so soft it practically dripped honey. "Lucretia, trust me. Once this project wraps up, I'll fly in the best specialists from overseas to operate on your dad." He picked up the office phone. "I'll have my secretary pull the security footage right now. That lipstick mark was from a colleague who bumped into me during a meeting today. It was an accident." I reached over and pressed the phone down. "Don't bother." The tension drained from Jesse's body all at once. I stood and walked toward the small rest room attached to his office. "You should stay too. Keep everyone company. It's a critical phase. They need their leader here." Jesse lit up, agreeing over and over, practically tripping over his own words. I lay down on the bed in the rest room. Through the door, I could just make out the secretary's lowered voice. "Mr. Gilbert, I think your wife has calmed down." Calmed down? I closed my eyes. No. I just didn't care anymore. I lay on that bed all night without sleeping. Jesse probably assumed I wouldn't remember. But Edith Walker's signature lipstick shade, the one she always wore back then, was the exact crimson smeared across his collar yesterday. Early the next morning, before the sun was up, Jesse came back. Dark circles bruised the skin beneath his eyes. He still smelled faintly of cigarettes. But in his hand was a bag from my favorite breakfast place. "Lucretia, I have an investor roadshow this morning. Eat while it's hot." He opened the container carefully, picked up a dumpling, blew on it again and again, and held it to my lips. I opened my mouth. Chewed mechanically. Swallowed. When he saw me eat, a tired but satisfied smile spread across his face. "Wait for me." He leaned in to kiss me. I turned my head without thinking. His lips froze in midair. The light in his eyes went out. In the end, he only stroked my hair, then turned and walked out. I went to the hospital. Dad looked much better. He was doing his rehab exercises with the help of an aide. His face brightened when he saw me. He grabbed my hand and asked why Jesse hadn't come along. I peeled an apple for him, the blade whispering against the skin in long, curling strips. "Dad, I want to divorce Jesse." The therapy ball slipped from his fingers and bounced across the floor. He stared at me, his clouded eyes wide with shock. "What happened? Has Jesse been treating you badly?" I shook my head. For a moment, the words wouldn't come. Everyone said Jesse loved me to the bone. That he'd burned through his fortune and moved heaven and earth to save me. For five years, he'd coddled me until I was practically helpless. But only I knew how tight the wire inside me had been pulled, every single day. I was always wondering whether the things Jesse said were real or just another performance. I was done living like that. After I got Dad settled, I stepped out of his room. The moment I turned the corner, I spotted a familiar figure walking a woman into the obstetrics department. Michael James. Jesse's closest friend. And the woman was Edith Walker. My feet carried me after them before my mind caught up. Through the closed door, I heard Michael's voice, easy and familiar. "Don't worry, Edith." "Three million dollars this time, and they brought in the best doctor from overseas. It's going to work." Edith sighed, a thread of exhaustion woven through her words. "This is the tenth time in five years. I just hope it finally takes."

Three million dollars. My father's surgery money. Michael turned and saw me standing in the doorway. The color drained from his face. He rushed over, grabbed my arm, his voice frantic. "Lucretia, no, it's not what it looks like!" I ignored him and reached for the thick stack of medical records in his hand. Michael looked like he was about to cry. He wanted to snatch them back but didn't dare. I turned the pages one by one. The date of Edith Walker's first embryo transfer was printed there in black and white. Five years ago today. The same day I received my third critical condition notice in the ICU. So while Jesse had been sobbing outside the operating room, begging doctors to save me, he'd also been calmly arranging for another woman to carry his child. The sheer absurdity of it washed over me like a wave. I closed my eyes, handed the records back to Michael, and walked away. Michael chased after me and blocked my path. His face was flushed red as he scrambled to explain. "Lucretia, listen to me! Back then, what that professor did to you damaged your uterus. The doctors said you'd never be able to have children!" "Jesse was afraid it would break you, and even more afraid his family would pressure you over it. So he told everyone the problem was his!" "But his mother's dying wish was to hold a grandchild! He didn't have a choice!" Michael's voice cracked. He raised his hand and swore to me with every ounce of conviction he had. "I promise you, there is nothing between Jesse and Edith. Nothing physical ever crossed the line!" "He has always been faithful to you!" Faithful. The word turned my stomach. That kind of faithfulness, I didn't want any part of. I pushed past Michael and went home. Every corner was saturated with Jesse's presence. And with his lies. I opened the closet and started packing. At the very bottom, my fingers brushed against a box. Inside was a white dress shirt, stiff with dark, rust-colored bloodstains. Jesse's. Five years ago, that monster of a professor had cornered me in his office. Jesse burst in like a man possessed. He beat the professor until bones cracked, and took five knife wounds himself. He nearly died. I'd kept this shirt all these years, a reminder that he had once loved me enough to die for me. Now it just looked like a joke. My phone rang, cutting through the silence. Jesse. His voice was brimming with excitement. "Lucretia! The investor roadshow was a massive success! We landed the biggest deal yet!" "I'm reaching out to specialists overseas right away. Your dad's surgery is going to happen!" I listened to the triumph pouring through the speaker and let out a quiet, bitter laugh. Then I hung up without saying a word. The phone slipped from my hand. The screen stayed lit, and a livestream notification popped up. The profile picture showed a woman's side profile. I would have recognized that face anywhere. Edith Walker. Something compelled me to tap on it. The account was called "Edith & A's Secret Garden." Five years of hidden love between her and a man, documented for the world to see. No faces shown directly, but the details were everywhere. In one photo, the watch on the man's wrist was the anniversary gift I'd given Jesse. In one video, the man's low, quiet laugh was the same one I'd fallen asleep to for five years. Hundreds of thousands of followers flooded the comments, gushing about their fairy-tale romance. So a man who spent nearly every waking hour by my side had still found the time to build another love story, one blessed and celebrated by strangers. I was about to swipe away when Edith's voice drifted out from the livestream.

"I saw this news story recently about a college girl who got harassed by a professor, and it reminded me of what happened at our school back in the day." My fingertips went rigid. "Come to think of it, that older student was pretty pathetic too. I heard she tried to seduce a professor just for five hundred dollars in living expenses." "Ended up getting used and thrown away. Destroyed her uterus. Can never have children." "But honestly, she had it coming. A woman that loose? What kind of ending did she expect?" She stroked her belly, her smile equal parts tender and cruel. "If I have a son, I'll make sure to teach him to protect himself so he doesn't get trapped by women like that." "And if it's a daughter, she definitely wouldn't stoop to something so shameless." Something inside my skull snapped clean in half. Jesse hadn't just told her. He'd let her twist it into this filthy version and parade my scars as entertainment in front of hundreds of thousands of viewers. I was shaking so hard I could barely type, but I poured every ounce of strength I had left into one comment. "You're the shameless homewrecker here!" The next second, I was blocked and muted. Then the flood came. Calls and texts from countless unknown numbers, all at once. "You seduced a professor, you slut, and you have the nerve to talk?" "A woman like you can't have kids? That's karma!" "Go die! Stop contaminating the air!" The venom swallowed me whole. I couldn't hold on anymore. I hurled my phone at the wall, slid down to the floor, and sobbed until I couldn't breathe. Jesse didn't know. That professor never succeeded. I had gone to beg that animal to sign a pardon letter so Jesse could keep his degree. And that sick old man had brutalized me until the damage was permanent. I traded half my life for his bright future. And he turned it into pillow talk with another woman. I braced myself against the wall, found the backup phone in the house, and sent Jesse one message. "I know about you and Edith. Let's get a divorce." Less than three minutes after I hit send, the front door was kicked open. Jesse stood in front of me, his face dark with fury. "Lucretia Chavez, how could you be so shameless? Going behind my back to feed lies to Edith's parents?" He threw me so hard my vision blurred and my ears rang. I couldn't even process what he was saying. "Edith? What happened to her parents?" Jesse drove his knee into my chest, pressing down with enough force to splinter ribs. "Keep pretending! Go on!" "Edith's parents saw the messages calling her a homewrecker. Her father had a heart attack and is in the ICU." "Who else would do something like that if not you?" Cold sweat streamed down my face. I clung to his wrist with everything I had, shaking my head desperately. "I only found out about you and her today. I don't even know where her parents live. How could I have reported anything?" Jesse's grip loosened. Something lost and blank flickered through his eyes. Then his phone started buzzing violently. It was Michael. "Jesse, it's bad! Edith's gone! After those people in the livestream called her a homewrecker, she turned off her phone. Her location's dead. No one can reach her!" The color drained from Jesse's face. He walked toward me, step by step, and the look in his eyes was the kind of unhinged that made your blood run cold. "Lucretia. Where are you hiding her?" "I'm not! I have no idea where she is!" The whip cut through the air and cracked across my back. "Talk! Did you lure her out?" I screamed. I begged. But every word I said, he took as another lie. Jesse wore himself out. He dropped the whip, panting, and pulled his phone from his pocket. On the screen were the photos that animal of a professor had taken of me all those years ago. Jesse stared at me, his expression dark. "If you don't tell me where Edith is, I'll send these to your father. Let him see what a fine daughter he raised. Let him see how filthy she really was." Every drop of blood in my body went cold. My heart seized like a fist had closed around it. "Don't... Jesse, please, don't send them..." My father's health was so fragile. A shock like that could kill him. I lunged for the phone like a woman possessed. In the struggle, I saw Jesse's thumb hit send. Jesse froze too. He stared at the screen. Delivered. The color drained from his face. He scrambled to recall the message, to delete it, fumbling so badly he could barely dial his assistant's number. "Go! Get to the hospital! Take the phone from Lucretia's father! NOW!" That was when Michael burst through the door. "Jesse! Found her! Edith bought a plane ticket overseas. She went on vacation. Her phone had no signal before, she just turned it back on!" Dead silence. Jesse stood rigid. The phone slipped from his hand and hit the floor with a crack. He looked at me. Panic and regret tangled behind his eyes. He scrambled toward me on his knees, trying to undo the chain, trying to wrap a towel around me. "Lucretia, Lucretia, listen to me. He didn't see it. I sent someone to grab the phone. They'll get there in time..." "Don't be scared. As long as he didn't see it, nothing will happen. Right?" He babbled at me, incoherent, like a child who knew he'd done something unforgivable. Then his phone rang again. "Hello? Is this the family of Percy Chavez? You need to get here now! The patient... the patient was holding his phone when he jumped off the roof!"