The day I returned home after a long trip, the news of my lawyer husband, Julian, throwing a lavish birthday party for me was all over the news. But the night before my birthday, a message popped up on his phone: “It’s been five years. I’ve been waiting for you.” Julian pushed me away, his face etched with guilt. He claimed the firm had an urgent case, and he was specifically requested to handle it. “Sera, I’m so sorry. My managing partner just notified me about an emergency business trip. I won’t be able to celebrate your birthday with you tomorrow.” Seeing him leave without a moment’s hesitation, I secretly activated the tracking app on his phone. Watching the red dot on the screen slowly move, I discreetly hailed a cab and followed right behind him. I had just been appointed as the firm’s managing partner myself, and I’d specifically approved his leave. How could there be an “emergency case” assigned to him? I was going to find out who he was so desperately rushing to see at midnight.
Julian’s car finally stopped at the Grand Ballroom of the Riverside Manor. I immediately drove over. From a distance, I could hear countless fireworks exploding. As I got closer, I saw ribbons filling the air, blurring everyone’s faces. Two servers pushed a cake, taller than any person, towards the main table. “Happy Birthday, my wife! Happy Fifth Wedding Anniversary!” My heart lurched violently. That was Julian’s voice! And he was calling the woman in his arms his wife! Fifth wedding anniversary? Wasn’t that with me? As the ribbons fell, my breath caught in my throat the moment I clearly saw the woman’s face! Chloe! How was the daughter of our housekeeper here? The compliments of the crowd erupted: “I heard Mr. Julian’s doting wife is the heiress of the prominent Sterling family in our city. Seeing her today, Miss Sterling is truly extraordinary!” “Yes, indeed. Miss Sterling and Mr. Julian are childhood sweethearts, a picture-perfect couple, truly made for each other!” Since when did Chloe become the heiress of my family, the Sterling family of this city?! I don’t have any older or younger sisters! It was true that she and Julian were childhood sweethearts, because Chloe’s mother was originally a housekeeper for Julian’s family. But because Julian liked Chloe, his family fired her mother. My family was the one who took them in, mother and daughter! I, out of kindness, even arranged for Chloe to work at the law firm. Though it was just for printing documents, I made sure she was well-paid. But I was gone from the city for just half a month, and now Chloe had magically transformed into Miss Sterling and Julian’s wife! “Thanks to Miss Sterling’s efforts, Sterling & Associates managed to land multi-million dollar cases!” “Mr. Julian is truly blessed!” They exchanged happy smiles, just like the hero and heroine in a syrupy-sweet romance novel, so sweet it was sickening. Just then, Chloe gripped Julian’s hand, her face blushing as she said: “Julian and I grew up together. We’ve been in love for 20 years!” “Julian was worried that media gossip would affect my life, so he kept our relationship private.” Julian smiled, silently assenting. The guests nodded, an “oh, I see” expression on their faces. I laughed. No wonder Julian always kept me out of the public eye, even hiding our relationship at the firm. It was all to let Chloe shed her identity as the housekeeper’s daughter and take my place! To solidify her status as Miss Sterling, she even had to steal my birthday! Since he loved Chloe so much, I’d grant these scumbags their wish. I’d divorce him immediately! I walked forward, step by step, and saw Julian putting his arm around Chloe’s waist, talking confidently: “Besides not wanting Chloe to be harassed, the Sterling family values discretion, especially for its daughters.” “What? I never knew the Sterling family had such a rule.” “Julian, when did you get another wife behind my back?” I shouted, and the noisy hall instantly fell silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Julian almost instinctively, immediately let go of Chloe. His face turned a mix of green and white, lost in thought. I quickly stepped forward, snatched the red wine glass from his hand, and splashed it all over his face: “What? Your ‘business trip’ took you straight into another woman’s arms?”
“Seraphina, what the hell is wrong with you!” Julian snapped back to reality, wiping the red wine from his face, trembling with rage. His face was flushed with anger, but his flickering eyes couldn’t hide his guilt. Before I could question him further, Mr. Davies, the chief lawyer from a rival firm, incited the crowd’s anger: “Security! Why are you letting any crazy person in here!” “This is a top-tier legal networking event. Who do you think you are, impersonating Mrs. Julian and slandering our Mr. Julian?” “You’re deliberately damaging someone’s reputation. Apologize now!” The junior lawyers, eager to follow suit, chimed in: “You’ve come to the wrong place to throw a tantrum! We deal with law here. There are plenty of legal ways to sue you!” “Mr. Julian is too kind to bother with you, but we must uphold justice!” I let out a sarcastic laugh, looking at Julian: “You want to ‘bother with me’?” “Setting everything else aside, Mr. Big-Shot Lawyer, living together as husband and wife, that de facto marriage, it already constitutes bigamy. You wouldn’t be unaware of that, would you?” “Just now you said ‘fifth wedding anniversary,’ that could get you two years, you know!” Chloe’s eyes instantly welled up, and she shrank into my husband’s arms, looking pitiful: “Sera, please don’t make trouble for Julian. It’s all my fault…” Seeing Chloe’s teary-eyed look, Julian immediately flared up, giving me a cold warning: “Seraphina, what nonsense are you talking about bigamy? Get home, now!” That phrase, “Get home,” made everyone present smell gossip, and they began to scrutinize me with renewed curiosity. I scoffed: “Afraid your fake wife can’t handle the truth?” “Sera! Even though your mother worked for Julian’s family and took care of him since he was little, you’re going too far!” Chloe raised her voice, righteous indignation coloring her tone. “Even if you like Julian, he and I have a baby on the way! Please, stop trying to ruin my family, I’m begging you!” “I felt sorry for you and got you a job at the firm. Why are you so ungrateful?” I was stunned, utterly bewildered. Weren’t those *my* lines? Chloe had no shame! Julian, seeing the suspicion in everyone’s eyes, added solemnly: “I always kept my distance from Seraphina. I never imagined she’d be so shameless, causing a scene like this. I apologize for the embarrassment!” “Seraphina, if you keep this up, don’t blame me for firing you and kicking you out of my house!” It was then that everyone finally dismissed their doubts, whispering amongst themselves: “So she’s the Julian family’s housekeeper? No wonder she said ‘get home’ earlier.” “She looks decent, but she’s just a gold-digger trying to sleep her way to the top! Spreading rumors about Mr. Julian’s bigamy, she’s got a death wish.” “Women like that will do anything to climb the ladder, forget selling themselves, they’d disown their own parents.” Listening to these words, I playfully looked at Chloe, whose smile grew increasingly stiff. To be insulted directly and still manage to smile, Chloe was quite something. I nodded, giving Chloe a disdainful look: “You’re absolutely right. People like that will disown their own parents to climb the ladder!” “Chloe, wouldn’t you agree?” “What did you say when you first seduced Julian, got thrown out by his family, and begged me to take you in?” “Is marrying my husband and bearing his child your way of repaying me?”
Chloe’s face flushed crimson. Before I could expose more of her ugly deeds, someone suddenly pushed me from behind. I fell, hitting my head on a table corner. A warm trickle of blood flowed out, and my vision blurred with pain. Opening my eyes, I saw a woman dressed to the nines smash a piece of cake into my face: “Pfft! What rubbish are you spouting!” “Chloe clearly looks like a lady from a good family. With your housekeeper’s poor, trashy appearance, how dare you lust after Mr. Julian?” Chloe’s face was full of smug satisfaction: “Exactly! I secured three multi-million dollar cases in one month. If a mere housekeeper like you could easily impersonate me, then my Oxford Law PhD would be meaningless.” Haha, Chloe was trying to steal every single bit of my identity! “Yeah! Housekeepers should stick to housekeeper duties, not try to seduce the master.” “Chloe, we can’t keep people like this around. If she dares to impersonate you today, who knows what she’ll do tomorrow!” “If you love seducing men so much, stop being a housekeeper and go sell yourself instead.” I looked at Julian. He was cold-faced, nonchalantly swirling the wine in his glass. “Julian, do you remember what you said when you were pursuing me? You said you’d love me forever, protect me forever.” “Now you just watch them humiliate me?” Julian’s expression quickly shifted, until finally, his voice, cold and unfamiliar, pierced through me: “If you hadn’t insisted on making a scene, would it have come to this?” Chloe got even more emboldened: “Julian told me you’ve been constantly harassing and seducing him. He only tolerated you because your mother worked for his family for over a decade.” “But fabricating rumors about Julian’s bigamy is just too much!” “I declare, I declare Seraphina dismissed. Sterling & Associates does not keep ungrateful vipers!” Ungrateful viper? I looked at Julian: “Are you sure Chloe was the one who secured those deals?” “For Sterling & Associates to be where it is today, who was it that went out and developed clients? Who burned the midnight oil organizing case files? And who secured ten multi-million dollar deals, one after another, to solidify the firm’s position?” “Julian, do you dare tell everyone?” Julian’s face showed a flicker of apprehension and hesitation. The next moment, I heard Chloe say: “To give you a chance to develop, we did let you talk to these clients in the early stages. But all those cases were problematic, and Julian and I had to clean up your mess in the end.” Hearing this, Julian seemed to genuinely believe that he and Chloe had saved the day and secured the deals. His expression turned cold: “Seraphina, I’ve indulged you too much. You actually dare to claim Chloe’s achievements as your own!” After Julian’s words, everyone’s gaze turned even more contemptuous: “A mere administrative assistant who just makes coffee and prints documents, trying to steal credit from Miss Chloe? That’s like a fly growing wings and thinking it can touch the sky!” Julian gripped Chloe’s hand: “If you resign now and hand over Mr. Sterling’s contact information to Chloe, we won’t pursue the bigamy rumors against you.” My heart turned cold. My husband, who had shared my bed for five years, was waiting here to scheme against me? So they were eyeing the nearly twenty million dollars in legal fees from the three massive cases I brought in! He’d played such a grand game to please his mistress! I shook my head, chuckling. Julian had miscalculated. His mistake was in underestimating my family. They were too low-status to realize that my family, the Sterling family, *was* the wealthiest family in the city! And the clients for those multi-million dollar cases? They were all my Grandfather! As Miss Sterling, it was time for me to deal with these imposters who had sullied my name. I smiled and said: “You’ll get the number right away.” “But, you two wouldn’t possibly think that a couple of incompetent fakes like you could land Mr. Sterling’s cases, would you?” “Julian, you can use me up and toss me aside? But let me remind you, ungrateful vipers never come to a good end!” “I’ll send the divorce papers to your email shortly.”
“Seraphina, are you insane? You’ve gotten addicted to acting like Mrs. Julian, like a rich heiress?” “What divorce! My wife has always been Chloe.” Julian gritted his teeth, trembling. He was in too deep now, forced to keep up the lie. I crossed my arms, watching them like a spectator at a comedy. Around me, quite a few people subtly changed their demeanor, becoming more respectful towards me. Their whispers, in the now quiet room, were remarkably clear: “Seraphina also has the surname Sterling. Could it be that Chloe is actually the mistress?” “I heard the real Sterling heiress is very low-key. Isn’t Chloe’s outfit, covered in logos, a bit too deliberate?” Hearing this, Chloe’s smile faltered, and she glared at me furiously: “Seraphina, I have an Oxford Law PhD. How dare you, a high school dropout with no real smarts, utter such outrageous claims!?” “I’m calling Grandfather Arthur Sterling right now to show you how a professional handles multi-million dollar cases!” Seeing her so confident, those opportunists started observing again. “Seraphina, I can’t believe how calculating you are. You know Mr. Sterling is notoriously hard to reach, yet you provoked Chloe into calling him in front of everyone!” “No wonder we almost fell for your tricks, what cunning tactics!” “Since you claim you handled those multi-million dollar cases, then show us proof.” “I ask you, is your name listed as the client on *any* of those cases?” My heart sank. No wonder Julian always sweet-talked me into putting the cases under his name, claiming it was to build a reputation for Sterling & Associates. It was all for this day, to steal everything from me and give it to Chloe! My identity as Miss Sterling, my status as Mrs. Julian, my Oxford PhD (which he knew I was pursuing), even the cases I handled for him—he wanted to steal it all! I laughed self-deprecatingly. How blind was I to have loved such a scumbag for five years? Seeing my silence, the entire room full of sycophantic lawyers began to attack me: “Talks a big game, but can’t produce a shred of evidence! Pathetic, stop pretending!” “This crazy dog, impersonating Miss Sterling and biting at everyone, get the security to throw her out! She’s disgusting!” A few sleazy men exchanged lewd glances and started to surround me: “No need for security. We’ll drag her out and teach her a good lesson ourselves, then she’ll be docile!” Meeting their naked gazes, I felt a chill run through me and trembled as I backed away. Julian frowned slightly, a hesitant look on his face. “It’s just a little lesson to make her remember. We’re all lawyers in this city, nobody will go too far.” Hearing this, Julian seemed to be given a green light, and turned his head, no longer looking at me. A bald man, Frank, grabbed my wrist, his eyes lingering on my chest. I used all my strength to yell: “Let go!” “I am the granddaughter of Arthur Sterling, the wealthiest man in the city! Dare to touch me, and you’ll regret it!” Everyone present froze for a second, then burst into uproarious laughter! “That’s hilarious! The little housekeeper is really getting into her acting!” “You know what, with a scream like that, she almost has the demeanor of an heiress!” Frank tugged me, dragging me out, while two other men seized the opportunity to grope me. “Alright, alright, go ahead and act like the rich man’s granddaughter. Just let us have some fun.” Tears in my eyes, I looked at Julian and screamed: “Julian!” “Stop them right now! My family, the Sterlings, can help your family rise, and we can also make you disappear overnight!” Julian turned to look at me, his eyes devoid of any emotion. He simply said, “Oh.” “Seraphina, blame your bad luck. The daughter of a servant should not dream of being Mrs. Julian, should not dream of replacing Chloe.” Frank, hearing this, became even more brazen, his hand reaching into my blouse and fondling me wantonly. “Mr. Arthur Sterling has arrived!”
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