While temporarily borrowing Mark Smith’s tablet to handle work, I, Elena Gilbert, logged into the cloud sync account to send files, only to accidentally discover that the system had automatically synced 999 private photos. The latest one was uploaded ten minutes ago. In the photo, Mark and a young girl were disheveled in his office, kissing shamelessly in front of the camera. The next second, a message from an unknown account synced through to Mark. 【The 1000th photo together, you promised me a surprise, you better deliver tonight.】 He replied instantly: 【Wait for me.】 I stared at those two lines, my fingertips growing cold, trembling as I dialed Mark’s number. I asked: “Today marks our fifth wedding anniversary. Are we celebrating like last year?” He fell silent for a long time, then apologized guiltily: “I have a meeting tonight and might have to work through the night. Don’t wait up for me.” I agreed in my usual tone, backed up and packaged all the records for my lawyer, then left to go to Mark’s company. ***** I’d been to Mark’s company countless times. Ten years ago, Mark and I started from nothing. Three months ago, I was still the technical director. Until that miscarriage, Mark convinced me to rest at home. In just three months, a girl I’d never seen before, Emily McCoy, appeared at the company, intimately close to him. She had seamlessly taken over my role. The receptionist’s eyes lit up when she saw me: “Ms. Gilbert, you’re here!” I raised an eyebrow slightly: “Why are you suddenly calling me that?” Before, colleagues always called me by my first name; no one used my surname. She scratched her head and smiled: “Mr. Smith felt it was impolite for us to call you by your first name, so he asked us to address you as Ms. Gilbert.” I sneered inwardly. Before I could speak, Mark hurried over. He rushed out of the elevator and draped his suit jacket over my shoulders. He said: “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming? It’s windy outside, are you cold?” I smiled and held up the thermal container in my hand: “You said you’d be working late tonight, so I brought you dinner.” His eyes sparkled with delight: “Thank you for cooking for me, but just this once. I’d feel terrible if you got hurt.” On the way to his office, employees greeted us warmly, their eyes full of envy. In everyone’s eyes, Mark loved me deeply, obeyed my every word, and spoiled me beyond measure. Until a girl walked into the office, smiling brightly: “Hello, Ms. Gilbert, I’m the new assistant, Emily McCoy. Let me make you some coffee!” I looked at her face—identical to the person in Mark’s photo album. So it was her. I extended my hand: “Hello, I’m Elena Gilbert, Mark’s wife.” Her face instantly turned pale, and she left in a panic with her head down. Mark praised Emily to me: “Speaking of which, Emily is actually your junior, ten years younger than us, very talented, just like you.” I felt somewhat dazed. Mark and I were college classmates; he confessed to me the year we graduated. Five years of dating, five years of marriage—we’d been together for a full ten years. Now he was saying another person was like me. Same major, similar names, but she was full of vitality and adorably lively. I looked down and noticed a black hair tie hidden under his shirt cuff. I said: “I haven’t seen this hair tie before. Did you buy it for me?” He instinctively tugged at his sleeve, then frantically pulled off the hair tie and shoved it into a drawer. He said: “My hair’s gotten long and it’s inconvenient for work, so I just bought one randomly.” He was lying. A hair tie that thick could only be used for long hair. He could have brushed it off, but instead he chose to make a flimsy excuse. He pulled my hand over to touch his hair: “Look, I’m growing it out waiting for you to cut it.” I was terrible at cutting hair, but he always enjoyed it, saying only my handiwork was good. Just then, Emily came in with coffee. Seeing our position, her smile became strained. She said: “Ms. Gilbert, your coffee…” Before she finished speaking, the scalding coffee spilled on my arm, instantly turning it red. Mark’s expression darkened: “How could you be so careless?” Emily looked at him in disbelief, her eyes reddening as she covered her face and ran out. I watched Mark’s anger fade and quickly turn to regret. He still put on a show of checking my injury: “Honey, I’ll go buy some burn ointment. Wait for me.” I nodded: “Go ahead.”
Mark chased after Emily in the direction she’d left, and wouldn’t be back anytime soon. Taking advantage of this window, I opened Mark’s computer and easily pulled up all of Emily’s files, copying everything onto a USB drive. Before leaving, I planted a tiny surveillance device in the corner of the bookshelf. Mark didn’t disappoint me. He only called once to offer his condolences, then immediately went to comfort Emily. Through the surveillance feed, I watched them kissing passionately on his office desk, faces pressed together, breathing intertwined, their coats carelessly thrown on the floor. Emily’s hands wrapped around his neck, her voice soft and playfully reproachful: “You actually yelled at me because of that old woman? You’re so mean. As punishment, you have to spend the entire night with me!” Mark’s tone was indulgent: “Tonight was always yours anyway. Elena is so much older than you, and she’s domineering and boring. How could I ever like her? I’m just putting on an act.” My heart plummeted, as if crushed by an invisible hand. He then pulled out an exquisite box and handed it to Emily: “These are custom earrings I had made for you for two million dollars. Will you forgive me?” I watched the screen expressionlessly. I’d discovered the record of these custom earrings a week ago. They featured two snowflake patterns, and I’d thought they were his surprise for our fifth wedding anniversary this Christmas. I hadn’t said anything. Emily’s tears turned to laughter as she playfully demanded Mark put them on her himself. The two became entangled once again. I shut off the surveillance and sent Emily’s files to my lawyer friend Natalia Carter: [Help me investigate her entire background.] Natalia was my college classmate and close friend of fourteen years. After seeing the photos and videos, she immediately flew into a rage, sending me numerous messages. Soon, she sent me Emily’s social media accounts, with all her post history laid bare. I started reading from her earliest posts, like witnessing a romance filled with girlish dreams. The company had long since weathered its most difficult period from ten years ago, giving Mark plenty of time and energy for romance. He accompanied Emily to amusement parks, awkwardly taking photos of her. They kissed passionately on the Ferris wheel, their smiles radiant. [Kissing the one you love at the top of the Ferris wheel – I hope we can be together forever.] Emily even dragged Mark to couple’s restaurants he’d once scorned, holding heart-shaped props and sharing a single ice cream. [Someone said couple’s restaurants were just gimmicks, but he still came with me and helped me finish all the food!] There were also photos of Mark personally cooking to care for her when she was sick with a fever. [I have a fever and feel terrible, but thankfully someone’s here with me, making my favorite dishes.] I recalled from memory a house with the same layout – one I’d fallen in love with at first sight when we were house hunting, though Mark hadn’t been too pleased with it. Turns out he didn’t dislike that house; he wanted to save it for Emily. Emily’s most recent post had a university campus as the backdrop. She wore both graduation robes and a wedding dress in different photos, with Mark beside her in both. [From school uniform to wedding dress – thank you to someone for helping me fulfill my dreams.] I refreshed the page, and a new post appeared. The image showed a candlelit dinner with overlapping hands wearing matching rings, plus a pregnancy test report. [The ring is someone’s surprise and promise to me. As a thank you, I’ll give him a little baby.] Her username was “CallMePrincess.” In the comments, an account called “YesMyPrincess” interacted with her the most. Occasionally, other users would leave blessings when they saw the posts. Looking through those photos, I suddenly realized Emily really did resemble me in my younger years. The way Mark looked at her was exactly how he used to look at me. I opened Mark’s computer in the study and found an encrypted file. He’d told me he had no secrets from me, so all the devices at home had no passwords. This was the only exception. But he’d forgotten that I came from a technical background and had won international programming competitions with absolute dominance. When I saw the password was his and Emily’s couple nickname, I wasn’t surprised at all. Opening the file, I found the most recent document was Emily’s graduation thesis and final project. I could tell at a glance from the table of contents that it was one of the research topics I’d once worked on, with nearly identical code content and framework. Since it hadn’t yielded results, I’d temporarily shelved it. For an undergraduate’s graduation project, though, it was more than sufficient. Natalia was furious, swearing to destroy them both. She raged: “That bastard! He had a child with someone else and stole your research – what else does he want to do?” I silently clicked on the only video in the folder. It was an AI-generated, thirty-second pornographic video. The subjects were a strange man and my face. I felt like I’d fallen into an ice cave, my blood freezing solid. I said coldly: “Natalia, he wants to destroy my reputation completely. Well, I want him dead.”
I didn’t blow up immediately. Instead, I quietly gathered all the evidence I could find and asked Natalia to thoroughly investigate Mark’s financial transactions over the past few years. The night passed quickly, and Mark never came home. The next day at breakfast, he smiled as he handed me an invitation. “There’s a graduation ceremony at the school next week, and they’ve invited us back as distinguished alumni. Elena, let’s go together and reminisce about our college days.” Mark had always been passionate about charity and had donated to our alma mater multiple times, but he’d always declined their invitations to attend events. This year was different, though—Emily was about to graduate and had been selected as the outstanding graduate representative. I smiled and agreed to go with him. The graduation ceremony was quite grand. Emily took the stage to speak, dressed in her cap and gown with flawless makeup. Mark smiled naturally as he told me, “When you were the graduate representative back then, I was completely mesmerized watching you speak from the audience. I was so nervous when I came to confess my feelings right after you stepped down from the stage.” I sneered inwardly. He must be feeling the same way now, unable to take his eyes off Emily. He took my hand: “You’re still recovering, so why don’t we let Emily gradually take over your work? You can stay home and prepare for pregnancy. Didn’t you say you wanted a child? If you have another miscarriage from an accident, I really couldn’t handle it.” I slowly pulled my hand away, the questions almost spilling from my lips. In the end, I only said coolly, “Emily just graduated. How could she handle an entire technical department? Let’s talk about it later.” A shadow crossed his eyes, but they brightened again when he looked at Emily. Emily spoke with confidence, radiant and youthful—a classic genius beauty. Mark didn’t realize that his gaze when looking at Emily was impossible to hide. I’d known him for over ten years and was all too familiar with his micro-expressions and looks. That gaze was full of love and pride. He, who never enjoyed listening to lectures, had actually listened intently to Emily’s entire speech. The dean followed the program with his remarks, offering words of praise before mentioning the scholarship. “As we all know, many alumni have contributed significantly to give back to our alma mater over the years. Among them, our outstanding alumnus Mark Smith has established a special scholarship to encourage underclassmen. Today we’re honored to have Mr. Smith here in person to present the scholarship to this year’s outstanding graduate representative!” Thunderous applause erupted as Mark stood and walked steadily toward the stage. Only I could see the eagerness beneath his calm exterior. He presented certificates and awards to each recipient. When it was Emily’s turn, they shared a smile. I suddenly froze. As Emily bent forward, a necklace fell from her collar—one I recognized all too well. An imperial green jade necklace with a carved pattern I would never forget. It was my mother’s keepsake, left to me.
🌟 Continue the story here 👉🏻 📲 Download the “MyFiction” app 🔍 search for “398294”, and watch the full series ✨! #MyFiction #B×G #Cheating #Divorce #Revenge #Independent
Leave a Reply