Chapter 3The Uninvited Birthday Guest

I had no time to deal with the online mob. I told my assistant to handle it. As my mother was rushed into the emergency room, I got a video call from Jenna.

“Mark, is your mom okay?”

After all these years of marriage, she had never once called her “our mom.”

What truly enraged me was her background. She wasn’t at home. On the wall behind her hung a family portrait: Leo, Jenna, and the boy, smiling together.

She noticed my gaze and quickly moved to block the picture.

“Mark, listen to me. What I said at the party… I didn’t mean it.”

“I thought I didn’t love you, but after all these years… I do have feelings for you.”

“Can you understand? It’s all happened. You just have to accept it…”

“I will not accept it! If you didn’t love me, why did you propose? Why did you wait until after we were married to feed me that ridiculous lie about being allergic to male proteins?”

“And me? I loved you, so I gave in to your every whim. My own mother was desperate for a grandchild, but I never even mentioned it in front of you, afraid it would make you feel bad.”

“And all that time, you were having a child with Leo, and then you let him crash my birthday party and destroy my life!”

“Jenna, you’ve gone too far!”

My accusations hardened her expression. “Because I loved Leo!” she screamed. “My family’s company was on the verge of bankruptcy! Marrying you was the only way to get the capital to save it!”

“Mark, what’s done is done! What more do you want?”

Her words extinguished the last flicker of affection I had for her. If she had shown even a shred of remorse, a hint of an apology, perhaps I wouldn’t have been so ruthless in the days to come.

“I’ll have my lawyer send you the divorce papers. Be ready to sign them.”

I hung up before she could respond. A few moments later, a video file from Leo appeared on my phone. My anger, which I thought had peaked, surged anew. As if the public humiliation wasn’t enough.

I forced myself to watch. Jenna, who had always been so frigid with me, was a different woman with him. The things they did, the intimacy they shared… it was a level of passion I had never known. She was the teacher, he was the student. The scenes were so graphic, so explicit, that my hatred for her solidified into something cold and permanent. She had played me for a fool, cheating on me while I endured the whispers and rumors about my supposed infertility.

Then came a voice message from Leo, dripping with arrogant satisfaction.

“Hahaha, see that? Jenna’s not allergic to men, Mark. She’s just allergic to you. We have a child, after all.”

“And let me tell you something else. For the past three years, every night, she would come to me before going home to you. After a round with me, of course she had no interest in you. It was easy to make you believe her little story.”

“Oh, and one more thing. She’s promised to give our son her entire inheritance.”

His words didn't fuel my anger anymore. Instead, a chilling, exhilarating desire for revenge took its place.