Chapter 4My Undercover Wife

Ginnifer returned home, her face ashen. The moment Alex saw her, a flash of vindictive satisfaction crossed his face before he masked it with concern.

He rushed to her, his voice a soothing balm. “Ginnifer, don’t work yourself up. I bet this is all just part of Leo’s plan to make you worry, to make you regret how you’ve treated him. He knows you have a soft heart.”

“What do you know?!” she snapped, shoving him away. She collapsed onto the sofa, burying her face in her hands. “He’s hidden the baby and his parents. He won’t answer his phone. What the hell does he want from me?”

An idea formed in Alex’s mind. He picked up his phone and showed her a photo. “Ginnifer, don’t be angry, but… I think I saw Leo a few days ago. He was with some woman at the mall… they looked very close. I didn’t want to upset you, so I didn’t say anything. I even took a picture.”

It was a blurry, grainy photo, taken from a distance. You couldn’t even make out the faces, just the vague outlines of a man and a woman.

But for Ginnifer, it was the final confirmation she needed.

“That bastard! Leo! You son of a bitch!” she screamed, her body shaking with rage. “So that’s it! You’ve been crawling into some other woman’s bed!”

She hurled her phone against the wall, where it shattered. “What is he trying to do?! Run away with our child, his parents, and his whore?! Does he think this will force my hand?!”

“In his dreams! He can stay gone forever for all I care!”

I almost laughed. Seven years of marriage, and this was the extent of her trust in me. A single sentence from a manipulative snake and one blurry photo were all it took to sentence me to death in her mind.

Alex’s voice was a seductive poison. “Ginnifer, I might have an idea. If we can’t find him privately, why don’t we make it public?”

She looked at him, her eyes wild.

“The power of the media is immense,” he said, his expression earnest. “You’re a national hero. A hero who has just been betrayed and abandoned by her husband. If we file for divorce and leak the story, the whole city will be looking for him, condemning him. He can’t hide a child and two elderly people forever. The second he shows his face, you’ll have him.”

Ginnifer was silent, her chest heaving. The suggestion was a perfect match for her own bruised ego. She could not stand being played, being made a fool of by a man she considered beneath her. She would show him who was in control.

The last trace of doubt in her eyes vanished, replaced by cold resolve. “Fine. We’ll do it your way.”

A week later, the city courthouse was swarmed with reporters. A legion of cameras was aimed at the entrance, a forest of lenses and microphones. It was the city’s first-ever live-streamed divorce trial of a public hero. Millions were watching online.

The live chat was a river of vitriol directed at me.

[THAT KIND OF TRASH HUSBAND SHOULD BE DRAWN AND QUARTERED!]

[My heart breaks for our hero, Ginnifer. Stuck with such a thankless, cheating bastard.]

[I heard he cleaned out their bank accounts and ran off with their kid and his mistress! Scum of the earth!]

I floated above the courtroom, the vicious words feeling like phantom knives in my soul.

Ginnifer sat at the plaintiff’s table. She had deliberately worn her dress uniform, the one from her award ceremony, her chest glittering with medals. She looked stoic, brave, and deeply wounded—the perfect image of a betrayed hero.

The defendant’s chair was empty. My friend Mark sat beside it as my legal representative, his eyes red with fury. Alex sat in the front row of the gallery, labeled an “important witness,” a triumphant smirk playing on his lips.

The judge’s gavel struck. The trial began.

“Ms. Ginnifer Reed, you accuse your husband, Leo Sterling, of infidelity, malicious transfer of assets, and the concealment of family members. Are these charges correct?”

Ginnifer took a deep breath and stood. Her voice, amplified by the microphone, filled the courtroom and flowed out across the internet. It was heavy with pain and a perfectly calibrated quiver of emotion.

“Your Honor, Leo and I have been married for seven years. For most of that time, the nature of my work forced me to be away, to live a life of secrets. I know I was not the wife or mother I should have been. I had hoped that once my final mission was over, I could finally make it all up to him, to our family.”

She paused, her eyes reddening. “But I never imagined… I never imagined he had already found someone else. He didn’t just take our life savings. He took his own elderly parents… and our five-year-old daughter.”

Her voice broke. “I can’t find them. Your Honor, I am going out of my mind with worry.” She pressed a hand to her chest, tears streaming down her face. “I am not here today to condemn him. I am here to beg him—to beg all of you—to help me find him! If he would just come back, if he would just bring our daughter and his parents home, I would forgive everything! Because I love him… I can’t live without him…”

The performance was masterful. The courtroom erupted in murmurs of sympathy. The live chat exploded with support for the heartbroken hero.

Ginnifer, satisfied, sat back down, a predator waiting for her trap to spring.

But in the next second, the large doors at the back of the courtroom burst open.

Everyone turned. Several uniformed officers marched in, led by Ginnifer’s direct superior, Chief Miller of the City Police Department.

His face was a granite mask. He ignored Ginnifer completely, walking straight to the judge’s bench.

“Your Honor, regarding the disappearance of the defendant, Mr. Leo Sterling, the police have just obtained a piece of critical video evidence. I request permission to play it for the court.”