After He Betrayed Me, I Made My Ex-Husband Lose Everything

A few days ago, Zia took her twin sons for their first checkup at the hospital, since she had previously been taking them to the Ridge family’s private doctor.

Brian always forbids Zia from getting involved in their children’s medical matters and tells her to leave all health-related issues to the family doctor.

Although Brian is known as a billionaire who loves his wife, he tends to be quite controlling toward Zia.

After 10 years of marriage, Zia no longer wants to be under her husband’s control.

Today, she came back to pick up the health reports for her three children.

“Zia,” Rina, the doctor, and Zia’s friend, who conducted the examination, began the conversation in a serious tone. “The DNA test results have proven that your three children have no genetic match with you. You are not biologically related.”

Zia gasped. She shook her head in disbelief at Rina’s words.

“Rina, maybe there’s a mistake? How could the children I gave birth to have no blood relation to me? How could… maybe the reports were mixed up…” Her words came out in a stutter.

Rina immediately took Zia’s hand, trying to calm her down.

“Zia, I understand how you feel. But there’s no way your two children’s DNA tests could have been switched,” Rina explained gently.

Zia took a deep breath, trying to calm her turbulent emotions. “I don’t believe it. These are my children, Rina. There must be a mistake. If you don’t believe me, you can check their birth records at this hospital. I gave birth to all three of my children here, one after another.”

Rina let out a long sigh. She then typed something on her computer screen. After a moment, she stopped and looked at Zia with a concerned expression.

“Zia, you did give birth to your twins here, but you're listed as the surrogate mother.”

Zia’s breath caught in her throat. “Surrogate mother?”

“Yes, Rachel Vane is listed as the biological mother of your twins: Hendry Ridge and Alec Ridge.

Zia… all this time, you’ve been undergoing IVF using Brian Ridge’s sperm and Rachel Vane’s eggs. All of that is clearly documented in our hospital system. Did you really not know?”

Rina continued her explanation. “Rachel was even the doctor who oversaw the IVF process eight years ago. That was approved by Mr. Ridge.”

Rina then swiveled her computer screen to show Zia a file.

Zia froze. Her chest tightened so much she struggled to breathe for a moment.

Rachel Vane—she was their family doctor and Brian’s childhood sweetheart.

Eight years.

Zia remembered that eight years ago, Rachel had posted a photo on her social media. Standing beneath the Eiffel Tower, Rachel had shown the back of a man who looked familiar to her, holding an ultrasound image in her hand.

[My husband didn’t want my body to be damaged, so he hired a surrogate mother to give birth to our children. Where can you find a man who loves you like this?]

Zia covered her face with her palms, her shoulders slumping and trembling. A sharp pain pierced her chest as if a knife were being twisted in her heart.

The corners of her lips curved bitterly as tears streamed down her cheeks.

How foolish she had been back then, wishing Rachel happiness with her husband abroad, without realizing that it was her own husband.

For eight years, her husband had been lying to her and secretly carrying on a relationship with Rachel.

Why, of all people, did he choose Rachel Vane?

That woman had bullied Zia back in school. Brian knew that all too well.

Since Rachel had been raised alongside Brian in the Ridge family, Brian had asked her to tolerate Rachel and even made her the family doctor.

He had repeatedly said that Rachel was like a younger sister to him.

But they had been secretly carrying on a relationship behind her back.

Zia shook her head. Her thoughts were in complete disarray right now. She had to meet Brian to explain all of this.

Zia staggered out of the hospital. With trembling hands, she called her husband, but Brian didn’t pick up the phone. Brian only sent a short text message.

[Honey, I'm on a business trip out of town. Take care of the kids, okay? Tell them I'll miss them.]

A sudden business trip out of town?

She didn’t believe Brian was just on a business trip out of town.

As his ex-secretary and wife, Zia knew her husband’s business trip schedule inside and out. Brian never went on unplanned, last-minute business trips.

In desperation, Zia tracked down Rachel’s social media. The woman, a doctor and famous Instagram influencer, always posted about everything she did.

One of her latest posts featured a familiar villa on the outskirts of town. In the photo, a man’s muscular arm—with a Patek Philippe watch wrapped around his wrist—was visible as he leaned against a table.

The post’s caption read: [Relaxing at a private villa and watching a romantic sunset with my beloved.]

Zia took a deep breath to calm herself, then drove her car toward the city's outskirts. She called the nanny to watch over her children while she was gone.

After a three-hour drive, Zia arrived at the villa. In the front yard, Brian’s black Mercedes was parked.

She stepped inside the villa. The living room looked messy, with clothes scattered on the floor.

Zia took another breath, holding back the pain piercing her chest. She recognized her husband’s clothes mixed in with women’s clothes on the floor,

A woman’s laughter could be heard from the direction of the bedroom.

Zia’s heart was pounding as she walked toward the room. Every step felt like she was heading toward the gallows.

“Ahh, Brian... it’s almost nighttime. Don’t you have to go home and be a good husband?”

The blonde woman giggled as she lay on top of Brian. A blanket covered both of them.

Zia covered her mouth, holding back the scream that threatened to escape. Tears streamed down her face as she watched her husband entangle with another woman in bed.

Zia forced herself not to burst in and punch the adulteress. She grabbed her phone and recorded them with a trembling hand.

“I already told Zia I’d be home tomorrow. So, today is just for the two of us.”

“When are you going to divorce her? You said you’re bored with her and don’t love her anymore.”

Brian was silent for a moment. “Yeah. I don’t love her anymore. She used to be beautiful, innocent, and pure. I was attracted to her from the first time I saw her in school. It’s just that… she’s become boring, and she can’t satisfy me. But I have to stick with her a little longer because the old man at my house likes her.”

“That old man is such a nuisance. I feel like your mistress if we keep hiding like this.”

Brian sighed and rubbed his head with a pleading look. “Be patient, okay? I’ll find the right time to divorce her. If she finds out about us, she’ll fly into a rage and spread rumors that we’re having an affair, ruining your reputation just like her father did.”

Rachel smiled mischievously. “Like father, like daughter. For my sake, you almost killed your father-in-law.”

Brian’s expression darkened. “That old man already knows about our affair and that we deceived Zia into giving birth to our children through IVF. He threatened to expose this to the media; on top of that, he slapped you and would have ruined your reputation. I hated him so much I ran him over with my car.”

Zia froze. Was Brian, her husband, the one who caused her father’s death five years ago?

Five years ago, her father had left the village to visit her on her birthday. At the time, Zia wasn’t home; she had been called to the Ridge family’s house to serve her in-laws.

Then she heard that her father had been in an accident right in front of the gate of her house. An unknown driver had hit him. The driver fled the scene.

Zia covered her mouth to stifle her sobs.

Her father died after discovering Brian’s affair.

That truth hit her like a sledgehammer.

Rachel whined, deliberately swaying her hips and jiggling her breasts in front of Brian’s face.

“Baby, thank you so much. I promise I’ll make you happier than that ugly wife of yours.”

“I know.” Brian pulled Rachel’s face toward him and kissed her passionately on the lips.

Zia struggled with all her might to stand up after hearing their entire conversation. Tears blurred her vision.

The mouth that kept saying he loved her now said he wanted to divorce her and kiss another woman, shattering all the trust and love they had built over 10 years.

When Zia, a village girl, first came to the city, the school laughed at her country-bumpkin appearance, and Rachel gathered a gang of schoolkids to bully Zia; Brian stood in front of her and slapped Rachel in front of the entire school.

“Anyone who bullies Zia Storm is standing against me!”

He then expelled the bullies from school, suspending Rachel for three months.

He, the noble and arrogant young master of the Ridge family, reached out to her for the first time and knelt down to cover Zia’s school skirt, stained with menstrual blood, with his jacket without a trace of disgust.

His smile looked charming as he said, “From now on, I will be your protector.”

He pursued her for years, following her wherever Zia enrolled in universities.

When he first proposed to her, Brian scattered dandelions—Zia’s favorite flowers—all over the city, making Zia famous on campus.

He even got down on one knee in front of her father, George, asking for his blessing to marry Zia.

Her father had once warned Zia about Brian, saying that his background would cause Zia to be looked down upon by her in-laws.

A young man from a wealthy family was always surrounded by beautiful women and sought the thrill of flirting with more than one woman.

Zia didn’t listen to her father at the time. To her, Brian’s love was far more sincere than that of other young men.

Throughout their ten years of marriage, Brian had shown a love that was truly sincere.

Everyone had said that a man’s love would fade over time and that marriage would become boring.

But Brian never changed. No scandals surrounded him; he never brought the scent of another woman on his body whenever he came home late at night.

Zia laughed at herself.

She, the fool, had never seen the lies her husband had carefully concealed.

Now she regretted it. She had lost her father five years ago because her own husband had killed him, to protect Rachel.

Zia backed away and ran out of the villa. The pain of Brian’s betrayal shattered her heart into a thousand pieces.

The children weren’t hers. She had merely been used as a surrogate mother.

Zia laughed bitterly, gripping the steering wheel.

She was a fool. Tricked into becoming a surrogate mother for her husband’s child with another woman.