Đang tải thông tin quảng bá...
The Captain's Revenge My Cheating Husband at 30,000 Feet
NovelShort
Hoàn thành
During my leave, I was called back on short notice to cover for a colleague who'd fallen suddenly ill, taking over a flight so fast I never even had the chance to tell my husband, who was away on a bu...
Chương (6)
第1章
During my leave, I was called back on short notice to cover for a colleague who'd fallen suddenly ill, taking over a flight so fast I never even had the chance to tell my husband, who was away on a business trip.
Mid-flight, an anxious man's voice broke out from first class.
"Captain, please divert immediately! My son has hereditary angioedema and he can't breathe! It runs in our family, it can kill him at any moment!"
My chest tightened.
My husband carried the same hereditary condition, so I knew exactly how dangerous this was. I handed the controls to my first officer, confirmed the situation, and went to first class myself.
The man was still going. "Captain, my wife is in poor health, this is our only child. If anything happens to him, this family is finished! Please, save my wife and my son!"
The voice was so familiar. Not long ago, my husband had begged a doctor to save our daughter in exactly that same voice, torn open with grief.
Feeling it as if it were my own, my steps quickened without thinking. "Purser, contact the ground medical center. I'll file the diversion—"
The voice cut off.
I saw the boy's father.
And in that moment I finally understood why his voice was so familiar.
Because he was the man I'd been married to for ten years.
Xavier Sawyer flinched too, so startled he forgot to let go of the woman in his arms.
I looked straight into his eyes.
"You skipped our daughter's funeral so you could travel with your mistress and your bastard son?"
...
Xavier's gaze slid away on instinct.
But the next second he turned smoothly to the woman beside him. "Careful, Secretary Swanson. Don't fall again."
As if all he'd done was steady her out of kindness.
He took a few steps toward me, putting the woman behind him, and asked in a gentle voice, "Mia, you had a flight assignment? Why didn't you tell me?"
I gave a cold laugh. "Didn't expect me to catch you in the act?"
He looked at me like he didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "What act? This is Dora Swanson. She's the widow of my old driver."
"The man gave his life to save me. I promised I'd look after his family, so I made Dora my secretary."
He reached for my hand. "It's hard for a single mother out on her own. Just now I was afraid your crew wouldn't take it seriously, so I said I was her husband on purpose. I was only helping. You're not going to be petty about it, are you?"
I pulled back from his touch and didn't answer him.
"Yesterday you told me you were going to Los Angeles for business. This afternoon you messaged me that you'd just arrived. And now here you are on a flight to Iceland."
"So it turns out my husband is Doraemon, with a door that takes him anywhere he likes."
Xavier's hand froze in midair, and for a moment he had nothing to say.
That was when Dora Swanson began to cry, soft and pitiful.
"Xavier— no, Mr. Sawyer! Please, save Felix Cross! If anything happens to him, I, I couldn't—"
And then her body swayed hard.
"Dora!" Xavier's face changed at once, and he rushed over and caught her in his arms.
He looked at me, pleading. "Mia, file the diversion first. Don't let our family business cost this child his life. You went through Nora's death. You of all people understand how Dora feels, don't you?"
"Shut up!" My voice shot up. "You still dare to bring up Nora!"
"You, her own father, didn't go to her funeral. Instead you were off playing with your mistress and your bastard. What right do you have to say her name?"
Xavier's eyes darkened, and his voice went cold. "Are you telling me you want Dora to suffer the same pain you did? To lose her child too?"
I curled my lips in contempt. "If you'd gone to your daughter's funeral, if the two of them hadn't gotten on this flight with you, none of this would be happening."
"Her pain isn't my doing. You brought it on yourselves!"
I hated the way Xavier twisted it back on me, but a captain's professionalism and my own decency still made me raise my hand to the radio.
Rage churned in Xavier's eyes, and then, all at once, he started to applaud.
"Everyone, take a good look. This is your so-called gold-standard captain!"
"A passenger's life is in danger, and instead of doing everything she can to save him, she sneers, spreads lies, stirs up trouble, and deliberately delays treatment! Does a woman like this even deserve to be a captain?"
Before the passengers around us could react, my radio came alive first.
"Captain Vance, your diversion request has been approved. Please prepare."
"Vance copies."
I answered even as I looked coldly at Xavier.
His expression shifted through shock, fury, and humiliation. "When did you—"
The purser couldn't hold back. "Captain Vance filed the diversion request the moment she understood the situation. She didn't hesitate for a single second!"
The whole of first class went silent.
Xavier's face turned ashen, completely robbed of words,
I didn't spare him another glance. I signaled the purser to calm the passengers, then turned and strode toward the cockpit.
第2章
“Amelia Vance!”
I hadn't gone more than a few steps when Xavier caught up.
I stopped and turned around.
The narrow, cramped passage held only the two of us.
The air was so heavy it was almost hard to breathe.
Xavier stared at me, his eyes dark.
“You said just now that Dora and I brought this on ourselves?”
“Let me throw that right back at you. Our marriage turning out like this—that's what you brought on yourself!”
For a moment I just stood there.
A few seconds ago, I'd actually thought he'd come after me to apologize.
I never imagined he'd come to twist the blame onto me instead.
Only then did I realize how laughable that hope had been.
He saw the shock and hurt on my face, and it didn't move him at all.
“The youngest captain the airline's ever had. You must be pretty proud of yourself.”
“You think you did that on your own? Let me tell you, it was the money I invested in your company!”
“I helped you reach your dream, and what did you do for me?”
“How many meals have you ever cooked for me? How many business dinners have you shown up to? Have you ever done a single thing to help my career?”
“Do you even remember you're my wife?”
It was like resentment he'd been storing up for a long time finally had somewhere to go, and the loathing in his eyes was something he couldn't hide.
“All the things a wife is supposed to do, the things you never did—Dora did them for me.”
“Even on business trips abroad, she worried I wouldn't take to the food, so she'd humble herself asking the hotel to lend her a kitchen and cook for me with her own hands.”
“Only beside her do I feel what a home is supposed to feel like!”
Every word was a needle, driven into my heart one after another.
The road to becoming a captain—yes, my family had given up a great deal for that dream.
But I never forgot that Xavier had a bad stomach, and every time I came back I fought through the jet lag and exhaustion to make him a bowl of chicken soup with my own hands.
When his investments failed, I emptied out every bit of my savings to cover the hole, and I applied for the maximum overtime the company allowed, all so I could earn a little more and help him get back on his feet.
And there was one thing I never told him.
I should have made captain long before he ever put money into the company.
But the day before my evaluation, his angioedema flared up. I stayed at the hospital and looked after him for a week without sleep, and I missed it.
I was afraid he'd blame himself, so I never brought it up—and I never imagined it would let him believe I'd only gotten here because of him.
He faulted me over and over for not washing his clothes, not cooking, not playing the social game for him.
And he was blind to everything I'd given to him and to this family.
He never once spared a thought for how much pressure and torment I carried, every single flight, with hundreds of lives resting on my shoulders.
My heart went cold, all the way through.
And still Xavier wasn't done.
“You're not just a failure as a wife, you're a failure as a mother too!”
“You saw how frantic Dora was over Felix just now. Doesn't it make you ashamed of yourself?”
“So I didn't go to Nora's funeral—but didn't you go straight back to work the second it was over? Did you feel any grief at all over Nora's death?”
“Deep down you think it's a good thing Nora died, don't you—finally rid of the dead weight that was dragging down your career!”
Crack!
I couldn't hold back a second longer, and my hand cracked across his face.
At our daughter's funeral, Xavier's absence as her father had put something strange into the way everyone looked at her portrait.
Yet he felt not the slightest shame. Instead he read the worst possible motive into me, using our daughter's death to excuse his own affair!
I stared at him, my eyes gone red.
Xavier worked his jaw and let out a sneer.
“Fine. You can't do wife, you can't do mother—surely you can at least do captain?”
“Divert like a good girl. Don't try anything. If one thing goes wrong with Felix, I'll make sure you never work in aviation again!”
“And those keepsakes of Nora's you treasure so much—I'll burn every last one of them!”
Every sentence tore another gash straight into my heart.
Looking at Xavier, for one instant I felt dazed.
Ten years of love, and only now was I finally seeing him clearly.
My dream and my child were nothing to him but bargaining chips, things to hold over me for the sake of his mistress and his illegitimate son.
I closed my eyes and pushed down the sting behind them.
“Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to that boy.”
“But that doesn't mean I'm answering for your affair.”
“I'll divert because it's a captain's duty—to see every passenger safely back to the ground.”
第3章
I didn't wait to see how he'd react. I walked straight to the intercom.
Behind me, Xavier stood there, unsettled, his throat working over and over.
I ignored him, announced the diversion plan, and went back to the cockpit.
I hadn't expected him to follow.
I blocked the cockpit door, ignoring the way his mouth kept opening as if he wanted to speak.
"Sir, please return to your seat right away."
He'd never seen me this cold. His pupils shrank, and he suddenly grabbed my arm.
"You're not going to drag out the landing just to get back at me, are you?"
Looking at the naked distrust in his eyes, I couldn't help but laugh.
"Ruin my career, for you?" I shook his hand off. "You're not worth it."
With that, I slipped into the cockpit.
But as I moved to shut the door, he jammed it hard.
"I don't trust you. What if you settle scores at everyone's expense? Swap her out! Let the first officer fly!"
The first officer stiffened, then said evenly, "Captain Vance is the best pilot at this airline. Her skill and professionalism are known by everyone."
"She's handled countless emergency diversions, including far worse conditions in bad weather, and she still has a spotless zero-incident record."
"If you keep this up, can you take responsibility for what happens?"
Xavier's face darkened until it looked ready to drip.
Of course he couldn't take responsibility.
His precious illegitimate son was in danger, and his beloved mistress was heartbroken.
Only I could save them.
He had no choice but to pull his hand back, seething, and watch the door close in front of his eyes.
Every bit of the noise was shut out.
I let out a slow breath.
The pain of losing my daughter, my husband's betrayal—all of it, every love and hatred, set aside for now.
In the pilot's seat, I was only the captain of this flight.
The one thing in my mind was getting every passenger safely on the ground.
Twenty minutes later, the plane touched down smoothly.
The instant I set the parking brake, my vision blurred.
The blows one after another and the high-intensity flying had drained me, body and mind.
But I couldn't let go yet.
I made my way to the cabin door and saw Xavier hurrying toward it.
He didn't spare me a single glance. He slammed into me, shoving me aside.
Before the dark took me, all I heard was his voice, thick with reassurance.
"Don't be scared, Dora. Felix is going to be fine."
Xavier stood in front of the cabin door. One second, two seconds.
The door still hadn't opened.
His brow drew tighter and tighter, and what little patience he had left burned away fast.
His voice shot up. "Amelia Vance! What kind of game are you playing now?"
Just then, the head flight attendant cried out.
"Captain Vance! Wake up! Are you all right?"
"She sat up all night at the wake yesterday without sleeping, got called back to work the moment the funeral ended, and then that whole thing happened. In just a few days, look how thin she's gotten!"
Xavier froze, and only then did he notice how gaunt my face had become.
His chest tightened without his meaning it to. "She... passed out?"
Dora tugged at his sleeve. "Xavier, Miss Vance looks really bad. She probably needs to go to the hospital. She... she wouldn't take Felix's ambulance, would she?"
"She wouldn't dare." Xavier's expression turned cold. "She was full of life a minute ago when I wanted her replaced, and now that she's seen the ambulance she's playing dead. You guessed it—that's exactly what she's after, the ambulance."
I opened my eyes slowly, straight into the contempt filling his.
"What? Not going to keep pretending?"
Whatever last trace of warmth was left in my heart went cold for good.
Bracing myself against the wall, I made it to the cabin door and used the last of my strength to turn the handle.
The door swung open with a boom. I stayed inside and didn't look at Xavier again.
After the ambulance left, the crew received notice that the flight couldn't take off because of the weather.
At the head flight attendant's insistence, I was taken to the hospital for an IV too.
On my way out, I passed the room next door and heard Dora's voice inside, tearful.
"Xavier, why isn't Felix waking up? I'm so scared..."
"I looked into it. This hospital isn't good at treating Felix's condition, but the one in the next city is, and it's closer to the airport too."
"Do you think Captain Vance picked a hospital that can't cure Felix on purpose, just to get back at us?"
第4章
Xavier softened his voice. "Silly girl, the hospital was arranged by the airline."
Dora only grew more anxious. "But I'm really so scared!"
"Miss Vance must hate me now. Why would she ever want to save my child?"
"Everyone at the airline knows her. Picking which hospital is just a word from her mouth..."
"Miss Swanson, spreading lies carries legal consequences."
I pushed the door open and looked straight at Dora, curled against Xavier's chest.
She fell silent at once and quickly buried her face into him.
Seeing her frightened, cowering, Xavier's urge to protect her surged to its peak.
"Don't be afraid. I'm here."
He turned to me, his eyes full of scrutiny.
"What did you come here for?"
"Or is it that you really do have some shady connection with this hospital?"
My voice didn't waver. "My only job is to report a passenger's condition. I know nothing about the treatment arrangements."
"Every call during the flight is recorded. Check them all you like. My conscience is clear."
My firmness lit his temper in an instant.
"You make it sound so nice. Felix is still so small. He's been unconscious this long. If there are lasting effects, can you take responsibility for that?"
A boundless exhaustion swept over me. I sighed.
"If you don't trust this place, then transfer him yourselves."
I turned to go, and Dora suddenly rushed over, dropping to her knees and wrapping her arms around my legs.
"Miss Vance! I know you hate me, but Felix is innocent. I'm begging you, let him go!"
"Didn't you just lose your own child? Just give Felix a way to live, and from now on he'll be your child! I promise we'll never appear in front of you again!"
I frowned and tried hard to pull free of her. "There's no need. Let go of me first—"
"Ah!"
Before I could finish, Dora suddenly screamed and dropped to the floor, clutching her ribs.
"Dora!" Xavier's pupils shrank, and he strode to her side.
"Amelia Vance, you dare to hurt Dora right in front of me!"
"I didn't—"
"Xavier, it's all right, I'm fine." Dora spoke almost at the same time as me.
She drew thin, ragged breaths. "As long as Miss Vance is willing to let Felix go, a few kicks are nothing..."
Xavier's eyes on me were cold as ice.
He stood, and raised his hand high.
"Amelia Vance, how can you be this vicious!"
Crack!
After the sharp sound, the ward fell into dead silence.
Xavier stared at his own reddened palm, frozen for a moment.
Dora knelt back on the floor, her voice timid. "Miss Vance, don't blame Xavier. I'll apologize for him. It's all my fault, so hit me!"
The fury reignited in Xavier's eyes in an instant.
He grabbed me by the collar, his gaze sweeping over my cheek, already swollen high, as if it weren't there at all.
"That was only a warning. If you dare touch a single hair on her again, I'll make you pay a hundred times over!"
The burning sting on my face kept reminding me of what had just happened.
Xavier had hit me. For another woman.
Before, it would probably have felt like a knife twisting in my heart.
But now, my heart had long gone numb.
I pulled my collar out of his hand and straightened it.
Then I walked out of the ward without hesitation, without a shred of reluctance.
On the road back to the airport, I called my lawyer.
"Prepare the divorce paperwork for me. The party at fault is Xavier Sawyer. I'll send the evidence of his affair to your email later."
Dense drops of rain beat wildly against the car window. The heater was on inside, but it couldn't warm my frozen heart.
As I got out, my phone rang.
Holding my coat up against the rain, I fumbled to answer.
"Amelia Vance, you shameless bitch!"
I frowned. It was Xavier's mother.
"That useless little girl you gave birth to is dead, and now you can't stand to see my precious grandson do well! You black-hearted, rotten bitch, you deserved to give birth to a short-lived brat!"
"Don't think no one can see through your filthy little scheme! Dora told me everything. You deliberately arranged some garbage hospital, trying to kill my grandson!"
第5章
"Let me make this clear. Everything the Sawyers own goes to Felix. You won't see a cent of it!"
"If you know your place, this family might still put food in front of you. But if you dare pull another one of these schemes to grab money and kill for it, I'll have my son divorce you!"
Threats, insults. Every ugly thing she could think of came pouring out of her mouth, no two the same.
The pouring rain soaked me through, chilling me to the bone, and still it was nothing beside the cold sitting in my chest.
The "useless girl" she spoke of was the one who sat at her bedside when she broke a bone, massaging her, wiping her down.
The one she called a "money-grabbing killer" was the one who once emptied her savings so the Sawyer family could be what it is today.
None of it, none of the real things I'd given, could close the gap in her heart between a granddaughter and a grandson.
"Mom," I cut her off, my voice calm and steady. "This is the last time I'll ever call you that."
"As a captain, I did everything I was supposed to do. All of it legal, all of it by the book."
"Xavier and the rest of them knew that child was sick, and they didn't even keep his emergency medication on hand. That's negligence on the part of his guardians."
"You've got time to interrogate me. You'd do better to teach your son how to be a decent father."
Then I hung up and blocked her, all in one motion.
We were never going to speak again anyway.
The next morning I woke with a fever, both cheeks flushed red.
I took some medicine, and two messages came in on my phone.
One was the divorce paperwork from the lawyer. The other was the notice that flights had resumed.
I printed out the documents and signed the divorce agreement.
I couldn't fly with a fever, so I planned to check in at the airport, then go to the hospital to find Xavier.
When I got to the airport, I saw a crowd off in the distance with the Chief Pilot and Xavier at its center.
"Amelia Vance is here!"
Someone shouted it, and in an instant every camera and microphone the media had swung toward me.
"Captain Vance, we've heard you landed here on purpose to delay the patient's treatment. Is that true?"
"People online say you're taking your grief over your daughter out on the world, that you tried to kill your passengers. What's your response?"
"An inside source says you failed your evaluations and only became a captain through a sponsor. What's your relationship with that sponsor?"
The questions came at me one after another, and I stood there with no idea where to begin.
"Everyone!" the Chief Pilot said, raising his voice. "This diversion was fully legal and by the book. We're willing to release our internal files and open ourselves to public scrutiny!"
Xavier scoffed. "You're all in this together. Why should anyone believe you?"
His cold, cruel gaze settled on me.
"Amelia Vance used her position for a personal vendetta and delayed my son's treatment! Yesterday she even went to the hospital and threatened my wife, forced her to her knees, scared her so badly she's sick now!"
His finger was nearly jabbing into my face.
"After everything she's done, and she's still standing there glowing with health. It's absolutely disgusting!"
"How is someone like this fit to be a captain? How could anyone put a whole plane full of lives in her hands?"
"I wanted to take this all the way. But my wife is too kind. She said if Amelia Vance kneels and apologizes in front of the media, she'll let the whole thing go!"
I watched his high-minded performance with cold eyes, and it struck me as nothing but absurd.
I was running a fever, and to him it was a face glowing with health.
I had done my duty as a captain and saved his illegitimate son, and out of his mouth it became a personal vendetta.
While one of Dora Swanson's tears, one of her lies, was enough to send him charging in to frame and humiliate me, the wife he'd had for ten years.
My nails dug deep into my palms as I forced down the anger churning in my chest.
"Xavier, since when is Dora Swanson your wife? She's nothing but a little—"
"Shut up!"
Xavier roared it, and suddenly he rushed at me, eyes gone red.
A slap cracked through the air, sharp and loud.
Unlike the last time, when he'd lost control for a moment, this one carried all his strength.
I was knocked to the ground like a fallen leaf, and blood came up out of my mouth.
Still he wasn't finished.
"Amelia Vance is out here openly spreading lies about my wife, and I've had all I can take!"
"I don't accept her apology anymore. Your airline is going to answer for this today!"
"In front of all these reporters, if you dare shield this murderer, I'll make sure not one of your planes ever gets off the ground again!"
The Chief Pilot's fists clenched.
In the end all he could do was let out a sigh.
"Effective immediately, Amelia Vance is grounded indefinitely."
第6章
Grounded indefinitely.
It didn't just mean I'd be pulled from flight duty. Worse, the penalty would go into my lifetime safety record.
My career would carry this stain forever.
Even so, Xavier didn't think it was enough.
"That's it?" he sneered. "Looks like your company means to protect this murderer to the end! Fine!"
His gaze swept the crowd.
"Friends who were on that flight, last night's delay is proof enough. This airport isn't fit for landings at all."
"And to make sure my son couldn't be saved, Amelia Vance was willing to gamble the lives of every passenger on board."
"Keeping a cancer like Amelia Vance in the aviation world puts all of us at risk! So I'm calling on all of you to speak up with me!"
"Get Amelia Vance the punishment she deserves, and I'll cover every ticket for everyone here!"
The moment he finished, the place erupted.
The Chief Pilot rushed to intervene. "Everyone, please, stay calm! For the delay caused by the severe weather, I apologize on behalf of the company. But that doesn't mean Captain Vance was unprofessional!"
"Just the opposite. We've reviewed the flight. There was sudden violent turbulence mid-route, and panic all through the cabin. It was Captain Vance who kept her head, brought everyone through that turbulence with precise control, and landed safely."
"You can hear the cheers and applause from the cabin on the cockpit recording. Have you all forgotten already?"
Hands froze halfway to phones. Doubt crossed their faces.
"The Chief Pilot really knows how to turn black into white!"
Xavier's whole face twisted with mockery.
"If Amelia Vance hadn't deliberately diverted to this dump of an airport, why would we have gone through any of that?"
"She put a whole plane of people in danger for her own ends, and now we're supposed to thank her?"
Every eye turned back to me, loathing in them again.
They stopped hesitating and raced to post their lies and attacks about me online.
In no time the outcry was everywhere.
The company's complaint lines were jammed, the stock crashing.
Just then, a soft, delicate voice came from beyond the crowd.
"What are you all doing?"
"Dora!" Xavier's face went grave. He shoved out through the crowd and pulled Dora into his arms.
"You're still sick. Why did you come?"
Dora was pale, her brow faintly knit, the kind of look that made people want to pity her.
Her eyes settled on me, disapproving. "How could you do this to Captain Vance?"
"She only made me kneel and kicked me a few times, that's all. As long as she lets Felix go, I'll take it gladly!"
Hearing that, the crowd grew even more furious.
"Using a child to threaten Mrs. Sawyer, Amelia Vance is despicable!"
"Mrs. Sawyer is just too kind!"
"Hold her down! Make her kneel and kowtow an apology to Mrs. Sawyer!"
The Chief Pilot startled, moving in with security to stop it, but they couldn't push through at all.
They forced me down onto my knees in front of Xavier and Dora.
Countless lenses were shoved almost against my face, capturing every bit of my humiliation.
My head was pinned down and struck hard against the floor.
Once, twice...
By the ninety-ninth time, the Chief Pilot's phone rang.
Only then did Xavier curl his lips in satisfaction and signal for them to let go of me.
After that call, the Chief Pilot could no longer hold out against the pressure.
He bowed deeply to the media.
"On behalf of the company, I announce that Amelia Vance's captain qualifications are revoked and her pilot's license is suspended."
"Amelia Vance will never be hired anywhere in this industry again!"
I had barely struggled to my feet when everything surged up inside my chest and I coughed out a mouthful of blood.
Xavier came over wearing a smug smile, leaning close to my ear, his voice low.
"See? I can make you a captain and send you soaring into the sky."
"And I can send you to rock bottom, where you'll never get up again."
I listened to all of it blankly, then let out a soft laugh.
The sound was very faint against all that chaos.
Yet it made Xavier instinctively want to step back.
I caught him by the collar, my own voice just as low.
"Has it never occurred to you? That child has the same illness you do, so why didn't the same treatment work on him?"
"What are you saying?"
I ignored his question and shoved him away.
Wiping the blood from my eyes, I said, "Kneeling, kowtowing, punishment..."
"I've accepted all of it."
I took the divorce papers out of my bag and held them up for everyone to see.
"Now it's my turn to finish what I didn't get to say earlier."