For five long years, I was the secret wife of elite race car driver Axel Vance.

Then, he went public with his new romance on Instagram.

GossipWire painted me as a lunatic, some "trackside stalker."

His fans dragged me all over the internet.

My cheating husband played the hero, head over heels in love, while I was cast as the villain.

Did he really think I was just some ordinary freelancer?

He forgot who put up the five million dollars that launched his career and won him two GRC world championships.

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1

I had just wrapped up a cross-border M&A meeting in Zurich when my phone started blowing up.

My phone buzzed like crazy, first with hundreds of notifications from our family group chat, then with a cryptic text from my brother, Julian: "Saw the news. Don't do anything rash. Wait for my call."

"Eleanor! What the hell is going on?" The first to call was my younger sister, Chloe Ashford.

"Huh? What are you talking about? What happened?"

Her frantic tone left me baffled.

"Oh, well, if you don't know, then never mind. You're okay, that's what matters. I was just calling to see how your meeting went." The confusion in my voice seemed to reassure her.

The second call was from my best friend, Sophia.

"Eleanor! Are you okay? Please tell me you're holding up." She sounded incredibly anxious on the other end.

"What?"

My confusion deepened.

"Oh, you haven't heard? Then… never mind," she said quickly. "I was just calling to check on you! You know, being on the other side of the world and all!"

Sophia then awkwardly cracked a few bad jokes, laughing a little too loudly, before hanging up in a hurry.

Next came a video call from my mother.

"Eleanor! Are you alright?" she asked, her voice choked with tears.

"Okay, that's it. What the hell is going on?" I finally snapped.

My mother fell silent for a few seconds, seemingly startled by my reaction.

Then, she exclaimed, "Eleanor, you haven't seen? Axel and that actress went public! Someone dug up your info and is telling everyone you're some psycho trying to break them up!"

"The whole internet is tearing you apart!"

"Axel Vance?" I mumbled, my brow furrowing. "He wouldn't dare."

"Eleanor, you ignore him, you hear me? Your father, your brother, and I already have the legal team prepping a lawsuit!" my mother declared.

I pressed my temples, a wave of exhaustion washing over me. "Mom, wait. Don't be impulsive. Tell Dad and Julian to hold off. Let me figure out what's going on first. I can handle this."

After a long talk, my mother finally agreed she wouldn't interfere.

I opened X, and the trending topics immediately flooded my screen.

"GRC World Champion Axel Vance's Romance Revealed!"

"'The Flash' Finds True Love."

"Axel Vance Gifts Amber Skye Custom Diamond Bracelet."

It turned out Axel had posted a picture earlier.

It was an Instagram Story, a short clip of him surprising Amber with a brand-new, cherry-red convertible. The video was filled with her delighted screams as the two of them kissed.

The caption read: "A star for my star."

At the same time, Amber posted a photo of them kissing on a yacht in Nice.

It was an artsy, black-and-white photo, clearly taken by a professional. It showed them gazing deeply at each other on a balcony overlooking Monaco Harbor. Her caption read: "The stars are beautiful, but I love you more."

Instantly, the internet exploded. Thousands of fans flooded their posts with comments, all congratulating the perfect couple.

"OMG, my ship has finally sailed!"

"Just get married already!"

Fans started digging up old clips of Axel and Amber interacting at various events.

"They are total couple goals!"

"I agree! They need to get married, like, yesterday. They're so perfect together! My faith in love is restored!"

I sneered at the comments and dialed Axel's number.

The moment the call connected, I heard Amber's coy laugh and Axel's breathless whisper. It only lasted a few seconds before he abruptly hung up.

A wave of nausea and pure rage washed over me.

That night, I immediately posted a photo from our wedding day on my private account—a close-up of our hands, intertwined, wearing our wedding rings. The caption was simple: "Five years."

The next day, I booked the earliest flight to Los Angeles. I wanted to see just how long Axel could keep up this charade once I was back.

However, overnight, my X account was flooded with hate.

Suddenly, I was a headline, too. The number one trending topic read: "Shameless Woman Photoshops Herself into a Fake Marriage with GRC Champion Axel Vance."

Less than ten minutes later, Axel posted a response on X.

He admitted to dating me in college but claimed we had parted ways amicably a long time ago.

He claimed that the only person he was wholeheartedly pursuing now was Amber.

Thousands of fans commented under his new post. Most of them were tearing me apart.

"So shameless! They broke up ages ago, and she's photoshopping pics to fake a relationship! So thirsty!"

"She's hit a new low of shamelessness."

"Get lost and stay away from Axel! He deserves better!"

"Axel doesn't love you anymore, just leave him alone!"

The moment I stepped off the plane, a call came from Axel.

He told me to meet him at his mansion in Malibu.

But a work emergency demanded my immediate attention, so I had to handle it first.

I didn't get to the mansion until almost midnight, after I finally wrapped everything up.

I didn't expect him to wait. Surprisingly, he'd been holed up in the mansion all day.

I walked in to find him sitting on the living room sofa. The moment he saw me, he launched into a tirade. "It's midnight! Where the hell have you been?"

I was already exhausted from the sudden work crisis.

I had barely sunk into the sofa when he started laying into me.

His audacity made me laugh. "You're the one who cheated, and you're yelling at me? You should be grateful I even showed up."

He froze at the word "cheated." After a moment, he composed himself and softened his tone, trying to justify his actions. "I'm a two-time GRC world champion. You're not good enough for me anymore."

"Oh? Not good enough? What do you mean? I think I'm doing just fine."

"Ha!" Axel scoffed, looking at me with utter contempt.

"I'm a two-time GRC world champion. I have hundreds of millions in endorsements and a net worth in the billions. And you? You're just some freelance UX designer. We're in different worlds now, Eleanor."

A sharp, bitter laugh escaped my lips when he declared we were from different worlds.

"And what about what I did for you five years ago?"

"It was just five million dollars! I can pay you back tenfold if you want," Axel said. He stood up, looking down on me with a dismissive glare. Then he snorted and turned to leave.

I moved to block his path, but he grabbed my arm, his grip so tight I thought my bones would shatter, and shoved me hard onto the velvet sofa.

"Stop bothering me!" he roared, then swept the entire crystal decanter set off the coffee table. Glass shattered, the sound sharp and piercing.

"Enough, Eleanor! Stop clinging to me like a leech. You're pathetic!"

Axel cursed and walked away without a second glance.

I pushed myself up from the sofa and slumped onto the carpet, my tongue pressed hard against the inside of my cheek, my anger a white-hot flame.

My mind raced with a thousand ways to make this bastard pay. No matter what, I was going to destroy him.

My mother was right. Handsome men are all liars. Complete and utter assholes.

The next day, the paparazzi somehow snapped photos of me arriving at his mansion in the middle of the night and leaving in a disheveled state moments later.

They even got a few shots of me through the window, collapsed on the carpet.

I was trending on X again. This time, it wasn't just Axel and Amber's fans, but also casual observers who joined in on the vicious comments.

"My god, is this woman some kind of parasite who can't live without a man? She actually knelt and begged him! So pathetic!"

"Not a fan, but she makes me sick. Does she not understand what a breakup is? Gross."

Soon, my personal information and a list of all my clients were posted online.

I started receiving all sorts of malicious mail: photoshopped obituaries, envelopes with unknown powders, and even obscene images with my face edited onto them.

Someone even found a photo of me talking and clinking glasses with a Silicon Valley investor. There was nothing inappropriate about the picture at all.

But the narrative quickly twisted, with people claiming I was some high-class escort for Silicon Valley tycoons.

I was trending for so long you'd think I'd won a trophy.

My name was everywhere, and the comment sections were a cesspool of false accusations from keyboard warriors.

"With so many tycoon clients, she must be loaded! Haha! So glad Axel dumped her!"

"Shameless! I wonder what her nightly rate is. No wonder she gets so many gigs! If it were me, I'd be a CEO by now! Hahaha!"

Even the small companies I worked with saw a significant hit to their stock prices.

Thousands of fans boycotted their products. Some crazy fans even tried to report me to the IRS for tax evasion.

It was a classic playbook for destroying a woman: spread vicious lies, turn the public against her, and bully her into self-destruction.

However, I wasn't one to stay silent.

I wouldn't let those who spread lies about me get away with it.

I would make them pay for every single word they typed.