Chapter 1

My wife, Noelle Ramsey, has gone mad.

Every day, she scrutinizes the slightest of changes in my demeanor, looking for proof that I'm cheating on her.

"You smell different today. I've watched enough dramas to know it means that you let another woman rub her scent all over you! You must fire every woman in your company tomorrow!"

Initially, I think that it's because I'm not providing her with enough of a sense of security. However, firing all of the female staff at my company is just unrealistic.

So, I have no choice but to bring her along with me to the office every day instead.

On the first day, she demands to know why I let the female janitor into my office, insisting that it is a private space.

On the second day, she slaps a highly paid female manager, claiming that her wearing a suit to work is a deliberate attempt to seduce me.

No matter how I try to explain things to her, Noelle refuses to listen. She keeps repeating, "You're taking their side on purpose! You don't love me anymore now that you're rich!"

I'm driven to the point of exhaustion and despair, and at one point, I actually begin considering restructuring the company. But at that moment, I receive three text messages on my phone.

"Your wife is causing trouble on purpose. If you fire these highly paid talents you personally cultivated, her childhood friend, Howard Pearce, will poach them at once.

"They'll feel indebted to him for the opportunity and hand over all your company's cutting-edge technology, and within two years, they'll completely ruin your business!

"I am you ten years from the future, Derek Weaver. Please hold on to your company's talent. And when choosing between your marriage and your career, always choose the latter."

Chapter 1

I stared at the three messages on my phone screen and froze in place. I didn't know who the sender was. The number was a string of digits that I'd never seen before.

"What are you looking at, Derek?"

My wife, Noelle Ramsey, suddenly popped up next to me and leaned over my screen, and I instinctively locked my phone.

Her expression shifted instantly. She yelled at me, "You're hiding things from me? It was a text message from some bitch begging for your attention, wasn't it?

"Are you not going to fire all the women in your office? Derek Weaver! You're cheating on me, aren't you? You betrayed me! I want a divorce!"

She suddenly flew into a rage as she screamed at me and flung the glass on my desk onto the floor.

Had this been in the past, I would have immediately pull her into my arms and soothed her down the moment she lost her temper because I'd get worried she'd hurt herself.

However, over the past few months, she had been losing her temper with me very often and breaking down in public because my job required me to interact with female coworkers.

But this time, I was done. Maybe it was because I was exhausted, or the three text messages from earlier did something to change my mind. I just stared at her losing her shit at me and said in a low voice, "I never betrayed you, but I'll agree to the divorce."

Noelle suddenly froze mid-tantrum and stared at me incredulously. Her lips quivered for a long time before she finally asked, "W-What did you just say?"

She had always been very possessive of me. After we first got married, I kept showing her how much I loved her through my actions just to put her mind at ease.

She loved spicy food, so I adjusted my usual diet to accommodate hers. She loved flowers, but I was allergic to them, so I would always pop some antihistamines before bringing her shopping for flowers every week.

And to provide her with a better life, I worked myself to the bone, building a company from a tiny ten-person studio into a massive tech firm with more than 300 employees now.

I also went out of my way to make sure I came into contact with as few female staff at the company as possible. Noelle even had to personally interview and approve every finance staff member and assistant that we hired.

However, for some reason, her possessiveness seemed to have gotten more and more out of hand lately. She escalated from simply checking my phone to monitoring my schedule and interrogating me about everyone I met.

She verbally abused the secretary who brought documents into my office, slapped a new intern, and even tried spreading rumors that some random pregnant employee was carrying my baby.

I kept questioning myself, wondering whether I'd really been doing such a terrible job as a husband, but it wasn't until I received those three messages that I finally realized she was just trying to destroy me under the guise of "loving" me.

I raised my head and repeated my words from earlier.

"Let's get a divorce, Noelle."

Chapter 2

"I knew it! You were cheating on me!" Noelle screamed at the top of her lungs, slapping my cheek. Her loud scream immediately drew the attention of everyone around us.

She continued interrogating me. "Who is the damn bitch?"

"I never cheated on you," I replied. "I just don't think that we're suitable for each other anymore."

"Not suitable?" she echoed with a sneer. "We've been married for years, and you're only telling me now that we're not suitable for each other? Do you even believe what you're saying?

"You don't know what else to say to me, do you, Derek? Fine! We'll get a divorce! And I'll make sure you walk out penniless!"

I looked at Noelle. Her face was streaming with tears, but I saw the glint of sly calculation in her eyes.

I spoke in a voice that was just loud enough for everyone around us to hear. "Noelle, you know very well how I've been treating you all these years since we got married.

"But you keep accusing me of cheating on you every single day and constantly disrupting company operations. It's exhausting. I'm willing to split our assets 50-50 in the divorce.

"However, if you insist on making me walk out penniless, then we'll bring this matter to court. And when that happens, we'll see who the one walking out of this marriage penniless really is."

Noelle panicked visibly. Of course, she knew there was no evidence the court could uncover against me if I really brought this matter to court. However, if those three messages were real, then she would be the one walking out with nothing instead.

Her eyes reddened as tears streamed down her cheeks again. She softened her tone and said, "Derek, have you already made up your mind to divorce me?"

I looked at her in confusion. "Weren't you the one who brought it up first?"

"I was just acting out of desperation! I felt insecure! That's why I kept testing you over and over!" she exclaimed. "What, you liked it when I was possessive over you when we were dating. But now, you find it annoying instead?"

She then gave me a pained, aggrieved look.

Her expression reminded me of seven years ago when we started dating. I was the one who'd fallen for her at first sight and pursued her relentlessly for six months before finally getting her to agree to go out to the movies with me as our first date.

But the second day after we made things official, she renamed all of the female contacts on my phone and even changed all my social media bios to include the words "Married—Stay Out!" in the first line.

I had doubled over in laughter back then, thinking that it was very amusing and hilarious of her. She told me that this was her being possessive of me, and I thought that it was kind of endearing. I quite liked how much she glued herself to me all the time.

But now, Noelle was abusing her "possessiveness" and using it to chip away at my love for her until she finally ruined me.

I looked at the tears slipping down her face and still refused to change my mind.

"You know very well whether this kind of possessive behavior is normal or not."

"I…"

She wanted to retort, but she stopped herself and just swallowed her words. Then, she suddenly went out-of-character and apologized.

"I'm sorry, honey. I was wrong. It's just that I care about you too much…"

I was stunned and perplexed for a long moment. This was the first time she had ever apologized to me in the past seven years we'd been together.

She didn't have the courage to burn bridges with me. That only further proved that the three text messages I received this morning were telling the truth.

My heart began to race. I also made up my mind about getting a divorce. However, I had to first find out the full truth behind this farce before divorcing her.

I tried to calm Noelle down by promising that I wouldn't divorce her. I then added, "You'll also have to promise me that you will not interfere with my company affairs again in the future.

"If you still think that I'm cheating on you, then bring your evidence to the table instead of throwing a huge fuss at the company like this, slapping people, or demanding that I fire anyone.

"But if you cannot promise that, then I will proceed with the divorce."

"Okay," she said with an aggrieved nod of her head.

I then came up with an excuse to leave the office. The first thing I did after leaving was to text a private investigator, Isaac Ford.

"I want you to investigate my wife, Noelle Ramsey."

Chapter 3

Isaac moved fast and soon came back to me with news. An encrypted file landed in my private inbox just three days later.

I leaned back in my office chair and scrolled through the photos and records that he sent me.

The specific events began in March of this year.

On March 14, Noelle and her childhood best friend, Howard Pearce, were seen in a photo eating at a restaurant together. They were sitting in the seats right next to each other, with Howard's arm draped intimately over her shoulder. There was also an open gift box on the table, showing two bottles of fragrances from a his-and-hers pair.

That day, I had been in a conference room negotiating Series B financing with Ford Finances, one of my potential investors. And after negotiating with them for a record 14 consecutive hours with only a five-minute break in between for a sandwich and getting home at 2:00 am, Noelle grumbled lightly under the blankets, telling me to keep it down so as not to disturb her sleep.

On April 2, Noelle's driving logs and phone GPS data showed that she went to Bluebell Cove in the west of the city at 2:00 pm and stayed there till 5:00 pm. That was where Howard lived, and apparently, she went there every single day at the exact same time.

That day, I had just come out of a hospital checkup, with the report indicating a suspected lesion on my liver, and I'd needed a follow-up exam for further investigation. I hadn't been able to sleep well at night ever since, thinking about the worst-case scenario every time I closed my eyes.

Noelle had held my hand and said, "It'll turn out fine, honey. But I'm really busy lately and don't have time to accompany you to the hospital for your checkup."

As it turned out, she'd just been busy keeping Howard company after all.

The final photo was from the night when Noelle made a huge fuss at my company and slapped my general manager, Lacey Torres, screaming and insisting that I was cheating on her with Lacey. She'd stormed off afterward, and I quickly apologized to Lacey before rushing out to find Noelle all night long.

But now, I finally knew that Noelle had been in Howard's car, deeply locked in a passionate kiss at that time.

On top of that, Noelle had also consecutively made transfers to Howard's corporate account using three different payment platforms, with the sum of the transfers totalling 670 thousand dollars.

Isaac even included a footnote at the bottom of the transfer document. He said, "The tech company newly registered under Mr. Howard Pearce's name currently exists only as a shell corporation.

"Over the past three months, they have been engaging with several headhunter agencies to approach key technical staff at Weaver Group. Ms. Noelle Ramsey's relationship with him has been going on for at least a year."

I felt a heavy and stifling weight in my chest. To think that the person I'd loved for so many years had been plotting against me with her lover all along and scheming to squeeze me out of every penny I had, leaving me with nothing in the end.

I had long sensed that something was off about Howard.

Whenever the three of us went out for dinner, Noelle would sit between him and me, and she would naturally incline her body toward him. And whenever we discussed travel plans, she would always take his side and suggest visiting the places that only Howard wanted to go to.

Her repeated favoritism toward him bred some sort of resentment in me. Yet, she would say, "Honey, you know that Howard and I both grew up together, and I only treat him as nothing more than an elder brother.

"If there were ever going to be anything between us, it would have happened ages ago. Can't you stop being so jealous and petty over this?"

I chose to believe Noelle then, but I never thought that she'd actually deceived me for such a long time!

I suppressed the anger in my chest and called my divorce lawyer, Nathan Carter. "Mr. Carter, please draft a divorce agreement that will leave Noelle with nothing. I will be sending all evidence of her cheating on me to your inbox shortly."

I'd only just hung up when my office door was suddenly kicked wide open. Noelle then marched into my office and slapped me hard on the face again.

Before I could even find out what was going on, she smacked a whole stack of photographs onto my desk and screamed, "You told me that you weren't cheating on me, Derek, and I believed you. So, explain these photos to me!"

The photographs showed me locked in a passionate embrace and heated kiss with Amanda Hopkins from the technical department.

Howard, who had barged into my office with Noelle, stood by her side and demanded, "How could you do this to Elle?"

The other employees had gathered outside my office to gawk. A couple of them even began gossiping among each other.

"Damn, I never knew that Amanda was sleeping with the boss…"

"No wonder Amanda's projects have always been so smooth-sailing! It's because she's got connections!"

I looked at the photographs and frowned. "These are all photoshopped. There's nothing going on between the two of us—"

"Nothing going on?" Noelle sneered before grabbing Amanda's arm and yanking her forward. "Tell him! Do you have anything going on with my husband or not?"

Amanda looked at me with an aggrieved expression on her face and said, "But M-Mr. Weaver… Didn't you promise that you'd make things official with me?"

Chapter 4

I was completely dumbfounded. I could guarantee that nothing had ever happened between us, so why was she slandering me like this?

When Noelle heard this, she cried and screamed even louder than before.

"Derek Weaver! You heartless jerk! You bastard! Tell me the truth! When did you start having an affair with her?"

I gritted my teeth angrily and shot back immediately. "I do not have an affair with her! How was I supposed to know that she would suddenly start spreading lies about me?"

"Mr. Weaver! How could you say that I was spreading lies about you?" Amanda wailed, looking at me with teary eyes. "You were the one who grabbed me one night when I saw you working overtime till dawn and came over to check on you!

"You… You told me that you were unhappy at home and asked me to comfort you! And I felt guilty toward Mrs. Weaver the whole time, but I couldn't afford to lose this job! You promised me that you'd come clean with her and marry me, which was the only reason I gave in in the end! How could you say that I was lying?"

Amanda's tears kept streaming from her eyes as she continued twisting the truth.

The rest of the employees continued watching, enjoying the drama. Their judging stares bored into me, and they whispered among themselves.

"It's no wonder Mrs. Weaver suddenly began coming here every day! It's because she smelled trouble!"

"I thought Mr. Weaver was a good man. How could he do something like this?"

"Men are all like this!"

Their words felt like they were nailing me to a pillar of shame. Noelle then took a deep breath and tossed a divorce agreement onto my desk.

"I won't stay another day with you! Since you promised to marry Amanda, then we're getting a divorce now! And you're not walking away with a single penny to your name!

"If you refuse to sign this, I'll expose all of your horrible cheating online and get you blacklisted from this entire industry!"

Amanda looked at me resolutely, but I still refused to budge.

"I didn't cheat on you, and there is no way I'm leaving without anything from this. If you still insist that I did have an affair with Amanda, then show me your proof!"

Noelle didn't bother producing more evidence. Instead, she retrieved her phone and began livestreaming herself crying.

She accused me of cheating on her and abandoning her after becoming successful in my business, claiming that I'd taken advantage of her. Every word she said was carefully calculated to go viral.

Less than an hour after she posted it online, the video began making waves and trending on today's social media hot topics of the day.

The comment section was filled with vitriol.

"What a disgusting piece of shit! Cheating on his wife the moment he got rich and famous! Go to hell!"

"He deserved to be destroyed! Boycott him! Report his company!!"

As the public outcry intensified, calls started pouring in from business partners, all telling me the same message. They would be pausing all collaborations with me for the time being.

Noelle just stood next to me with a cold, indifferent expression.

"See what happens when you betray me?" she scoffed. "If I were you, I would sign the papers immediately and compensate me for all my emotional distress. If not, I promise that I will make life even more of a living hell for you!"

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, there was a knock on the door outside, and two police officers walked in. The first officer asked, "Who called the police?"

"I did," I said, raising my hand. Then, I pointed at Noelle, Amanda, and Howard. "The three of them conspired to frame me, claiming that I cheated on my wife to trick me into signing a divorce agreement that left me with nothing."

Noelle wanted to retort instinctively, but I then said, "I have proof."

Then, everyone watched as I plugged a USB stick into my laptop and clicked on the video in it. The moment it began to play, everyone was shocked.

Noelle, in particular, turned deathly pale.