When Mark broke up with his ex-girlfriend, it was a pathetic sight. She didn’t just slap him in the middle of a crowded cafe; she got in his face and called him a pathetic, broke loser. I was sitting at the next table, sipping my coffee, and from what I could gather, the girl was a classic gold digger. She was furious that Mark couldn’t come up with the exorbitant “boyfriend allowance” she demanded, let alone buy a house in her name with cash. So I, a local with a portfolio of rental properties and no need for a man’s money, walked over and picked him up. After that, Mark and I got married. With his high IQ and top-tier education, backed by my capital, it took him only seven years to transform himself into the CEO of a company worth over a hundred million. But today, as I was nursing our newborn daughter, a message from Mark’s secretary hit me like a ton of bricks. Mark had hired his ex-girlfriend to be his executive assistant. 1 For a moment after reading the message, I was completely silent. Then, I typed out a message to Mark. “I hear you hired Maya as your secretary. The same Maya who slapped you in public and treated you like dirt. And now you’re bending over backwards to give her a job?” My words were cold and harsh. I couldn’t help it; I’d been holding this in for too long. I was initially drawn to Mark for his looks, his intelligence, and his education. But after we got married, he was a devoted family man who was emotionally available and had a gentle temper. Slowly, what had started as a practical partnership on my end blossomed into love. But just as I was falling for him, something happened at last year’s company gala. Mark, flushed with success, had too much to drink. When we got home, he gripped my hand and slurred, “Maya, do you see me now? After you dumped me, I became a CEO. You could get on your knees and beg, and you’d never have me again.” Then, my husband, the successful CEO, broke down and cried. His back shook with sobs, like a child who’d been denied a piece of candy. It was only then that I realized the man who kissed the corner of my mouth every morning, who texted me every day to say, “I miss you, my love,” the man who would linger over me after we made love, whispering that he wanted to die inside me… had never loved me at all. For the first time in my life, I knew what jealousy felt like. But I couldn't bring myself to divorce him. I owned forty-nine percent of his company. And ending a marriage over a pathetic ex who had no real place in our lives seemed incredibly foolish. Besides, I’ve always been the type of person who gets what she wants. So, I devised a plan to make Mark fall in love with me. I arranged a second honeymoon abroad. I consulted with experts on marital intimacy and planned all sorts of romantic activities. I, who had always been terrified of childbirth and wanted to wait, deliberately got pregnant with his child. I thought I had done everything right. I had the baby, our beautiful daughter. But here I was, not even out of my postpartum recovery period, and he had brought that woman into his company. As his secretary. It was laughable, really. But a familiar, sharp pain still pricked at my heart. Mark replied to my text almost immediately. “It was a last-minute thing. My executive secretary’s assistant went on maternity leave, and I had to hire a replacement.” “Maya scored the highest on both the written test and the interview. You know I don’t mix business with personal matters. If she’s qualified, I’ll hire her.” “You need to rest and recover. Why waste your energy getting upset over someone who doesn’t matter? It’s not good for your health.” “By the way, if you’re awake, send me a picture of our daughter. I want to see her.” For a fleeting second, his words almost convinced me. But then it hit me—he was changing the subject. My heart twisted again. “If you want a picture of your daughter, fire Maya. Then I’ll send you one.” After I sent that, there was no reply. I heard nothing from him until four in the afternoon. “Sorry, I was in a meeting.” Tears streamed down my face instantly. Part of it was the heightened emotions of my postpartum state, but mostly, it was a woman’s intuition. I had a terrible feeling that because of Maya, my marriage to Mark was about to change forever. So, even as my chest ached so badly I could barely breathe, I forced myself to send a message to the head of HR at Mark’s company. “Send me Maya’s resume and all her personal information.” 2 Half an hour later, Maya’s file was in my inbox. A quick scan told me her life had been rough. After breaking up with Mark, she was laid off from a major tech company. She then bounced between several jobs, but the companies either went bankrupt or let her go before her probationary period was up. Over the past year, as the job market tightened, she’d been unemployed for long stretches, eventually sinking so low as to work as a debt collector for some fly-by-night agency. Back when she was at the top of her game, working at a big tech firm, she was surrounded by powerful men who fawned over her for her connections. Her standards had become inflated, which is why she’d made those ridiculous financial demands of Mark and ended things. I didn’t believe for a second that her return was a coincidence. That same day, I sent Maya’s file to a private investigator and told him to dig into her personal life for the past seven years. I paid him well, and by that evening, I had the complete report. It was exactly as I’d suspected. Maya had come back with a clear agenda. As her career had tanked and her family’s financial situation worsened, the quality of men she dated had steadily declined. Now, she was older, with no career prospects. Her most recent boyfriend was a community college graduate earning just over sixty-eight hundred a month. When they broke up, she posted this on her social media: “What do you do when you’ve tasted lobster and now you’re stuck eating porridge? It just doesn’t hit the same.” “Right after college, I dated this guy. He wasn’t much back then, came from some poor rural family, parents had no pension. He couldn’t even afford the down payment on an apartment in the city, let alone the 188k I asked for as a security deposit.” “The pressure from my family got to me, so I broke up with him. But guess what? Right after we split, he met some rich local girl, and a few years after they got married, he became a huge CEO. I heard his company is about to go public.” “Ugh, I was fine before, but ever since I found out, I feel sick. Especially when I look at my own 3k a month paycheck and the guy lying next to me who only makes 6k. I can’t stand it.” “How do I get over this feeling of being so cheated?” The post was brutally honest and got hundreds of comments overnight. Many people told her to get a grip on reality and accept that what’s gone is gone. But one comment stood out. “Why panic? From what you said, you and your ex had a great relationship and only broke up because of circumstances. Just go find him again.” “Even if he’s married, you can be his mistress. You’d make six figures a year, which is way better than your 3k salary. And his new wife is probably some bossy rich girl. You just need to be sweet, give him the emotional validation he craves. If he fell for you once, he can fall for you again.” Maya didn’t reply to any of the comments calling her out or telling her to move on. Except for that one. To that one, she simply replied: “Thanks.” After reading the post, her intentions were crystal clear. I didn’t hesitate. I had our housekeeper print out the entire thread, along with every piece of information the private investigator had found. That evening, when Mark came home, I calmly handed him the file. “This is what my investigator found on Maya. You should take a look.” 3 I truly just wanted to have an open and honest conversation with him. It wasn’t worth letting some low-life ex-girlfriend poison our marriage. But the moment he heard my words, Mark’s brow furrowed in anger. He didn’t even glance at the file I placed in front of him. “Why would you investigate her? Elara, how many times do I have to tell you? She’s just a secretary. She’s not important.” My calm facade shattered. My hands clenched into fists, his words stoking a fire inside me. “If she’s not important, then what’s the big deal about firing her?” “Mark, the reason I’m showing you this is because I want to save our marriage. I don’t want another woman creating a rift between us.” “And don’t think that just because you’re ‘Mr. CEO’ now, you can do whatever you want. Don’t you forget that without me, you wouldn’t be where you are today. Without the introductions I made to my family’s connections, your company would be nothing.” “And why did I marry you? I didn’t need your money. I married you for the emotional security, for the freedom to be myself.” “Mark, let’s be realistic. Anyone in the world can cheat, but you can’t. I can tolerate any other flaw, but infidelity is my absolute bottom line.” I spoke with deadly seriousness, my fingers trembling slightly. But Mark just shot up from his seat, his face contorted with rage. “Right, it’s all you! Everything I have is because of you! Stop reminding me every single day that you’re my savior and I have to obey your every command!” “When you told me to drink with your uncles, I had to drink. Even when I was sick with a fever and felt like I was dying, you wouldn’t let me take medicine or rest at home because you wanted them to be happy.” “When one of your uncles was in the hospital, his own son wasn’t there, but you made me go and empty his bedpan.” “On top of that, you made me grovel and suck up to your cousins. In your eyes, am I anything more than a tool for your business deals?” Hearing his words, I shot up as well. “Mark, I don’t care what grievances you have. We can discuss them. But Maya has to be fired. If you won’t do it, I will.” “This is the last time I’m asking you. You knew what kind of person I was when you married me. I say what I mean, and I mean what I say. You can’t expect me to be your business partner on the outside and then come home and be your demure, emotionally available little flower.” Mark was shaking with fury. He ripped off his tie, his eyes glaring at me as if I were his mortal enemy. “Fine. I’ll do what you want. I’ll fire her tomorrow.” He kicked the coffee table with a violent thud, turned on his heel, and stormed upstairs without another look at me. As I watched him go, the tears I’d been holding back finally fell. My body went limp, and I collapsed onto the sofa. His complaints were laughable. He felt humiliated drinking with my uncles and sucking up to my cousins, but he had no idea that without me, he wouldn’t even be qualified to be in the same room with them. My uncles were about to retire, and my cousins were taking over. If he didn’t build those relationships, his company would lose its key contracts and be crushed by the market. Yes, he’d landed a few new deals recently, but who did he think made the initial introductions? I had even asked him at the very beginning: did he want a stable, easy life with a nine-to-five, or did he want to start his own business? He was the one who chose to be an entrepreneur. I gave him the money, I gave him the resources, and until recently, he had been nothing but grateful. But now, after just a few days of Maya being back in the picture, he suddenly felt victimized. He had a point of comparison now. Suddenly, I was too bossy, not gentle enough, not understanding enough. But did he ever stop to think that if I were gentle and understanding, if I were the type to suppress my own needs to cater to a man’s ego, I’d be Maya—a parasitic vine who couldn’t survive without a man to cling to. That night, Mark didn’t come to our bedroom. Before, the first thing he would do when he got home was shower and disinfect, then come to bed to gently kiss our daughter’s cheek and my forehead. “You’ve worked so hard, my love,” he would say, holding our daughter all night, cooing, “Elara, our Lulu is the cutest thing in the world.” But tonight, because I had investigated Maya, he didn’t even come to see his own child. He didn’t even come to our room. He of all people should understand. In business, you investigate your competitors, your partners. I knew, with every fiber of my being, that Maya was here to steal my husband. How could I not investigate her? Did he think I was a fool?
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