The underprivileged student I've been sponsoring suddenly shows up at my birthday party, swaggering in and waving around a pregnancy report.

"Look—Pheebs is pregnant with my baby! You'd better be smart and divorce her already!"

I point at the report, stunned and confused. "Are you sure it's Phoebe who's pregnant with your child?"

Victor Thompson, my beneficiary, smirks proudly as he fiddles with the pregnancy report. "Duh! We conceived the baby last month on our cruise trip!"

The entire room falls into a stunned silence. My ex-wife, Phoebe Jackman, has been dead for three years.

I looked at Victor Thompson, utterly confused, and pressed further, "You know Phoebe? Are you even sure we're thinking about the same person?"

He gripped the pregnancy report, swaggering as ever. "Oh, quit the nonsense already, Colin! File for a divorce first thing in the morning and step down as her husband. Otherwise, you're only going to make a fool of yourself."

The once-humble Victor was now dressed in an expensive suit with a perfectly styled hairdo. The arrogant, lofty stance he had now was vastly different from the scrawny, insecure boy he had been eight years ago.

Although I was displeased with the provocative tone he was using, I still held on to a little hope for him. "Alright, Victor. Enough with the prank. It's my birthday today, so have a slice of cake."

He pushed the cake I handed him aside, slamming his hand down on the table. "'Have a slice of cake?' Dude, just tell me, are you filing or not? If you're not, don't blame me for resorting to other methods."

His outstretched fingers nearly poked me in the eye. Seeing that, my girlfriend, Serena Allen, pulled me a step back and snapped at him. "Don't touch him!"

With everyone around us staring and whispering, I, as the host of the birthday party, couldn't help but feel increasingly awkward. "Victor, if you keep this up, I'll stop sponsoring you and your family starting tomorrow."

When I first decided to sponsor Victor, he was wearing clothes he had picked out from a trash heap, with blackened nails; there were even cockroaches crawling out of his hair.

I was deeply moved by his situation when I discovered his parents were bedridden, and he had to both study and scavenge to take care of his younger brother.

Back then, I had told him, "I'll sponsor you to finish college and improve your family's lives from now on, Victor."

From then on, I would transfer 20 thousand dollars to him every month, and during the holidays, I would send him extra gifts.

Now, the person who had benefited from my kindness and fortune sneered at me disdainfully. "You think I care about your feeble sponsorship?"

He leaned in and slapped my face lightly. "Get this straight—I'm the one who got Pheebs pregnant."

He showed off the designer shoes he was wearing, then flaunted the diamond watch on his wrist. "She said that once she has a son, she'll not only buy me a mansion but also bring my whole family over to enjoy the good life.

"As for your measly 20 thousand, you might as well save it for your own grave."

Victor let out a derisive laugh. Then, he grabbed a liquor bottle and threw it at my birthday cake. The four-tier cake my friends had specially ordered for me was instantly ruined.

His outrageous behavior soon caused an uproar.

"How can you, a sponsored student, out of everyone, steal your benefactor's wife? You've got no shame!"

"You're ungrateful, and you've sold yourself out for money! I can't stand people like you!"

However, all my friends' criticisms only elicited a mocking eye roll from him. "You guys really think Colin did something amazing? You've all been fooled by him."

Victor spoke with a righteous tone, as if exposing some shocking truth. "He was only using Phoebe's money to create a false persona. He didn't spend a single dime, but he took all the credit for a good reputation he didn't earn!"

"He only wanted to make himself look like a good guy so he could guilt-trip Pheebs into staying in this cage of a marriage!" Victor spat, growing increasingly agitated as he went on.

He looked so righteous, like he was fighting for Phoebe's justice. "She had to pay for everything—taking care of him, helping him do charity work. In the end, he can't even give her a baby!

"He's the most malicious, immoral monster out there. Everything I've done is to save Pheebs out of this hellhole!"

The way he spoke made him seem like the hero of the story. Still, everyone frowned upon his actions.

"Are you… okay? Not only are you spewing nonsense, but you're also interfering with someone's marriage, acting like a homewrecker—"

Victor was instantly enraged by this. He grabbed a bowl and threw it at the person who spoke, cursing, "Who do you mean I act like a homewrecker? All I did was repay kindness to the right person!"

He continued, "When I found out Pheebs was the one who'd truly helped me, I decided to repay her with my young, strong body."

Everyone was stunned by his shamelessness. Before I could say anything to explain, he noticed Serena, who had been holding onto me the whole time.

His eyes lit up, as if he had just uncovered a huge secret. "So, this is how it is, Colin. Not only did you use her money to build your image, but you're also using it to keep a mistress!"

Serena furrowed her brows in displeasure and didn't hesitate to step forward. "Excuse me? I'm Colin's girlfriend, not his mistress!"

Victor snorted in contempt. He pointed at her and sneered sarcastically. "He's just an infertile old man. How could he possibly get a beautiful, young girlfriend like you? Just admit you're his kept woman!"

Grinning with delight, he suddenly pulled out his phone and started snapping pictures of me and Serena. "If you don't file for a divorce, I'll blow the lid off your affair. You'll not only end up with nothing, but you'll have to pay Pheebs back, too!"

I looked at my ruined birthday party, a deep sense of helplessness rising within me. Maybe Victor had been under such intense academic pressure that he had lost his mind and gone crazy.

I didn't bother arguing with him, but instead patted his shoulder. "Calm down and listen to me, Victor… You're mistaken. I've always been your real sponsor; all the money you've received has come from me."

Then, I exchanged a glance with Serena, both of us feeling a mix of amusement and exasperation. "And the woman, Phoebe, you're talking about? She died in an avalanche three years ago. I saw it with my—"

Victor sprang and shouted, not giving me a chance to finish. "Are you insane, Colin? How can you straight-up lie about your wife being dead? Do you even have a conscience?"

I had originally hesitated to get physical with Victor, considering he was a boy I had watched grow up. I didn't want to escalate things unless necessary, but here he was, acting like a complete maniac at my birthday party.

Even if I could tolerate it, I had no reason to put Serena through it. She pulled me tightly and warned him, "Leave, or I'll have someone throw you out."

Victor turned to look at her, his face full of smug satisfaction. "I can't believe you're not even bothered to hide your mistress. You're done for, Colin! Tomorrow, I'll have the Jackmans kick you out!"

At that point, I couldn't help but feel like Victor had genuinely lost his mind. Strangely, I even felt a little sorry for him. Regardless of whose pregnancy test he had, I thought it was my responsibility to make him see reality.

"Since you're so insistent, how about we meet Phoebe now? You'll see by then that I'm not lying to you," I said.

He followed me closely and let out a scoff. "Once you see Pheebs, you'll realize just how much she loves me!"

I looked at him with sympathy, then turned to Serena to have her arrange a ride.

Before long, two luxury cars pulled up at the hotel entrance. Many of the guests, curious to see what could happen, followed us in their own cars all the way to our destination.

When the cars stopped, I asked the driver to let Victor off.

Victor took off his sunglasses and looked around, his face turning red with rage as he yelled, "What the hell, Colin? You actually brought me to a cemetery? What's your plan?"

"Calm down, and just follow me," I assured him and led him a few steps forward until we stopped before a tombstone. "Now, take a good look. Whose tombstone is this?"

He gave the tombstone a half-hearted glance before throwing his head back and laughing. "Alright, alright. I'll admit you've gone all out, even going so far as to fake a tombstone to avoid a divorce. But Colin, it's useless.

"I don't care how much you spread rumors about her supposed death. You can't deny that she's the mother of my child."

Victor seemed to have lost all patience and gave me an ultimatum. "If you initiate the divorce now, I might still convince her to leave you some cash. Keep dragging this on, and you will end up miserable."

By then, even the usually calm Serena couldn't help but break into an exasperated laugh. She pulled out her phone, turned on the flashlight, and shone it on the tombstone.

"Hey, Victor. Take a good look at the woman in the photo. Is she the same woman you spent Valentine's Day with?"

He stared at the photo on the tombstone. After a few seconds of stunned silence, he pointed at me and cursed, "You're a heartless bastard, Colin. I can't believe you had the nerve to put her photo on a tombstone just for this act!"

Seeing how determined Victor was to drag out the commotion in the otherwise peaceful cemetery, my friends couldn't take it anymore and started chiming in.

"Dude, are you out of your mind? Colin's wife died three years ago!"

"You can look it up online—the news about an avalanche at the ski resort three years ago, where a tourist died."

I watched Victor's face twist with both shock and anger, and I began to suspect that he might have been deceived.

"Does the Phoebe you know like skiing as well?" I asked.

He hesitated briefly before nodding. "Of course. She basically taught me how to ski."

"Victor, listen to me," I explained with a solemn look. "Three years ago, she went to a ski resort abroad and unfortunately got caught in extreme weather and an avalanche.

"She was buried under the snow, and the rescue team couldn't find her body even after searching for a week. They concluded that her body was swept off the cliff, and there was no chance of survival."

As I spoke, I pulled out my phone and showed him the photo of Phoebe's funeral.

Mr. and Mrs. Jackman stood in the most prominent position in the photo. "Her parents have accepted this tragedy. They were the ones who chose this cemetery and tombstone.

"Plus, all her official records prove her death. I'm sure you've been deceived. There's no way the woman who had your baby was Phoebe."

However, Victor's expression only shifted from confusion to shock, then eventually to anger under everyone's mocking stares.

"Enough with the nonsense, Colin! I already texted Pheebs in the car. She's coming right now to initiate the divorce!"

At that point, Serena had lost all her patience. She grabbed my hand and tried to comfort me. "He's insane. Let's not waste any more time on him and go back to the party, okay?"

Out of nowhere, Victor started snapping pictures of me and Serena again, still threatening to expose my so-called affair.

Just as I was about to turn around and leave with her, he jumped up, laughing as he waved toward the entrance of the cemetery. "Pheebs, you're here! I knew you'd come to my rescue!"