Chapter 1 My husband's new favorite pet was a "strong, independent woman." After getting into yet another argument with her, Arthur Sterling came home drunk and suddenly grabbed my calloused hands. "You're both women, but Chloe just campaigned for and won the CFO position. Look at you. All you know how to do is fight the maid for chores." From then on, his catchphrase became, "Look at Chloe." But I continued to tirelessly serve my in-laws, playing the role of the perfect, dutiful wife both in public and in private. That is, until Chloe was exposed online for rejecting seven or eight sugar daddies who tried to keep her, and posted a lengthy manifesto about female independence. Arthur liked the post and left a thinly veiled, sarcastic comment: "You're still the most pragmatic one in our circle." "How is it that back then, you were willing to strip naked and climb into my bed for just a few thousand bucks?" He thought I would accept his degradation just like I always did. Instead, I took off my wedding ring and said calmly: "Since she's better than me in every way, you should marry her and make her Mrs. Sterling." ... I paused for a moment. "I'm serious. Let's get a divorce." When those words left my mouth with absolute clarity, the smile on Arthur's face completely froze. Then, a knowing smirk replaced it. "There's another thing you can't compare to her in." "Chloe has ambition and capital. But you? You've relied on me to support you your entire life. You don't even have the backbone to ask for a divorce." My fingers trembled violently. To this day, I still remember how my father, desperate to plug a massive hole in his business finances, drugged me and delivered me to Arthur's bed. At the time, Arthur and I were deeply in love; we were in that beautiful, ambiguous stage, and he had even prepared an engagement ring for me. But when we woke up the next morning, my father burst into the room, forced Arthur to take responsibility, and walked away completely satisfied with a fifty-thousand-dollar payoff. The pure, enduring love Arthur and I shared in our youth was destroyed right then and there. On the day he was forced to marry me, Arthur publicly mocked me, calling me a gold digger worth exactly fifty thousand dollars. Later, when my mother fell critically ill, he had his men deliver three entire safes filled entirely with discount coupons. "It's time you learned to support yourself. The wife of Arthur Sterling shouldn't be a useless parasite who only knows how to hold her hand out for money." That was when I finally understood that my genuine feelings were worthless. My expression was uncharacteristically stoic. Arthur hesitated, about to step forward, when the doorbell rang abruptly. When Chloe Hayes appeared at the door, Arthur visibly panicked for a split second. Because he had promised me that no matter who he was with, he would never bring his mess to my doorstep. Clearly, Chloe was the exception to that rule. The young woman held a thick stack of receipts, speaking with an exasperated sigh: "Mrs. Sterling, your expenses through the company account lately have been far too high, and many of them are completely unnecessary." "It's incredibly difficult for Mr. Sterling to run this company. The least you could do is be a little more considerate of him. Am I right?" My face flushed with humiliation, my chest feeling like it was stuffed with cotton. Ever since Chloe joined the company, every single one of my expenses had to go through her for approval. The medical and nursing care bills for my in-laws often sat pending for half a month with no response. When I went to Arthur to complain, he would just compare me to her, saying I wasn't as frugal and thrifty as Chloe. He said all I knew how to do was ask for money. But the amount spent on me personally was microscopic. The dress I was wearing right now was from three years ago. Arthur flipped through the stack of receipts, obvious disgust written all over his face. "Chloe is right. Go to the office tomorrow and return the luxury items. You really don't need things of that quality." My fingernails dug deep into my palms. "Those receipts aren't mine." As soon as the words left my mouth, Chloe, acting as if I was giving her attitude, turned and ran off, looking incredibly wronged. Arthur stared in the direction she disappeared, completely oblivious to the fact that he had knocked over a carafe of freshly boiled water right onto my leg. "From now on, Chloe is the manager of this household. I'll thank my lucky stars if you manage to learn even a fraction of what she knows!" With that, Arthur slammed the door and left. I pulled the fabric away from my leg; the skin was blistered and raw, a horrifying sight. But he couldn't see it at all. I quickly treated the burn, then called a lawyer: "Help me draft a divorce agreement." Chapter 2 When I went to the hospital to get my burn dressed, I stared at the $263 medical bill, at a loss. "I'm so sorry, I'll be right back with the money," I said, embarrassed. The billing clerk's jaw dropped. The wife of Arthur Sterling, a woman who could buy the entire hospital with pocket change, actually needed to borrow money to pay a tiny medical bill. I had to contact an old friend from the past just to cover the fee. The moment I walked out of the hospital, I received a text from Arthur urging me to return the items. When I arrived at the company carrying the "luxury items" I had bought over the years, the employees around me began whispering. "They say you can tell where a man's heart is by where he spends his money. I didn't expect Mrs. Sterling to look so pathetic." "If she had even half of Assistant Chloe's ambition, she wouldn't have sunk so low." "Her virginity was only worth fifty grand, anyway. This pile of junk is probably worth more than she is, hahaha!" ... I forced myself to stay calm and didn't lash out. Chloe marched over, leading a large group of employees from her department. She glanced into the bag in my hand and fanned the air in front of her nose in disgust. "Mrs. Sterling, you spent all that money and only bought this? I don't believe it." The black trash bag held a few pieces of jewelry worth less than a thousand dollars total—bought solely to play the part of the dutiful wife when accompanying Arthur to banquets. The rest was just faded, overworn clothes and a few pairs of high heels with broken stilettos. Everything else in the bag was adult diapers and empty prescription bottles for my in-laws. My entire life over the past few years amounted to nothing more than this. I handed over the keys to the house along with the bag. "If you don't believe me, you can go search the house." Chloe excitedly snatched the keys, tucking them into her designer bag as if they were a priceless treasure. Then, she looked me up and down, examining the clothes I was wearing. "These were bought with Mr. Sterling's money too, right? They're designer, after all. Please take them off, Mrs. Sterling." Instantly, the employees erupted into mocking laughter. I tried my best to steady my emotions. "I am not going to..." "If Chloe tells you to take them off, take them off. It's not like you haven't stripped for money before." I snapped my head up in shock. When I realized the voice belonged to Arthur, the blood in my veins turned to ice. Back in college, I had accidentally wandered into the wrong nightclub. Three or four drunk men threatened me with knives, demanding I strip or they wouldn't let me leave. I had barely exposed one shoulder when Arthur rushed in, armed with broken beer bottles, and permanently blinded them right then and there. "If you dare look at her again, I'll make sure you never see tomorrow!" And now, he was telling me to strip naked in front of all his employees. I smiled, closed my eyes, gritted my teeth, and took off my scarf. Then, I unbuttoned my coat, revealing my bra underneath. The crowd gasped sharply. But my movements didn't stop. Until I was down to my very last piece of clothing. "Enough!" Arthur frowned, his expression complicated, and roughly threw his jacket at me. "If you don't have any shame, I do!" Ignoring the mocking stares around me, I handed him the divorce agreement I had prepared in advance. "I've returned everything I owe. Let's get a divorce." Arthur's body stiffened for a second, then he grabbed a pen and signed his name with a flourish. "Don't think these little tricks will scare me. I'm giving you three days. I'll be waiting for you to crawl back and beg me!" Dropping that threat, he turned and marched back into his office, slamming the door behind him. Chloe used the pointed toe of her stiletto to kick all the clothes I had taken off into the trash can. Barely covered, I picked up the divorce agreement and stepped into the elevator under the malicious gazes of everyone present. The moment I stepped out of the company building, my mother called me, sounding frantic: "Stella! Arthur auctioned off my ancestral home!" Chapter 3 Immediately following that, my mother's agonizing sobs were abruptly cut off, sounding as if she had been crushed by something heavy. By the time I rushed to the scene, my mother had been pinned under a massive solid wood cabinet, barely clinging to life. "Stella, don't go begging him." My numb face was covered in tears. Holding the gold bangle Arthur had given me on our wedding day, I begged the demolition crew to stop. But the bangle was ruthlessly smacked out of my hand. "Do you think we're idiots? This is cheap metal plated with a thin layer of gold! Do I look like a scrap metal collector to you?!" My brain was buzzing. The crisp clink of the bangle hitting the ground smashed directly into my heart. So, in Arthur's heart, I was only worth cheap, gold-plated scrap metal. After getting my mother into the emergency room, I broke down and called Arthur. "What right do you have to touch my mother's ancestral home?! Your people crushed her and put her in the hospital!" Arthur's slow, deliberate voice carried an air of absolute self-righteousness: "Who told your mother to go online and spread rumors that Chloe is a homewrecker? Chloe works tirelessly for the good of this company. What right does a woman who sold her own daughter have to slander her?" "And besides, there's no need to curse your own mother just to scare me. I don't buy it." "If you really want the ancestral home back, you can come to the auction and get it yourself." With that, he hung up. A doctor walked over to inform me: "Due to massive internal crushing injuries, the patient has just passed away." I collapsed to the floor, drained of all strength. I couldn't even cry anymore. When I arrived at the auction, Chloe was dripping in gold and diamonds, clinging to Arthur's arm like she was the true Mrs. Sterling. Any random gemstone necklace she pointed at would have easily covered the cost of my mother's surgery. The surrounding crowd cast disdainful looks my way. "She's really Mrs. Sterling? I didn't expect her to look so pathetic!" "Her hands are rougher than my maid's. If you didn't know better, you'd think she was the help who wandered in by mistake, hahaha." "Mr. Sterling obviously knows she's an embarrassment, which is why he brought Miss Hayes here to play. He just bought her three million dollars' worth of jewelry!" ... These mocking words meant absolutely nothing to me now compared to my mother's only remaining possession. I stumbled over to Arthur in a daze, my voice dead and monotone: "My mom passed away. Give the ancestral home back to me." He slowly put out his cigarette, his face twisting in disgust. "You really can't stop spewing lies, can you?" "Too bad I can't give it back anyway. Chloe already sold it to a homeless man a few minutes ago." I snapped my head up in shock. He knew perfectly well that my mother had protected that ancestral home with her life so my father wouldn't sell it off. Chloe walked over, putting on an act of immense generosity. "The homeless man at the door was just so pitiful. I was just trying to do a good deed in Mrs. Sterling's name, otherwise..." Then, she leaned in close and whispered in my ear: "Otherwise, your mother wouldn't have been crushed to death." The woman's vicious, twisted face magnified in my vision. Suddenly, I remembered the single earring I had found in the rubble of the house earlier—it perfectly matched the one missing from her ear right now! In that instant, pure fury completely incinerated my rationality. Gritting my teeth, I swung my hand and slapped her right down the stairs. Chapter 4 As Chloe screamed and tumbled down the steps, the crowd gasped in shock. "Stella, are you a fucking psycho?!" Arthur sped past me, rushing down the stairs to help the woman up, his gaze bone-chillingly cold. Chloe collapsed weakly into his arms, coughing non-stop: "I don't even know how I offended Mrs. Sterling. Whenever she disciplines me in private, I never tell anyone, but she shouldn't embarrass you like this, Mr. Sterling, sob..." As she spoke, she casually exposed the bruises on her arms and thighs, looking like the ultimate victim. The onlookers cast judgmental stares at me. Arthur stood up and, without warning, slapped me hard across the face, his eyes nearly popping out of his head with rage: "Have you forgotten every rule the Sterling family taught you?! Get down there and apologize right now!" My eyes were bloodshot: "Never! She killed my mother, are you blind?!" Acting as if he hadn't heard me, Arthur pulled out his phone right in front of me and dialed the demolition crew. Gritting his teeth, he threatened: "Apologize!" I shook my head in terror, easily imagining the ancestral home being reduced to absolute rubble. "No, don't!" Under Arthur's threatening glare, I stumbled to my feet and walked over to Chloe. "I! Am! Sorry!" She smiled smugly, striking the pose of a victor. Arthur wrapped his arm around her waist, looking down at me from his high horse. "Here's five bucks. Go find the homeless man and get the deed." With that, Arthur carefully scooped the woman up and carried her toward the medical bay. I humiliatingly picked up the crumpled five-dollar bill from the floor. The guests were laughing so hard they were bent over. "Hahahaha!" "First she stripped and climbed into his bed for fifty grand, and now she's going to beg a homeless man for five bucks. How pathetic." I stumbled away, listening to their insults. Arthur, I no longer care for the fake love you doled out like charity. Just as I turned to leave, Chloe's supposedly dropped phone lit up with a notification: "Understood, we are beginning demolition immediately!" My heart plummeted. I shoved everyone out of my way and sprinted out of the auction house. Arthur stared deeply at my retreating back. He was about to call out to me when Chloe interrupted him. "My ankle hurts so much." He withdrew his gaze and sped up his pace toward the medical bay. By the time I reached the ancestral home, the workers were already operating excavators, leveling the perimeter walls. "Stop! I said stop!" The deafening roar of the machinery completely drowned out my pleas. Just then, a pair of greasy, filthy hands grabbed me and threw me aside. "I bought this house with my own money! Who told you to demolish it?! Give me my money back!" The deranged homeless man began smashing a rock against my head, each blow harder than the last. My agonizing screams grew weaker and weaker until blood completely blinded my eyes. With one final, brutal strike, my strength gave out and I collapsed to the ground. Arthur had refused Chloe's request to have dinner with her, instead driving straight to the ancestral home. The moment he stepped out of his car, a passing homeless man, fiddling with a blood-stained five-dollar bill, muttered to himself: "That chick had some serious fight in her. Maybe she'll give me a big, fat son!" Arthur froze in his tracks. He violently grabbed the man by the collar, his eyes practically bulging out of his skull: "Who the fuck are you talking about?!" The homeless man trembled violently, unable to form a complete sentence: "I... I don't know her! She just ran in earlier, so I knocked her out and..." Arthur's eyes widened in horror. He threw the man to the ground and sprinted into the alleyway. But the sprawling ancestral home had already been reduced to a pile of rubble. The workers were still wantonly destroying what was left. Arthur roared at the top of his lungs: "Stop! All of you, stop right now!" The foreman saw him and ran over, bowing and scraping: "Mr. Sterling, are you satisfied? We followed your orders exactly; not a single brick will be left standing." Arthur frowned deeply. "What are you talking about?" "When did I ever tell you to demolish it?" The foreman immediately pulled out his phone, showing a recent call log. "Your secretary called us just a little while ago and told us to start working. Doesn't her order represent your order?" Hearing this, Arthur's breath hitched. Just as he was about to verify the call, he accidentally noticed the ground completely covered in blood. "What... what is this? Right, my wife was just here. Where is she?" The workers scratched their heads in confusion. "We were working too hard, we didn't see what happened." But the purse on the ground, and the pair of blood-stained high heels... those belonged to Stella. Connecting this with what the homeless man had just said, his brain completely short-circuited. He had only wanted to use this opportunity to punish Stella and her mother. But he had never intended to actually demolish the ancestral home, nor had he ever imagined a homeless man would hurt Stella. Arthur erupted in a violent rage: "Restore this house to exactly how it was immediately, or I'll end all of you!" Dropping that threat, he gathered the scattered belongings from the ground and rushed home. On the way, he called Stella's phone over and over again, but it remained unanswered. He slammed his fists against the steering wheel, furious, having nowhere to vent his guilt. Ever since Stella's father delivered her to his bed, he had started to hate her. Could it be that the two of them, who had originally loved each other so deeply, only came together because of money? So he constantly tested her, constantly pushed her limits. He wanted to prove that Stella loved him unconditionally. But he never anticipated that it would lead to a situation like this. Stella's most cherished ancestral home, and even her purity, had been destroyed. When he arrived home, the nanny rushed up to him, sweating profusely. "Mr. Sterling, someone came by earlier and took the Madam's belongings, and they left a message for you." "What message?!" "The Madam said she has already divorced you, and she will never return to the Sterling household again." Hearing this, Arthur nearly lost his footing. Only then did he remember that he had already signed the divorce agreement today. It turned out Stella wasn't just throwing a tantrum; she really wanted a divorce. "That... that's impossible." Looking at the empty room, he couldn't believe Stella would never come back. "She must just be mad at me. How dare Chloe act on her own?!" The man's eyes were bloodshot, his anger surging, as he sped towards the company. But as he passed the breakroom, he heard Chloe laughing uproariously: "It was just a rundown old house, nothing special. Turning it into a garbage dump was doing her a favor." "You guys should have seen it! When I told her her mother had been crushed to death, the look on her face was priceless, hahaha!" "Right now, she's probably having the time of her life with that crazy homeless guy. It's exactly what someone of her status deserves!" As soon as the words left her mouth, she followed her colleagues' shocked gazes and turned her head. "Mr... Mr. Sterling!" Chloe spun around in a panic, so terrified she was babbling: "You... didn't you say you had work to handle? Why are you back so soon?" The woman offered a stiff, awkward smile. Arthur stepped closer, his gaze as cold as ice. "Everything you just said... is it true?" Chloe had killed Stella's mother, ordered the demolition crew to destroy the house, and even arranged for the homeless man. Looking at the terror on the woman's face, he couldn't believe it. He had always thought Chloe was a hard worker at the company, climbing the ladder through her own efforts. He had even frequently compared her to Stella, putting Stella down at every turn. He never imagined Chloe could be so vicious and ruthless. Smack! Unable to hold back any longer, Arthur slapped her hard across the face. The surrounding employees gasped in shock. They had all believed Chloe was the most promising of Arthur's many mistresses. They had even seen her as the future Mrs. Sterling. Seeing the situation now, they lowered their heads and tried to slip out of the breakroom. "Stop right there!" Arthur barked at them. "Come here, and each of you slap her ten times. If you don't finish, pack up your desks and get out of my company!"
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