Back in the day, Jacob had a childhood engagement. The girl was a weightlifting champion who relentlessly pursued him because she was obsessed with his looks. But for Angela's sake, Jacob burned bridges with his fiancee's family and even made his parents pay a huge sum to cancel the engagement.
Ever since then, he'd had a bias against Physical Education students. I played tennis because I loved it, and my college entrance score was actually much higher than Angela's. If not for the Larkins, I wouldn't have missed out on my dream and ended up trapped in this gilded cage.
As I thought of all this, my gaze turned colder as I looked at Jacob. "In that case, I'll leave with Tim once the banquet is over."
A strange look flashed in his eyes. Then, he yanked Tim over to himself, ignoring his struggles. "My parents invited a ton of media here today. Are you trying to turn our family into a laughingstock? You can leave if you want, but the boy stays here!"
Before I could say anything, the doors to the banquet hall swung open. Jacob's parents, Michael Larkin and Ursula Walker, filed in behind the guests.
Ursula was all smiles as she held Angela's hand and led her over to me, saying, "We especially invited Angela to the party to celebrate Jacob's recovery. Maisie, you won't mind, right?"
Michael scoffed. "What's there to mind? The doctor said everything should revolve around Jacob's mental and physical well-being."
When Jacob was still bedridden, Michael and Ursula had fussed over me every day, thanking me for taking such good care of Jacob, for bringing back his glow, and for raising Tim to be so sweet and well-behaved.
Now, their attitudes had completely flipped. Every word out of their mouths hinted that Jacob could immediately find a woman with the right pedigree and have a few more healthy kids.
The moment Jacob saw Angela, he dropped Tim's hand and rushed straight to her. They'd literally seen each other just the night before, yet they acted like they were lovers reunited at long last.
The guests started lamenting. "If Angela hadn't gone abroad back then, Maisie would never have ended up as Jacob's wife."
"She sounded like she was doing a noble thing, marrying a man in a coma out of duty. But everyone knows her family went bankrupt, and she latched onto the Larkins in a panic. She got ten million dollars in wedding gifts!"
"She's a total gold digger. If she knows what's good for her, she'll quickly get a divorce and walk away without a penny to her name."
Angela couldn't hide the delight in her eyes as she listened to the comments, though she still put on an anxious face. "Don't say things like that, everyone. Jacob and I are a thing of the past now.
"The three of us—me, him, and Maisie—have been good friends since college. She's always liked him, so this is a dream coming true for her."
The crowd immediately started gossiping about how I'd plotted this for ages; they said I coveted both Jacob and Larkin Group behind him. Otherwise, would any woman want to live like a widow and marry a man in a coma, even shamelessly having his child?
I sneered and signaled Linda to take Tim away. I hadn't wanted to get this nasty, but since these people started smearing me first, they couldn't blame me for hitting back.
I strode forward and slapped Jacob hard across the face. Angela had barely gasped when I swung back and landed a second heavy slap across her cheek.
The two crisp smacks stunned the entire room. Everyone stood there, their eyes wide and their jaws slack.
Michael and Ursula snapped out of it and rushed forward to shield Jacob, checking him over like they were terrified I'd broken him somehow. "Are you out of your mind? How dare you slap my son!
"Security! Security! Seize this lunatic now!"
But his first concern was Angela. He shot me a vicious glare. "Come at me if you've got a problem!"
I smirked as I admired the matching handprints on their faces. I still had it. It was no wonder I was the queen of the tennis court back then!
Some of the more sensationalist media started livestreaming the drama.
"Mega scandal! Will the elite scion of Jebony choose his youthful first love, or the wife who stuck by him through thick and thin?"
Angela pushed Jacob aside and stepped up to me, her eyes brimming with tears. She said pitifully, "I can understand if you need to take out your anger on me, Maisie, but Jacob has just recovered. How can you bear to upset him?"
The clueless onlookers chimed in, condemning me.
"Money is all Maisie cares about. Of course, it doesn't matter to her if Jacob lives or dies."
"One vicious woman ruins three generations of Larkins. They're cursed to have her in their family!"
My in-laws, Jacob, and Angela looked more like one big happy family than I ever had. They weren't even willing to say a word for me; they just watched coldly while I was made out to be the public enemy.
I should never have expected anything from them.
I turned to the media and grabbed a microphone, saying clearly and steadily, "Ms. Lloyd is indeed the perfect ex. She brought my husband broth at 2:00 am while barely dressed."
Angela paled as soon as the words were out of my mouth. Everyone knew she'd just publicly announced her engagement to some rich scion half a month ago.
"You can't just slander me because you and Jacob are having problems, Maisie!" she cried.
Jacob couldn't stand seeing the woman he loved being attacked. He rushed forward and pulled her behind him, shouting, "Angela has always kept to herself and has never coveted anything, Maisie. Don't go overboard!"
Satisfied with the scene in front of me, I calmly unlocked my phone and cast a video onto the banquet hall's central screen. The whispers in the hall hit a new boiling point, but the tide turned in an instant.
"Damn. One has a wife and a kid, and the other's got a fiance. Yet there they are, meeting at midnight and making out at the front door like no one's around. These two are such fakers!"
"Maisie's practically a saint. The mistress showed up at her doorstep to taunt her."
Michael and Ursula couldn't stand the humiliation. They begged me, for Tim's sake, not to air their dirty laundry.
Even Jacob, who was rarely one to lower himself to me, did it this time. "Turn off the video. I'll transfer the seaside resort to your name, and I won't pursue what you did today."
My goal was halfway met, so I smiled and turned off the screen cast. He seemed surprised that I was so cooperative. He immediately decided this was all about squeezing more money out of him.
He opened his mouth to try to get me to clean up the mess, but I ignored him and walked away. A botched banquet and a wave of gossip-hungry media weren't things I cared to face along with them.
…
Back at home, I was on the phone with Linda when Jacob suddenly stormed in and dragged me out, shoving me into his car. He ignored my anger, tossed his phone at me, and put the pedal to the metal.
On the screen, a video from Angela was playing. She was saying her "last words."
"Why did you share the video you played at the banquet online, Maisie? If anything happens to Angela, you and your son won't know a day of peace for the rest of your lives!" he snapped.
I laughed. "There were at least a hundred people in that hall, yet you're certain it was me?"
Even if he and his parents had later spent money to keep everyone's mouths shut, someone would still slip through.
"Only you would resent Angela for stealing me away!"
I shut my mouth, realizing that sometimes, talking to certain people was pointless.
In the end, it was on the Seaway Bridge where we found Angela, crying so hard she could barely breathe. The three police officers nearby looked relieved to hand this problem over to Jacob.
When she saw me, she clutched at Jacob and sobbed even harder. He glared at me and snarled, "You pushed her to the brink—are you happy now? How can a woman as vicious as you exist in this world?"
Angela looked at me with tears in her eyes. "I can't live with my head held high anymore. My engagement has been called off, and everyone is calling me a shameless homewrecker!
"I never even thought about taking Jacob from you, Maisie. That was why I forced myself to get engaged to someone else!
"But I can't do it now. I love Jacob, and I don't want a title or his money. I just hope you'll let me see him once in a while. I'll be a nanny or a maid—whatever you want."
Her brazen shamelessness left me speechless for a moment. Meanwhile, Jacob's heart ached for her. "Angela, she isn't worthy of you begging her like this!"
He turned to me, his gaze turning dark and vicious. "If you don't get on your knees today and beg for Angela's forgiveness, don't even think about setting foot in the Larkin residence again!"
Just then, Linda arrived in a hurry. I took the agreement she held out and handed it to Jacob. "Perfect. I'll step aside and give you two what you want!"
Angela stared at me in disbelief. Then, she coyly nudged Jacob to move things along.
However, his expression turned downright ugly. He gritted his teeth and looked me in the eye. "Are you pulling this trick again? Do you really think I'm scared of you? If we divorce, you leave with nothing!
"The kid, the house, and everything my family has ever given you—I'm taking it all back!"
"You're the one who's leaving with nothing, Jacob." A deep, steady male voice cut through his barrage. A pair of red-soled bespoke leather shoes stepped into view.
