At my mother’s funeral, my ex-husband’s girlfriend stormed in with a team of bodyguards and started wrecking the place. She thought I was his mistress. Priceless heirlooms and artworks, meant to honor my mother, were ripped to shreds and scattered across the floor. When I rushed forward to explain, she grabbed a fistful of my hair. “A homewrecker has a mother? Aren’t you all just things born but never raised right?” she shrieked. “For all I know, that’s just a jar of flour you’re using to scam my fiancé out of his money!” “Today, I’m going to expose you for the gold-digging parasite you are and ruin you completely!” A cold smile touched my lips. A homewrecker? It seemed she had no idea who the real other woman was. 1 After hours of managing the funeral, I finally found a moment to rest and check my phone. A “people you may know” notification popped up. I clicked on it. The woman was live-streaming, and she looked vaguely familiar. She was weeping about being tormented by her partner’s mistress, rallying a whole army of online supporters. The comments were a torrent of fury. It took me a moment to place her. Wasn’t that my ex-husband’s mistress, Amber? No wonder he didn’t have time to play the part of a supportive friend at my mother’s funeral. He was too busy putting out fires in his own backyard. Amber’s voice was thick with tears. “Everyone, that viper has sucked my fiancé dry of over a million dollars in just one month! We had to postpone our wedding because of her!” “And she had the nerve to send me the bills to flaunt it! I hired a private investigator to find her, and if I don’t teach her a lesson today, I’ll have lived for nothing!” “A homewrecker with a dead mother? And she has the gall to hold a funeral now? Her mom’s been dead for years, and she’s just now using it as an excuse to grift for cash? I’ve never seen a woman so shameless!” A million dollars in a month? I had to hand it to him. A leopard can't change its spots. The man Amber had stolen was now being stolen from her in the exact same way. I clicked out of her live stream and scrolled through her old videos. They were a curated fantasy of high-end restaurants and luxury gifts. My ex had certainly spared no expense on her. She may have been cheated on now, but she’d profited handsomely before. Too bad a man’s affection is always in flux. Now, she was just like I had been when I first discovered Neil’s infidelity—desperate and broken. I glanced at the time. The interment was about to begin. I put my phone away and went back to the guests. I had just finished my words of thanks when a commotion erupted outside. Before I could even ask what was happening, a powerful force shoved me to the ground. A phone on a tripod was thrust in my face before I could get up. Amber’s voice was shrill. “Here she is, everyone! The homewrecker who’s been clinging to my fiancé! A vile creature, born but never raised right. Look at this washed-up hag, still trying to seduce men!” “Homewreckers deserve to die! If you’re going to destroy someone else’s relationship, you’d better be prepared for the consequences!” I pushed myself up on one hand, my brow furrowed. “You’ve made a mistake. I’m divorced. You have the wrong person. This isn’t the place for this. If you leave now, I can pretend this never happened.” She let out a wild laugh. “Did you hear that, everyone? Not only is she a hag, she’s divorced second-hand goods! All talk and no shame!” She swung the camera around the room. “This is the fake funeral she’s using to scam us out of our wedding money! Over a million dollars! What, is her mother’s urn made of solid gold?” I struggled to my feet as the guests stared, their faces a mixture of shock and morbid curiosity. For the sake of the funeral, I lowered my voice, trying to de-escalate. “This is my mother’s funeral, and I am not your fiancé’s mistress. I’m warning you to leave now, and I will forget this ever happened.” Amber sneered and pulled out another phone, tapping open her photo gallery. She shoved the screen in my face. “Look closely. These are the transfer receipts from my fiancé to you! Over a million dollars! What do you have to say for yourself now?” “And this is the chat log where he told me your mother died a long time ago! How are you going to lie your way out of this one?” “He might be soft-hearted enough to fall for your act, but I’m not! Today, I’m going to teach you the lesson your long-dead mother never could!” I stared at the screenshots, my frown deepening. I couldn’t believe it. Neil’s affair had literally shocked my mother to death, and now he was turning his mistress on me to slander my name. So that’s why he’d refused to come today. Too busy at work. An important project came up. All lies. He was waiting for his mistress to show up and reclaim the money for him, keeping his own hands clean. He got to play the good guy while I took all the blame. He hadn’t even told her he’d been married. When we divorced, I was so hurt by his betrayal that I didn’t ask for a single cent in compensation out of respect for the years we’d shared. And now, he was trying to claw back the money that was rightfully mine. It wasn't about the money. It was my reputation they were destroying. Seeing my stunned silence, Amber gloated. “What, nothing to say? We were supposed to get married next month, and you ruined everything! You’re not leaving here today until you give back the money!” She held the phone up to her live stream, showing off the screenshots. “See, everyone? Am I lying? Count the zeroes! And look at the date he said her mother died! Her ashes are probably moldy by now, and she’s holding a funeral to scam my fiancé!” Her voice grew more shrill with every word. My face hardened. I couldn’t let her continue this circus. But before I could speak, she lunged forward and slapped me hard across the face. “Give back the money, now! Or I’ll tear that seductive old face of yours to shreds!” 2 This was the city’s most prestigious hotel, and a crowd of onlookers had gathered, drawn by the commotion. Fed only Amber’s side of the story, they started pointing and shouting. “So that’s why the hotel couldn’t be booked out today! There’s a whole drama unfolding!” “You can hold a funeral retroactively? First I’ve heard of it. These homewreckers have no shame when it comes to money!” “She’s so young, couldn’t she find an honest job? If her mother knew she was destroying families, she’d roll over in her grave!” Amber lifted her chin, her face smug. She walked over to a table, picked up a glass of wine, and downed it in one gulp. The guests at that table immediately scrambled away. The whispers turned to malicious speculation, assuming I was a mistress caught by my husband, that I deserved everything I was getting. My voice was ice. “I suggest you stop before you go too far. If you want to know who the real mistress is, why don’t you just call Neil and ask?” At his name, a flash of fury lit her eyes. She grabbed another glass and hurled it at me. The wine soaked my custom-made dress, worth thousands. If I hadn’t dodged, the glass would have shattered against my head. I took a deep breath, fighting for control. She turned back to her livestream. “See, everyone? The nerve on these homewreckers is something else! The evidence is right in front of her, and she still won’t admit it! What do you expect from a divorced old hag? She’s got the constitution of a cockroach!” She spun back to me. “I’m calling hotel management! I want a refund! Give me back my fiancé’s money, or you’ll be paying it back from a prison cell!” “He felt sorry for you because your mother died young, and you used that to manipulate him, didn’t you? Well, I’m not falling for your sob story!” My face was flushed with rage. “A refund? You have no right to say anything about my mother’s funeral! Get out, now, or I’m calling the police!” If it wasn’t for his affair, my mother would still be alive! Paying for a dignified funeral was the very least he owed me. Amber’s eyes widened theatrically for her audience. “Did you hear that? The mistress is going to call the cops! Oh, I’m so scared! Let’s see who gets taken away when they find out this whole funeral is a sham!” She shot a look at the bodyguards behind her. “So, you’re not giving back the money? Fine. Then everything my fiancé paid for, I’m taking back. Smash it all!” In an instant, a dozen burly men tore through the hall. The guests screamed and scattered. I could only watch in horror as they overturned table after table, my heart splintering with each crash. Amber filmed my breakdown, her laughter growing more manic. My mother’s portrait was displayed at the front of the room. As a few of the men got close, I cried out, “Stop! That’s enough! You want money? I’ll give it to you! I’ll give you the million! Consider it a donation to a pack of rabid dogs!” The men ignored me. The scene was chaos. Two hotel employees rushed to protect the portrait and the urn, clutching them tight, their faces pale with terror. Amber just laughed. “Oh, you’re ready to admit you’re wrong now? Didn’t think about the consequences when you were sleeping with my man, did you? And you’ll give me the money? It’s his money to begin with! You have no shame!” “It’s too late for apologies! Smash everything! Don’t leave a single chopstick!” My vision turned red. I lunged for her, for the phone, but a bodyguard intercepted me, pinning my arms and lifting me off the ground. She covered her mouth, feigning shock for the camera. “Everyone, did you see that? The homewrecker tried to attack me! Is there no justice in this world?” “What should I do? She won’t return the money, and now she’s trying to assault me! I’m so scared!” She said she was scared, but she walked right up to me. She bent down, picked up an intact plate from the floor, and swung it at my face with all her might. The porcelain shattered on impact, slicing my cheek open. Blood began to well up. 3 She aimed the camera back at my face. “How’s that? Satisfying enough? This is what homewreckers deserve!” “Everyone, hit that like button, share this stream! Let every immoral woman out there see this! You destroy someone’s relationship, you end up destroyed!” The hall was a wasteland. Every emergency exit was crammed with terrified guests. The two employees clutching my mother’s urn and portrait stood frozen in the middle of the devastation. Amber spotted them. “Get the stuff they’re holding, too! It’s all fake anyway, what’s the point?” A raw, primal scream tore from my throat. “NO! Don’t you dare! Don’t touch that!” I threw all my strength into breaking free from the bodyguard’s hold and sprinted across the room. I swear I had never run so fast in my life. But it wasn’t fast enough. The bodyguards tackled the employees, who dropped to the ground, covering their heads. The urn and the portrait tumbled from their arms. In the face of violence, they chose their own safety. My mother had died from the shock of Neil’s affair, and now his mistress was here to desecrate her memory. Just as a bodyguard’s foot came down on the urn, I dove, shielding it with my own body. A split second later, a heavy boot slammed into my back. A wave of agony washed over me, so intense I thought my organs had ruptured. Tears stung my eyes, and the metallic taste of blood filled my throat. The bodyguard, who had been smashing objects but hadn’t hurt anyone yet, looked shocked at what he’d done. Amber strolled over, camera held high. I swallowed back the bile rising in my throat. “Stop this right now, or I swear you will regret it,” I bit out. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing? Are you insane? He’s just a man!” She shoved the phone in my face. “Look at her, everyone, still threatening me! Are all homewreckers this arrogant?” “You didn’t seem to think he was ‘just a man’ when you were taking his money! Oh, I’m so terrified! Should I get on my knees and beg for your forgiveness?” She paused, then bent down, her lips curling in a sneer. “You’re protecting that jar of flour like your life depends on it because you’re afraid of being exposed, aren’t you? What a performance. You should have been an actress.” She straightened up and slapped the stunned bodyguard on the back. “What are you waiting for? Smash what she’s holding! It’s just flour!” “Is this how you tricked my fiancé? He might be a fool, but I’m not!” The bodyguard, recovering his senses, stepped toward me. I clutched the urn to my chest, my grip like iron. He couldn’t pry it from my arms and looked to Amber for instruction. “If one of you can’t do it, then two of you get on it! My fiancé will cover any trouble! Whoever smashes that thing in her arms gets twenty thousand dollars!” At the mention of money, the other bodyguards’ eyes lit up with greed. “Someone, please, call the police!” I screamed, scrambling across the floor. “I’ll give you a hundred thousand!” A swarm of them descended on me. I rolled and kicked, a desperate, cornered animal. “Get off me! Get away! Don’t you touch my mother!” 4 Finally, the hotel security guards heard the commotion and came running. Amber was out of patience. “A whole group of you can’t handle one woman? Are you useless? You want to get paid or not?!” She spun around and screamed at the guards. “Stay back! Or I’ll call the police! Get away from me, or I’ll have my fiancé buy this hotel and fire every single one of you!” After her threat, I felt the bodyguards’ efforts intensify. The room was a minefield of broken furniture. There was nowhere to run. Someone grabbed my leg and dragged me across the floor, right in front of Amber. Her face was flushed, her makeup streaked. She shoved the camera at me and yelled at the men, “What are you doing, dragging her to me? Do you want me to do it myself?!” The security guards were closing in. She was panicked. She grabbed a large shard of a broken vase from the floor and brought it down on my back. The sharp edge tore through my dress and stabbed into my skin. Blood began to pool beneath me. I clenched my jaw, refusing to scream. My eyes burned with a furious, crimson hate. Neil. Amber. I will see you both in hell for this. The wine from earlier stung the open wound, an agony of salt and fire. Amber was still shouting. “Hurry up, smash the urn! Step on her shoulders! Pry her hands open!” As I struggled, more blood flowed from the wound. In the distance, one of the security guards was on the phone, calling the police. When Amber heard him, she lost what little sanity she had left. She sat down hard on my back, right on top of the wound. A scream of pure agony was ripped from my throat. With me pinned, the bodyguards finally wrenched the urn from my grasp. One of them lifted it high above his head and, with all his might, smashed it on the floor. As it shattered, all the fight went out of me. My world dissolved into a cloud of blinding, gray dust. Across the room, another bodyguard stomped on my mother’s portrait, cracking the glass and the frame. The men were a frenzied mob, fighting for their prize. Amber finally seemed to relax. She turned back to her livestream. “See that? That’s what happens to homewreckers,” she panted. “And I’m not just going to beat her. I’m going to make her pay back every single cent my fiancé spent on her.” “Let this be a warning to anyone who even thinks about looking at my man. Your end will be worse than hers.” Just then, the wail of sirens filled the air. Police officers stormed into the hall. Amber spoke first. “Officer, this woman scammed my fiancé out of over a million dollars! Arrest her immediately!” I gritted my teeth against the pain and screamed, my voice raw. “My ex-husband’s affair drove my mother to her death. Today, his mistress destroyed her funeral. I want them both to rot in jail!” “I funded his company! I want them to pay back ten times the cost of every single thing they destroyed here today!”
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