On my birthday, my wife’s childhood sweetheart crashed the party, holding a child. He kicked over the table in front of me, sending champagne flutes and plates scattering across the floor. “Jenna,” he roared, “give us an answer, me and my son. How much longer are you going to make us wait?” It was then that I learned the truth. My wife, who claimed to be allergic to male proteins, had secretly had a child with him. No wonder she never let me touch her. No wonder she refused to have a baby with me. She already had one, and now, he had come knocking. “Jenna, you’re going to explain yourself today, or so help me God. Why did you do this to me?” Jenna’s brow furrowed, but her tone was unapologetic. “It’s my body. I’ll have a child with whomever I please. This is the 21st century. How can anyone still be so backward?” I laughed, a cold, sharp sound, and slapped her across the face. “This is not a burden I will bear. We’re calling a lawyer. Now. We’re drawing up divorce papers.” 1 A hush fell over the room. Every guest held their breath, their eyes fixed on the unfolding drama. Leo, my wife’s lover, jabbed a finger in my face, his voice raw. “You listen to me, Mark. Jenna doesn’t love you. She has always loved me!” “She’s not allergic to anything! That was just an excuse to keep you away from her!” “You’re the one who cheated! You manipulated her father, forced her to marry you!” “You tore us apart! You condemned us to this half-life, leaving Jenna miserable and my son without a mother in the daylight. Do you have any idea how much he’s suffered? Have any of you ever been parents? Do you know what it’s like for a child to grow up without their mother?” His voice boomed through the banquet hall. I saw my mother clutch her chest, her face pale. She tried to speak, to tell them it wasn’t true, but the pain was too much. I saw her distress, and a wave of panic and frustration washed over me. After Leo’s tirade, the guests turned on me, their eyes filled with contempt. I didn’t understand. I was the husband. My wife had a child with another man, and I was the one being judged? “I can’t believe this is the real story. He broke up two people in love.” “How tragic. No wonder they had to sneak around.” “So Mark isn’t the man we thought he was. He’s a monster.” “What a hypocrite. All that charity work he does, probably just to wash away the guilt from his dirty secrets.” Dirty secrets? My vision went red. “What crime did I commit?” I roared at them. “Did I murder someone? Did I burn down your houses?” My outburst silenced them, but only for a moment. I turned back to Jenna, to the face that had lied to me for years, and felt nothing but weariness. “Jenna, tell them. Tell them the real reason I married you.” She hesitated, her eyes darting between me and Leo. The child in his arms began to cry, and her resolve crumbled. She rushed over and took the boy from him. Seeing them together, the rage in my chest burned hotter. I had once believed that child was a distant relative’s. When Jenna had brought him home, asking me to help care for him, my mother and I had treated him like a grandson. And now, I was being told this boy, whom I had cherished, was the product of my wife’s affair. The humiliation was a wound that would never heal. To protect Leo, to shield her son, Jenna looked at me with cold indifference. “You’re the one who slandered Leo to my father,” she said, her voice flat. “That’s why my dad forced me to marry you.” 2 Jenna had no idea the damage her words would cause. Suddenly, all the blame was on me. I was the villain. “What a sham. This party is a joke!” “Let’s tear this place apart! Teach him a lesson!” The room descended into chaos. I saw Leo signal to a few of his friends, who started flipping tables. Soon, others joined in, a wave of destruction sweeping through the hall. My mother, struggling against the pain in her chest, forced herself to stand. “Stop this! All of you!” But no one listened. They were on Leo’s side, eager to see me punished. I lunged toward Jenna, but Leo stepped in front of her, his voice booming. “What do you think you’re doing, Mark?” “Thinking of hitting her to vent your anger? Not while I’m here!” “You’ll have to go through me first. You’ll have to kill me and step over my dead body to get to her!” His dramatic declaration earned him a round of applause. “Now that’s a real man,” someone shouted. “A real man?” I laughed, the sound bitter and incredulous. I was the victim here, yet I was being treated like the home-wrecker. “Step over your dead body?” I challenged. “Who the hell do you think you are? Have I laid a hand on anyone? Has anyone seen me raise a fist?” Silence. “I’m telling you, Leo, slander is a crime. And you, Jenna—was I the one who forced this marriage, or was it your family who came to me, begging for help?” Before I could finish, the boy, clearly coached by Leo, ran over to my mother, pretending to help her. Then, he dramatically threw himself to the ground. “Grandma!” he wailed. “I was just trying to help you because you looked like you were in pain! I’m sorry! It’s all my fault and Daddy’s fault for hurting you!” Then he turned on her. “But I’m innocent! Why did you pinch me and push me down?” My mother’s eyes widened in disbelief. This child she had doted on, this boy she had treated as her own grandson, was a practiced liar. Before she could utter a word of defense, the crowd lost control. They screamed insults at us, someone threw a centerpiece at my mother, calling her a shameless old woman. She had never endured such humiliation. The shock was too much. She collapsed. Panic seized me. I scooped her into my arms, trying to fight my way through the mob to get her to a hospital. But they blocked my path, accusing her of faking it to escape. I yelled for security, but as they tried to clear a path, guests started recording, twisting the scene to make us look like the aggressors. Within minutes, the videos were online, and a storm of digital hatred was unleashed upon me. 3 I had no time to deal with the online mob. I told my assistant to handle it. As my mother was rushed into the emergency room, I got a video call from Jenna. “Mark, is your mom okay?” After all these years of marriage, she had never once called her “our mom.” What truly enraged me was her background. She wasn’t at home. On the wall behind her hung a family portrait: Leo, Jenna, and the boy, smiling together. She noticed my gaze and quickly moved to block the picture. “Mark, listen to me. What I said at the party… I didn’t mean it.” “I thought I didn’t love you, but after all these years… I do have feelings for you.” “Can you understand? It’s all happened. You just have to accept it…” “I will not accept it! If you didn’t love me, why did you propose? Why did you wait until after we were married to feed me that ridiculous lie about being allergic to male proteins?” “And me? I loved you, so I gave in to your every whim. My own mother was desperate for a grandchild, but I never even mentioned it in front of you, afraid it would make you feel bad.” “And all that time, you were having a child with Leo, and then you let him crash my birthday party and destroy my life!” “Jenna, you’ve gone too far!” My accusations hardened her expression. “Because I loved Leo!” she screamed. “My family’s company was on the verge of bankruptcy! Marrying you was the only way to get the capital to save it!” “Mark, what’s done is done! What more do you want?” Her words extinguished the last flicker of affection I had for her. If she had shown even a shred of remorse, a hint of an apology, perhaps I wouldn’t have been so ruthless in the days to come. “I’ll have my lawyer send you the divorce papers. Be ready to sign them.” I hung up before she could respond. A few moments later, a video file from Leo appeared on my phone. My anger, which I thought had peaked, surged anew. As if the public humiliation wasn’t enough. I forced myself to watch. Jenna, who had always been so frigid with me, was a different woman with him. The things they did, the intimacy they shared… it was a level of passion I had never known. She was the teacher, he was the student. The scenes were so graphic, so explicit, that my hatred for her solidified into something cold and permanent. She had played me for a fool, cheating on me while I endured the whispers and rumors about my supposed infertility. Then came a voice message from Leo, dripping with arrogant satisfaction. “Hahaha, see that? Jenna’s not allergic to men, Mark. She’s just allergic to you. We have a child, after all.” “And let me tell you something else. For the past three years, every night, she would come to me before going home to you. After a round with me, of course she had no interest in you. It was easy to make you believe her little story.” “Oh, and one more thing. She’s promised to give our son her entire inheritance.” His words didn't fuel my anger anymore. Instead, a chilling, exhilarating desire for revenge took its place.
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