Chapter 6
The moment Margaret Whitmore burst through the door, she ran straight to Nathan and threw her arms around him.
Her fingers trembled as she touched his swollen cheek, and tears streamed down her face.
“My poor son! What did she do to you?”
“You’ve been abused–this is abuse!”
Then she turned and glared at me, her eyes sharp as poison–tipped daggers.
“Anna! You monster! Marrying you was the worst mistake of his life!”
Richard’s face darkened like a thundercloud. He slammed the golf club he was holding onto the floor with a deafening clang.
“I warned him from the beginning you couldn’t be trusted,” he growled, voice shaking with rage.
“And look! I was right. You dare raise a hand against my son?!”
The rest of the relatives wasted no time jumping in–each louder and more vicious than the last.
“She’s just a gold–digger who’s been living off him–look how she repays it!”
“She’s always acted high and mighty just because she married up!”
Nathan’s Aunt Cheryl shrieked from the back, her blood–red nails nearly poking my face.
“We never should’ve let you into the company! We were being nice—and you turned around and bit us like a snake!” “Ungrateful little witch!”
Vanessa Whitmore, Nathan’s cousin, gave me a shove with her shoulder on the way past and bent down to help Valerie off the ground. Valerie whimpered pathetically and leaned weakly into her arms, letting out a few carefully timed coughs.
Blood still stained her lip, but her eyes… her eyes flicked up at me with a glint of smugness.
Nathan saw it and broke free from his mother’s embrace. He scrambled toward Valerie, cupping her cheeks like some tragic hero. “Valerie, are you okay? I’ll call an ambulance right now!“.
Then he turned on me, his voice raw with fury.
“Anna, you’re going to jail for this!”
The room erupted into chaos–screaming, crying, accusations flying from every corner.
I stood in the far corner, silent.
Just watching. Cold and detached, like none of it had anything to do with me.
Margaret took my silence as guilt and doubled down, her voice shrill and venomous.
“Nothing to say now? Where’s all that rage from earlier, huh?”
“I’ll tell you what–you’re going to sign the divorce our way. You get nothing. The house, the cars–they’re Nathan’s!”
“And starting tomorrow, you’re fired from the company! Don’t bother showing up!”
Aunt Cheryl chimed in with her hands on her hips.
“That’s right! And you better compensate both Nathan and Valerie for the emotional damage!”
I finally opened my mouth, lips curling into a slow, mocking smile.
Chapter 6
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“None of you bothered to ask why I hit him, did you?”
The room fell silent.
I pulled out my phone and tapped on two video files, then held up the screen so they could all see.
In the first video, Nathan and Valerie were on a hotel bed, kissing so intimately.
In the second, Valerie was lounging in my silk robe, holding a wine glass and smirking at my wedding photo like it was a joke.
One by one, their expressions shifted–from righteous fury to stunned disbelief… then to awkward, choking silence.
Nathan went pale. His lips trembled, but he couldn’t say a word.
Valerie curled in tighter on the floor, no longer daring to look at me. The smugness in her eyes had vanished completely.matu
Richard’s face darkened like a storm cloud. He turned to Nathan, his voice gravelly and low.
“Explain, Now.”
Nathan opened his mouth–then closed it again, speechless.
Margaret snatched the phone from my hand and watched both videos again.
When she looked back up at her son, her face was full of heartbreak and disbelief.
“Nathan… how could you do this?”
And that was when he finally cracked.
Tears spilled from his eyes, his voice high and panicked.
“Mom, no–it’s not what it looks like! The videos are fake! Anna set me up!”
I stared him down, my voice calm and cold.
“Feel free to call the police,” I said.
“They can run a forensic check on the files.”
“While you’re at it, maybe explain why Valerie was in your hotel room at 2 a.m. during our anniversary trip.”
“Why she was wearing my robe in my house.”
“And why my mother’s portrait ended up shattered on the floor–with a footprint across her face.”
That last line came out like a thunderclap, and I couldn’t stop the fury in my voice from breaking through.
Richard inhaled sharply and turned to me.
“Even if that’s all true, Anna–you still shouldn’t have laid hands on them.”
I stared straight into his eyes.
“If your wife did what they did with another man,” I said, low and slow,
“would you keep calm, talk it out… or would you do what I did?”
Chapter 6
