“And I, a cripple, am just a money-making tool, never meant to have a child of my own?”
Raline pressed her lips together, her voice rough, looking at me with a complicated expression. The relatives all avoided her eyes.
They stood up, said a few more empty words and quickly left. Raline walked out coldly, closing the door behind her.
I sat there the whole night and when the first light of dawn appeared, I wiped my tears and called the company lawyer.
“Help me write a divorce agreement. I want a divorce.”
After everything became public, Raline stopped hiding and began openly showing affection toward Hudson.
When the private investigator sent me the collected evidence and reports, my hands shook as I forced myself to open them.
On the afternoon of September 11th, Raline cooked chicken soup for Hudson and brought it to him. The two stayed together in the CEO’s office until 1:30 a.m.
Later that night, Raline waited at the hotel entrance. At 11 p.m., she picked up Hudson and drove him home. He never went back that night.
At September 12th at 8:00 a.m., Raline spent two hours preparing seafood and took it to Hudson’s office. They were together for an hour.
On September 13th, they went out shopping. Raline bought Hudson a suit and even chose a tie herself, carefully tying it for him.
The next day, September 14th, Raline, who almost never posted on social media, shared a romantic photo from an Italian restaurant for the first time.
A bouquet of bright red roses was handed to a pair of elegant hands; even the caption was filled with joy. [Rekindling our love is my greatest blessing.]
The sound of their clinking glasses burned in my eyes.
After thinking it over for a while, I finally commented under it. [If you’re rekindling your love with another man, then what does that make your husband?]
My comment was deleted almost right away and then several sixty-second voice messages came from Raline.
“Why are you commenting on my Instagram? How do you expect people to react when you talk like that about Hudson?”
“You’re getting more and more petty, jealous over the smallest things. I only said that to get closer to my brother-in-law so we can have a child soon.”
Soon after, my mother-in-law burst into the house, angry and shouting. “Raline is younger than you, yet she knows how to look at the bigger picture. You’ve wasted thirty years of your life; it’s no wonder you’re destined to be a nobody.”
“Our Leighton Family helped you become a vice president, gave you honor and status, yet you’re still not satisfied and now want to ruin Raline Leighton’s plans.”
“Listen to me, if Hudson turns away from Raline because of you, I’ll never forgive you.”
I looked at my mother-in-law in disbelief. This was the elder I had always respected, now insulting and scolding me with harsh words.
Finally, I gave up completely and quietly handed her the divorce papers.
“If I’m so useless, then let Raline sign them. I won’t stand in the way of her big dream to revive the Leighton Family business.”
Seeing that I refused to apologize and even dared to bring up divorce, my mother-in-law exploded with anger. She grabbed a vase from the coffee table and smashed it against my head.
“Your parents must’ve been useless to raise such a rude brat. Today, I’ll teach you a lesson.”
She grabbed an ashtray and smashed it against my head with a loud crack. Her glare was full of hatred as she spat in my face.
“Look at you, pathetic and poor. Raline must’ve been blind to fall for you.”
I held my head, staring coldly at my mother-in-law. Since the Leighton Group bounced back from its crisis, she’d looked at me with more coldness than kindness.
She always believed I wasn’t worthy of marrying Raline; if not for me, her second daughter could have married into another wealthy family, just like her eldest.
But she forgot that she was the one who once held my hand and said I had worked hard, the one who called me the Leighton Family’s savior, the one who said my courage had pulled them out of crisis.
