On our fifth wedding anniversary, I walked in with a positive pregnancy test and a heart full of hope. I walked out with my world in ashes.
The rain was beginning to lash against the windows of our luxury penthouse, a rhythmic drumming that usually calmed me. Today, it sounded like applause. I felt like the luckiest woman in the world. In my designer handbag, tucked safely in a side pocket, was the small plastic stick that changed everything. Two pink lines. A miracle I had waited five years for.
"Mark is going to be so happy," I whispered to the empty foyer.
I had spent the afternoon at the doctor, then stopped by the jewelry store to pick up a custom-made Patek Philippe watch. I had spent my entire personal savings on it, engraving the back with: To Mark, My Forever. We had come so far from the days when we shared a single bowl of ramen in a cramped studio apartment. Now, Mark was the CEO of Thorne-Vance Tech, and I was the "Queen" of his empire.
Or so I thought.
The house was oddly quiet, but the scent of expensive, musky perfume something floral and cloying hung in the air. It wasn't mine. I preferred sandalwood.
I noticed a pair of red stilettos tossed carelessly near the marble stairs. My heart skipped a beat. Those were Sarah's. My best friend. My "sister." I smiled to myself, thinking she must be here helping Mark set up a surprise party. She knew how much this anniversary meant to me.
I crept up the stairs, wanting to surprise them. I wanted to burst in, show Mark the test, and watch his cold, business-like exterior melt into joy.
But as I reached the master suite, the door was slightly ajar. A low, sultry giggle drifted through the crack.
"Oh, Mark... stop it. What if your 'dear' Aria comes home early? She's supposed to be finishing the merger presentation."
My blood turned to ice. That was Sarah.
I stood paralyzed, my hand hovering over the door handle. My brain tried to make excuses. Maybe they're joking. Maybe I'm dreaming. But then I heard my husband's voice the voice that had whispered "I love you" every morning for five years.
"Aria?" Mark's voice was full of a mockery I had never heard before. "She's at the office, slave-driving over the code. She lives for that company. She's too boring to ever suspect a thing. Honestly, Sarah, I don't know how I endured five years of her 'plain Jane' routine."
I pushed the door just an inch wider.
The sight shattered me. My husband, the man I had worked three jobs to put through business school, was tangled in the sheets with the woman who had been my bridesmaid. Sarah was wearing my favorite silk robe—the one Mark had bought me for our first anniversary.
"You're so cruel," Sarah cooed, tracing a finger down his chest. "She thinks I'm her best friend. She even gave me her old Chanel bag last week because she thought I was 'struggling' with my rent. She's such a pathetic, easy target."
"She's a useful fool, Sarah," Mark replied, his voice cold and transactional. "The lawyers finished the paperwork today. The 'voluntary' transfer of her remaining 30% shares is ready. I've disguised it as a trust fund document for 'our future.' Once she signs it tonight during dinner, I'm filing for divorce. I've already moved the offshore accounts into your name. By tomorrow morning, she'll have nothing but the clothes on her back."
Sarah leaned in, her eyes gleaming with greed. "And the baby, Mark? What about when she finds out I'm carrying the heir to the Thorne-Vance fortune? She'll lose her mind."
The pregnancy test in my hand felt like it was burning my skin. I wasn't the only one who was pregnant. My "best friend" was carrying his child too. While I was praying for a miracle, they were planning my funeral.
My knees felt weak, but a sudden, violent surge of adrenaline kept me standing. The grief was there, heavy and suffocating, but beneath it, a white-hot spark of rage ignited.
I didn't scream. I didn't cry.
I pushed the door open all the way. The heavy oak hit the wall with a resounding thud.
Mark snapped his head toward me. For a split second, I saw a flicker of panic in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a sneer. He didn't even reach for the covers to hide himself. He looked at me with the same boredom he'd use on a low-level employee.
"Aria," he said, his voice flat. "You're home early. You missed the traffic, I assume?"
Sarah, however, let out a fake gasp and pulled the robe tighter, though she didn't look truly ashamed. There was a triumphant glint in her eyes. She wanted me to see this. She had been waiting for this moment.
"How long?" I asked. My voice didn't sound like mine. It was hollow, echoing from a dark place deep inside me.
"Does it matter?" Mark stood up, walking toward the vanity to grab his cigarette case. "Since you've heard everything, let's skip the anniversary dinner. You're smart, Aria. You did the math. You're the one who wrote the algorithms that made us rich. You know when a contract is no longer profitable."
He tossed a leather-bound folder onto the bed.
"Sign the shares over. I've left a check for fifty thousand dollars in there. It's more than you had when I met you in that dirty library. Take it and disappear quietly. If you make a scene, I'll make sure the industry knows you were the one embezzling funds. I've already planted the digital trail."
I looked at the man I had adored. I had sacrificed my own dreams, my own PhD, and my own family's recognition to build his name. I had been the ghostwriter of his success, the silent engine of his wealth.
"You really think I'm that weak?" I whispered.
"I think you're predictable," Mark said, blowing a cloud of smoke into the air. "Now sign. Sarah and I have a celebration to get to."
I looked down at the pregnancy test in my hand. Then, I looked at the folder.
Slowly, I walked to the bed. Sarah smirked, thinking I was going to obey like a kicked dog. Mark handed me a pen, his eyes filled with disdain.
I took the pen. But I didn't sign the paper.
Instead, I looked at the "Positive" test one last time. I realized then that I couldn't bring a child into this nest of vipers. My heart didn't just break; it hardened into a diamond cold, sharp, and unbreakable.
I dropped the pregnancy test onto the folder and crushed it with the heavy Patek Philippe watch box I had bought for him. The glass on the watch face shattered. The plastic of the test snapped.
"I'm not signing anything, Mark," I said, my voice now as cold as his. "And I'm not taking your fifty thousand dollars."
"Don't be a fool," Mark hissed, stepping toward me. "I can destroy you."
"You already tried," I said, stepping back, my eyes moving to Sarah. "And Sarah? Keep the robe. It was always a bit cheap, just like the person wearing it now."
I turned on my heel and walked out of the room. I didn't pack a bag. I didn't grab my coat. I walked out into the freezing rain, the water soaking through my silk blouse instantly.
They thought they had stripped me of everything. They thought I was a girl with no family and no backup.
They forgot who I really was.
As I sat in my car, my hands shaking on the steering wheel, I pulled out a second phone a burner phone I had kept for years but never had the heart to use. I dialed a number I had memorized a decade ago.
The phone rang once. Twice.
"Hello?" a deep, gravelly voice answered. It was the voice of the man I had run away from to marry Mark. My grandfather. The man who owned half of the shipping lanes in the Atlantic.
"Grandpa," I said, a single tear finally escaping and rolling down my cold cheek. "It's Aria. I'm ready to come home. And I'm ready to take over the family business."
There was a pause on the other end, then a sharp, satisfied intake of breath. "I've been waiting five years for this call, Princess. What do you need?"
I looked up at the glowing lights of the penthouse where my husband was currently celebrating my "downfall."
"I need a lawyer, a private investigator, and a seat at the head of the Vance Corporation," I said, my eyes turning to steel. "I'm going to dismantle a billion-dollar company by Monday morning. And I want to make sure Mark Thorne is watching from the gutter when I do it."
The game had just begun. And this time, I wasn't playing the wife. I was playing the Reaper.