My husband just sent a $1,000 gift to his mistress, Who immediately forwarded it to me: “Sis, this scumbag gave me $1,000. Let’s go out for a nice meal tomorrow.” While Derek was taking a shower, his phone kept buzzing. Several messages came in quick succession. I picked up the phone and saw they were from someone saved as “Sweetie”, who had sent a few pictures. The screen was locked, so I couldn’t see the details. Then another message came: “Do you like them?” My heart sank. I tried entering our child’s birthday and our wedding anniversary, but they were both wrong. Finally, I unlocked it using Derek’s own birthday. The photos seemed to be taken in a bathroom, with dim lighting and tantalizing curves barely visible under an open white shirt. Even more eye-catching than the white shirt was the button on the chest. It was the one I had specially customized for Derek’s birthday, with our initials engraved: D&O. I had suspected Derek was having an affair for a while. He had been coming home later and later, claiming to work overtime on weekends too, and often returned with a faint scent of perfume. He had also grown increasingly cold towards me, barely speaking ten sentences to me in a week. Not only had he removed my fingerprint from his phone, but he had also changed the password. All these details pointed to one thing: Derek was cheating. It had been 10 years, from classmates to lovers, from school uniforms to wedding dresses. I never imagined he would cheat. I didn’t want to lose this family, nor did I want to lose Derek. I also wasn’t sure how to face his betrayal. He didn’t bring it up, so I pretended not to know. This way, I could still tell myself nothing had happened. This was the first time this person had actively appeared before me, tearing apart my self-deception. I sat rigidly on the edge of the bed, staring at the phone, the screen’s light stinging my eyes. I still remembered Derek’s tear-streaked face at our wedding. He thanked me for sticking by him, willing to suffer hardships with a poor boy like him, and vowed to give me a good life. Now, the poor boy wasn’t poor anymore, and he had someone else on the side. Hearing the bathroom door open, I quickly wiped away my tears and put the phone back. When he came out, I pretended nothing was wrong: “Honey, Emma’s been coughing a lot lately. Can you come with me to take her to the doctor tomorrow?” Derek paused while drying his hair, his voice muffled under the towel: “I have to rush a project recently, working overtime on weekends too. You take her.” I didn’t say anything more and quietly went to sleep. The next day, after dropping Emma off at preschool, I followed Derek to a secluded Western restaurant. The restaurant was by East Lake, with huge glass windows overlooking blooming lotus flowers. It had been a long time since I’d eaten out. At first, it was because we were saving money to buy a house. Later, when our income increased and I wanted to eat out, Derek would either say he had to work overtime or was too tired to go out, always finding excuses. The young girl cuddling up to Derek was young and beautiful, every detail from her hairstyle to her fingertips was exquisite. In just a few years, I had gone from being that kind of girl to a mom with messy hair, dark circles under my eyes, and dry, chapped lips. Actually, Derek’s attitude towards me had changed long ago. I remembered one day when I was applying lipstick in front of the mirror, Derek glanced at me and sneered: “With those chapped lips of yours, it’s useless to put on lipstick.” He had forgotten that I used to be pretty too, that I was once young and fashionable, willing to spend hundreds on a set of beautiful nails. But I got married and had a daughter. Since our daughter was born, I had hardly slept a full night. I had to get up in the middle of the night to breastfeed, clean the house and do chores during the day. Derek’s mother often came over, supposedly to see her granddaughter, but she never helped. Instead, she would demand this and that, keeping me running around. Derek couldn’t see any of this. He would only question why the house was so messy, or why I was arguing with his mother again. I always had to face a pile of housework alone, a crying baby, and their various accusations. Countless times, I desperately wanted to jump from the 11th floor. It wasn’t until I was diagnosed with postpartum depression that Derek realized how serious my condition was. But even knowing I needed medication to control my condition, he still said I was being dramatic. I tried to discuss hiring a housekeeper with him, but he rejected me with one sentence: “Do you know how expensive housekeepers are now? Don’t you know how hard I work? Other people can take care of several kids without problems, why can’t you handle it?” Of course I knew work was hard, but Derek simply didn’t care whether I was struggling or not. Later, when the child became easier to care for, I stopped taking medication, and Derek became even more perfunctory and cold towards me. I could see he was losing interest in me, but I originally thought it was just a lack of novelty after being together for so long. After my parents divorced and remarried, neither of them wanted me, their past mistake. I wanted a family so badly, I didn’t want to be pushed out the door again. So I compromised and pretended not to know, thinking this way I could keep this family. Little did I know that while I was struggling here, they were having the time of their lives. I coldly watched them flirting, suddenly feeling foolishly ridiculous. A man who has changed his heart is like a rotten cabbage, disgusting to look at and nauseating to smell. I don’t want it anymore.
On the way home, while waiting at a red light, I saw Derek’s mother getting off a truck full of renovation materials, talking to the security guard at the entrance of Sunshine Garden residential complex. She had never been satisfied with me. She thought her son was excellent and shouldn’t have married a girl from an ordinary family like me. She even thought I was throwing myself at him because Derek and I had been dating since high school, and she always picked on me. What was she doing here? I followed her into Sunshine Garden at a distance. Just as I reached the entrance, I heard the security guard chatting with others: “That old lady is really lucky. At her age, her son still bought her another house. Four bedrooms and two living rooms, over 1,400 square feet.” My head buzzed. Derek had bought a large house of over 1,400 square feet, and I knew nothing about it? I pretended to gossip with the security guard: “Really? She doesn’t look like a rich person.” “Well, she has a rich and filial son! Last week when they came to see the house, her son drove a black BMW. That car didn’t look cheap.” Derek’s car was a black BMW. I returned home in a daze and collapsed on the sofa, surveying this small apartment of less than 800 square feet. I still remembered the night we moved in, Derek held me tightly and vowed to get me a bigger house. The bed board was hard, but I felt like I was sleeping on soft clouds, completely comfortable. The words were still ringing in my ears, but he was no longer the man who hugged me and cried, saying he had let me suffer. I rummaged through drawers and found the property deed at the bottom of one. The owner’s name: “Karen”. This was Derek’s mother’s name.
I had been kicked around by my parents since childhood and hadn’t seen either of them since I turned 18. When we bought the house, all I could contribute was my savings from a few years. Derek’s mother absolutely refused to put my name on the property deed. I didn’t want to make things difficult for Derek and was so desperate for a home that I agreed. But Derek had clearly said at the time that he would secretly add my name when he got the chance. As time passed, I didn’t bring it up, and he seemed to have forgotten. But he hadn’t forgotten to transfer the house to his mother. I couldn’t help but laugh bitterly. I was living with him, while he was scheming behind my back. Once the name was changed, this house had nothing to do with me. After all, who’s ever heard of dividing a mother-in-law’s house in a divorce? Cheating, changing names, buying houses. Had he changed, or had I been blind for 10 years and never seen his true nature? I don’t want this man anymore, but I must know how many more things he’s hiding from me. I started following him. I secretly installed location and recording apps on Derek’s phone and gradually figured out his movements. “Sweetie” was called Amber, Derek’s subordinate. Derek accompanied her to movies, dinners, and shopping. He took her to the hilltop where we used to date to watch the stars, retelling the romantic stories he once told me. I watched that man expressionlessly, my heart growing colder with every look. Half a month later, I discovered Derek having dinner with a young man. This man often handed out flyers near our residential area, advertising a financial lending company. After pretending to urgently need money and chatting with the company’s sales a few times, I learned that it was actually a loan shark operation. Within half a month, they met three times. At their third dinner meeting, these two men decided my fate in a few words: “Bro, as long as you have her ID and signature, you can just say you didn’t know about this loan during the divorce. Then you won’t have to repay it.” “Thank you so much, Little Wang. Don’t worry, once I get the $100,000, I won’t short you on the promised commission.” That night, when Derek came home, I asked him: “Have you seen my ID?” He suddenly became nervous, “Why are you asking? How would I know where your ID is?” I gave the reason I had prepared: “I forgot my bank card PIN and wanted to change it at the bank.” Derek’s expression relaxed, but he still couldn’t help scolding: “You can’t even find your own ID, I really don’t know what you do all day.” A few days ago, I would have angrily explained everything I did in a day and how exhausting it was. But now, I said nothing. I could now confirm that he had taken my ID to get a high-interest loan. That night, Derek fell asleep as soon as he got into bed. I looked at his familiar outline in the dark, listening to the recording of his conversation with Little Wang through my earphones, tears streaming down my face without realizing it. I hadn’t worked outside the home for four years and had no income. If I were to be saddled with a $100,000 high-interest loan on top of that, I really wouldn’t know how to repay it. Derek was my husband. It was all too easy for him to get my ID and signature. Didn’t he know what situation this would put me in? Of course he knew, he just didn’t care. He hadn’t thought about me, hadn’t thought about our child. He just wanted to divorce me and squeeze everything he could out of me. I masochistically listened to the recording over and over again, feeling a bone-chilling cold from head to toe. Since that’s how it is, don’t blame me for being ruthless.
I went to see a lawyer to consult about whether I would be responsible for repaying a loan if my husband borrowed money using my name fraudulently. The lawyer said as long as the loan wasn’t used for family expenses and there was evidence that it wasn’t my signature, I wouldn’t be liable. That night, I posted an anonymous message online: “My husband is cheating. Need help gathering evidence for divorce. Will pay handsomely for proof.” A few days later, Jack contacted me. He ran a private investigation agency specializing in tracking cheaters and affairs. In his own words, this was “upholding justice”. Jack was slim with androgynous features. If he grew out his hair, he could easily pass for a girl. I offered to pay him $50,000 upon completion, with red envelopes of at least $100 for each photo or chat record he provided, but I needed to know all the details. Jack agreed. As expected of a professional, he got quite a few photos after just a few days of following Derek. Besides going out as a couple with “Sweetie” to various high-end hotels and shopping malls, Derek also frequented other places. Jack angrily said on the phone: “Sis, this scumbag is fishy. Does he have other income sources you don’t know about?” Looking at the photos on my phone, I felt no emotion anymore: “Hmm, I thought so too. Keep following him.” No time to take the kid to the hospital, but plenty of time to take his mistress shopping. Buying houses and all sorts of high-end consumption, where did Derek, a department manager, get so much money? I laughed coldly, saved the photos to the cloud, then deleted the chat history. I started investigating Derek’s income sources but didn’t find any side jobs. However, I discovered he had lost over $100,000 in stocks. But from his phone’s payment records, I noticed a pattern. After the 10th of the first month of each quarter, Derek would always spend very lavishly. Most of his big expenses were during this time. But his payday was on the 28th of each month. I had heard him mention before that department project funds were allocated and audited quarterly, and he had put a lot of effort into the fund usage reports. I told Jack this information and asked him to investigate in this direction. Sure enough, there was good news in a few days. Jack got some information from one of Derek’s subordinates: “It’s harder than climbing to heaven to get funds approved from Manager Tian. I just don’t understand, it’s not his own money, why is he so stingy!” Jack sent me the recording and said: “Sis, this scumbag wouldn’t be so bold as to embezzle company funds, would he?” Huh, cheating, transferring assets, forging signatures – adding embezzlement doesn’t seem so strange anymore. “Can you get evidence?” Jack was quite confident: “Yes, but it will take some more time.”
My original plan was just to protect myself and go through normal divorce procedures with Derek. As for the mistress who interfered in my family, while I couldn’t say I had no resentment, I didn’t intend to do anything to her. She may be detestable, but the real culprit is still Derek. If a man doesn’t have the heart to cheat, no woman outside can seduce him no matter how hard she tries. But while I had no intention of doing anything to the mistress, she wasn’t willing to leave me alone. On Valentine’s Day, I received a friend request on SnapChat. After I accepted, I checked the profile, which only showed posts from the last 3 days. The message was from “Sweetie”, containing a photo of Derek and her with their faces close together, heads touching, both with sweet smiles. Immediately after was a text message: “He’s mine.” The period at the end of the sentence was firm and unquestionable, revealing arrogance and smugness. I asked: “Who are you?” My calmness seemed to irritate her: “Derek loves me, don’t get cocky.” I was a bit speechless. Didn’t you just say you were the true love? Shouldn’t you be the one getting cocky? Seeing that I didn’t reply, she sent another video: In the video, she was smilingly pinching Emma’s cheeks. The child was wailing, waving her arms desperately trying to push her away, calling out “Mommy”. She had met Emma? The little dress Emma was wearing was one I bought her last month, which means this happened recently? I immediately called Emma’s preschool teacher, Ms. Zhang. Ms. Zhang sounded confused: “On the 18th of last month, Emma’s dad came and said he wanted to take her out to play. I thought you knew.” I panicked and asked Amber: “What do you mean?” Seemingly satisfied with my reaction, Amber giggled and sent a voice message: “I just want you to understand that I can get anything I want.” “You’ve already got it. Adult matters have nothing to do with children.” Amber snorted, “If you’re smart, hurry up and divorce Derek. Otherwise, you won’t even get the child!” I tried hard to calm down and recalled what Ms. Zhang had just said. The 18th of last month… At that time, I hadn’t started following Derek yet and didn’t know he had taken Emma out. I called Derek to probe: “Have you been to Emma’s preschool?” Derek immediately denied it: “No. Why are you asking?” “Nothing, the preschool teacher messaged me saying there was a strange man lingering around the preschool, so I’m asking.” So Derek doesn’t want me to know he took Emma to meet Amber, and Amber contacting me is behind his back. What is Amber’s purpose in doing this? It shouldn’t be simple provocation. It’s time to meet her. I arranged to meet her at 3 PM on Wednesday at Huili Cafe. I arrived half an hour early. Soon after, Amber came. She looked me up and down carefully, probably concluding that I wasn’t as young and pretty as her, and smiled smugly. I didn’t care. If she also hadn’t slept well for two or three years, she would be as haggard as me. “Don’t you have anything to ask me?” Seeing that I kept staring at her without speaking, she couldn’t hold back and asked. I smiled: “I just wanted to see what kind of person would knowingly be the other woman.” She choked, then said defiantly: “Love has no order. Derek loves me.” I almost laughed out of anger. I originally thought she was after money, but it turns out she’s just a romantic fool. “Look up the dictionary, do you even know what love means? At best, you two are just fuck buddies.” Amber’s face turned red: “What do you know! Derek buys me clothes, bags, and even a car! He says he’s willing to give me anything! We’ll get married soon!” I glanced at her: “Married? Do you know what bigamy is?” Amber retorted: “Don’t think you can stop us by refusing to divorce. If pushed too far, we’ll make sure you can’t even get the child!” I’m refusing to divorce? Is that what Derek told her? I pretended to be nervous, “What are you going to do to Emma!” She smiled smugly: “That little girl is ugly and disobedient. Only you would care about her. It’s not like you’re the only one who can have children.” I looked at her feet in flat shoes: “You’re not pregnant, are you?” Amber’s expression was shocked. No wonder she sent me that video. She’s pregnant and wants to get married. “If you want a divorce, no problem. Tell Derek to come talk to me himself.”
Because of Amber’s provocation, Derek had a big fight with her. Jack said Derek was so angry he started yelling in the restaurant, saying Amber was too stupid and had ruined his plans. I nodded. Isn’t that right? With Derek’s personality, he would have everything perfectly prepared before mentioning divorce to me. I wanted to see how he would react now that he knew. Derek didn’t come home all weekend. On Monday night, as soon as he came in, he said coldly: “Since you already know, let’s get divorced.” He threw two papers on the table. I stared at my phone playing a game, “Know what? That you’re cheating? Or that you’re having an affair?” Derek paused, suddenly realizing: “You knew long ago!” “That’s right, I’ve known for months.” I sneered, “I also know her name is Amber, your ‘sweetie’. I didn’t know you could be so cheesy, Derek.” “You snooped through my phone! Don’t you understand respecting others’ privacy?!” His phone used to be open for me to look at anytime. Now looking at his phone has become invading privacy. I put down my phone: “How else would I know about you two dogs?” Derek was furious with embarrassment: “Watch your mouth!” Can’t take it already? “Are you afraid of people talking about the dirty things you did?” “I don’t want to argue with you! Sign the papers quickly! I can’t stand another day with you!” I folded my arms expressionlessly: “If you want a divorce, fine. Give me what I’m owed, not a penny less. We’ll go file the paperwork tomorrow.” He laughed coldly, his expression disgusted: “Have you earned a single cent these past few years? All you know is asking me for money! What in this house did you buy?” He slapped the two papers on the table, “If you’re smart, sign quickly. Don’t make things ugly for everyone.” Then he stormed out, slamming the door. I was shaking with anger. Although I only contributed a few thousand to the down payment, I had been working before having the baby and never missed a mortgage payment. It’s true I haven’t had any income these past few years, but haven’t I done everything in the house? He just flops on the couch as soon as he gets home. I cook the meals, sweep the floors, and when the baby cries, he doesn’t even know to pick her up and comfort her. In this house, I’m the housekeeper, the cleaning lady, the nanny, everything except his wife. I took a deep breath, trying to calmly look at the divorce agreement. It was written simply on the A4 paper. The small apartment belonged to his mother, not marital property. The child wouldn’t be with me, and I would have to pay $100,000 a year. I knew what Derek was planning. If I didn’t fight for custody of the child, I would have to pay him money every year. If I fought for custody, he would gain the upper hand and could use the child’s custody to pressure me. There was no mention of the other house or savings. What a good calculation. But I’m not going along with your wishes. My plans were proceeding smoothly, and things were going well on Jack’s end. A few days later, he sent me a message: “Sis, he took the bait.” The photo showed Derek having coffee with a familiar-looking long-haired beauty, his smile clear in the high-definition image. Everything was going according to plan. Derek started frequently meeting with the long-haired beauty. Under my instructions, Jack deliberately left clues for Amber to discover Derek’s new mistress. She clung to Derek even more, demanding expensive gifts and showing them off on Instagram, as if this was the only way to prove their “love”. Jack wasn’t to be outdone either, receiving quite a few SnapChat red envelopes and expensive gifts. Of course, all these things eventually ended up in my hands. One day, I saw Amber post a selfie on Instagram from a famous local villa area: “Derek’s taking me to look at houses!” I saved all the text and images. When people are determined to ruin themselves, no one can stop them. Indeed. She’s pregnant and about to successfully climb up, when suddenly a new mistress appears. I’d be anxious too if I were her. When I received photos from Jack again, there were several scratches on Derek’s neck, probably from Amber. “Sis, that woman called several times during dinner yesterday. Today I saw the scumbag’s neck all scratched up.” “Mm, I know. I told her.” Jack immediately transferred $1,000 to me, “I asked a few questions, and this scumbag guiltily gave me $1,000. Let’s go out for a nice meal tomorrow.” I didn’t accept it: “You keep it. You’ve been working hard lately.” With the threat of a new mistress, Amber became increasingly impatient, calling Derek more and more frequently. Jack said Derek seemed to be getting more and more irritated with her, and he heard him cursing on the phone several times. I knew the time had come. According to the pre-arranged time with Jack, I sat in a hidden corner of the lobby at the Rongxin Hotel. After a short wait, Amber stormed in angrily. After she entered the elevator, I took another elevator to the 6th floor. As soon as I stepped out of the elevator, I heard a woman’s shrill crying from not far ahead. The sound was so loud that many people in the hallway were pointing and whispering. “Derek! Aren’t you disgusted with yourself!”
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