Chapter 1
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my husband's mistress burst in and threw a glass of wine in my face.
"Ashley, Lane doesn't love you anymore!"
"How long are you going to hang on like some pathetic leech?!"
Everyone expected me to swallow my pride and stay silent.
After all, three years ago in the same situation, I'd angrily divorced Lane only to beg him to take me back—a humiliation still fresh in everyone's memory.
Just when everyone thought I'd cave as usual, I slapped her hard across the face.
"I've been gone for two years, and you still couldn't lock him down."
"Go practice your little act some more before you embarrass yourself in public again."
She had nothing to do with why I left or why I came back.
This revenge game was mine alone.
"You—you dare to hit me?!"
Eva clutched her face in shock.
For the past year since Lane and I remarried—whether it was her calling him away on our wedding night or their countless outings together—
I'd played the perfect long-suffering wife, swallowing every insult.
I grabbed a tissue to wipe the wine from my face and signaled the bodyguard to remove her.
"Who dares!"
The red handprint bloomed on Eva's cheek, twisting her pretty face into something feral.
"Don't you know who I am?! I'm your boss's—"
Before she could finish, I slapped her other cheek for symmetry.
"Eva, this is my birthday party."
"Showing up uninvited as the side piece? You're practically begging to get slapped."
"Besides, I own this club now."
Lane's birthday gift to me.
Thirty million in cash, plus this club.
I specifically asked for this place—the scene of my greatest humiliation.
Three years ago, Lane threw my thirtieth birthday party here.
Despite our seven-year itch, with our marriage in crisis and two months of silence between us, he still organized a lavish celebration.
We met when I was eighteen. Lane and I had truly been through hell and back together.
Back then, Eva was just Lane's intern. The little snake deliberately lost three drinking games and, pretending to be tipsy, offered to sing.
She chose a song about a mistress's heartbreak.
With her doe-eyed innocence, looking like a drenched kitten,
"Miss Joseph, if you were a man, would you choose a loveless marriage or a brave girl fighting for true love?!"
Ignoring everyone trying to stop her, she shoved the microphone in my face.
"Ashley! Have some dignity! Stop clinging to a man who doesn't want you!"
That day, I wanted to slap her and have security drag her out too.
From the cutesy hair tie "accidentally" left in Lane's coat pocket to the passenger seat mysteriously adjusted to her height—this wasn't her first declaration of war.
I knew it wasn't just her fault, but she really shouldn't have picked my birthday for this stunt.
Growing up an orphan, I'd always clung to my dignity.
At thirty, I was livid. Through gritted teeth, I exposed her past.
"Eva, remember when you seduced that woman's husband and she locked you in a dog cage with those three dogs in heat..."
When we first met, Eva had pissed off a woman who stripped her to her underwear and locked her in a dog cage with three horny dogs.
"So young and already spreading her legs. I paid for her education out of kindness, and she repaid me by trying to call my husband 'daddy' in bed."
Eva had trembled violently, reaching through the cage bars to clutch my clothes like a lifeline.
"Please help me! I swear I didn't do anything!"
"Consider it good karma for your baby..."
I was barely three months pregnant then, at risk of miscarriage.
When I saved her, Lane accused me of meddling in other people's business.
But later, in front of everyone, Lane grabbed my wrist.
He stood facing me.
"Spreading vicious rumors to ruin a young girl's life—don't you think that's despicable, Ashley?"
His voice was ice as he continued,
"She's young and defenseless against you."
"If you're angry with me, don't be the bitter shrew who takes it out on other women."
He left with Eva, abandoning me to face a room full of prying eyes.
That night I demanded a divorce, causing quite the scandal across town.
Lane refused, systematically cutting off my finances to trap me.
But I would have left with nothing just to keep my self-respect.
Looking back, I was such a fool.
Now, in the same venue with history repeating itself, Eva was being hauled out by security.
She thrashed like a crab plucked from a tank.
Still defiant, she screamed,
"Ashley Joseph! You'll regret this!"
I drained my glass.
After a year of remarriage, it was finally time to spring my trap.
