Chapter 4The Dead Husband's Secret: A Widow's Vengeance

Wednesday. The Grand Pearl Hotel.

The most luxurious five-star hotel in the city was completely booked for a private event.

Wearing a filthy, oversized uniform I had scavenged from a dumpster, I disguised myself and slipped in with the third-party waste management crew handling the kitchen garbage.

The hotel staff stepped out of my way in disgust, pinching their noses and muttering insults.

I ignored them completely. Fighting through the agonizing throbbing in my leg, I limped step-by-step toward the side doors of the main ballroom.

Through the crack in the heavy doors, I saw the perfect couple on the center stage.

Marcus, dressed in an astronomically expensive bespoke tuxedo, was gazing lovingly at Olivia Sterling. He lifted a diamond ring the size of a pigeon's egg, preparing to slide it onto the heiress's finger.

The ballroom erupted in thunderous applause.

Right at that exact moment, a violent, explosive crash erupted from the hotel lobby!

BOOM!

The heavy glass entrance doors of the hotel were violently smashed to pieces by a massive, reinforced SUV!

"Lock down the exits! Nobody leaves this building alive!"

The mob boss, followed by over thirty massive enforcers wielding steel pipes and baseball bats, stormed aggressively into the grand lobby.

And dragging behind them, screaming with faces as pale as ghosts, were Vanessa and my mother-in-law, Martha!

I used the panic of the fleeing crowd to slip into the back corner of the grand ballroom.

"A $1.2 million loan, with interest, brings the total to two million!"

"If you don't cough up the cash today, I'm selling this bitch to a trafficking ring in Southeast Asia!"

The mob boss slapped the flat side of a machete against Vanessa's terrified face.

The elegant, high-society engagement party instantly devolved into absolute chaos.

Socialites and billionaires screamed and scattered in panic, the entire venue plunging into total anarchy.

Vanessa's hair was a tangled mess, her expensive makeup ruined by tears as she shook her head frantically.

"I don't have the money! The funds haven't cleared yet! You grabbed the wrong person!"

To save her own life, Martha scanned the chaotic crowd with panicked eyes.

Suddenly, she pointed a shaking finger directly at me, cowering in the corner, and began screaming like a banshee.

"It's her! She's Marcus's legal wife! She hid all the money! This bitch has it all!"

"Boss, take her! Carve out her heart, liver, and kidneys and sell them! That will definitely cover the debt!"

How incredibly evil.

In a life-or-death situation, they didn't hesitate for a second to throw me to the wolves, literally offering my organs to pay their debts.

The mobsters swarmed me, kicking me brutally to the ground.

I gritted my teeth, tasting the heavy, metallic tang of blood in my mouth.

Surrounding me were the disgusted, amused, and mocking stares of the city's wealthiest elites.

Just then, on the grand spiral staircase leading down from the VIP suites...

Marcus, holding the terrified Olivia Sterling, walked down, flanked by a phalanx of security guards.

When Vanessa, currently pinned to the floor by a mobster's boot, looked up and saw the man's face on the stairs, her eyes bulged out of her head.

Her hysterical crying instantly morphed into a stuttering, horrified gasp.

"M... Marcus?! You... you're alive?!"

Vanessa wasn't stupid.

In that single instant, the money laundering, the scams, the fake trust funds... the entire puzzle violently clicked together in her mind.

She had been played too! She was nothing but a disposable tool Marcus used to hoard wealth and absorb his criminal liabilities!

But Marcus's psychological fortitude was terrifying.

He didn't show a single ounce of panic.

He gently patted the heiress's hand, and using a tone dripping with polite apology and sympathy, he spoke to the crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for this disturbance."

"My name is Richard Vance. These people have clearly mistaken me for someone else."

He pointed gracefully to the massive engagement banner that read: Richard & Olivia.

Then, he turned to the head of hotel security, issuing a cold command.

"Get these people out of here immediately."

"Call the police and report an armed home invasion."

Even now, backed into a corner, he actually believed he could seamlessly erase all his sins!

"MARCUS!"

"You threw your own mother and your first love to the wolves to take the fall for you! You are a soulless, psychotic animal!"

I swallowed the blood filling my mouth.

Summoning every ounce of strength left in my broken body, I shoved the mobster's boot off my chest.

From the waterproof lining of my jacket, I pulled out the forensic DNA report, stamped with the official seal of the laboratory.

I hurled the papers high into the air, letting them rain down over the ballroom floor.

"What a brilliant performance, 'Richard Vance'!"

"Ms. Sterling, open your eyes and look closely! My husband's real name is Marcus! To climb the social ladder and marry into your family, he conspired with his mother and his mistress to brutally murder an innocent, homeless man to fake his own death!"

I stared dead into Marcus's hypocritical, perfectly sculpted face, screaming until my vocal cords tore.

"He even planned to orchestrate a tragic 'accident' to murder me, his legal wife, just to cash out a massive life insurance policy!"

"He is a parasitic, bloodsucking demon! And right now, the prey he's preparing to swallow whole... is YOU!!!"

The sheer magnitude of these horrifying revelations struck the entire ballroom completely silent.

Marcus's perfect, saintly facade finally cracked. A flicker of genuine panic flashed across his eyes.

Just as the hotel security guards unholstered their stun batons and charged toward me...

"POLICE! DROP YOUR WEAPONS! HANDS ON YOUR HEADS!"

Dozens of heavily armed SWAT officers swarmed into the grand lobby.

Cold, black rifle barrels instantly locked onto everyone in the room.

A tall, imposing man slowly took off his tactical sunglasses, his sharp, predatory gaze locking onto the stage.

Marcus, who had been arrogant and untouchable just seconds ago, instantly lost all color in his face the moment he saw the man. He stumbled backward two steps.

I stared dead at the man's face, my breathing completely stopping in that instant.

How... how could it be him?!