Lance wasn't the least bit fazed.

"If she were really busy, she'd be in her office instead of coasting on past achievements and wasting valuable work hours scrolling through social media!" he snarled. "She didn't even apologize to you. In fact, she had the nerve to throw a tantrum over some well-deserved criticism!"

I clenched my fist.

The company's success was the result of both our efforts. My projects had consistently generated returns on our investments over the years. Yet instead of showing gratitude, he repaid me by systematically stripping away my authority within the company.

I had let it slide time and again because, at the end of the day, this was the man I had married and promised to spend the rest of my life with.

However, he didn't stop there. Instead, he used his authority as CEO to promote Lucinda and grant her powers and privileges that no secretary could, or should, possess. He had deliberately silenced anyone who spoke out against it.

One time, Lucinda forgot she had an entire proposal to draft. The client was so furious that the deal nearly fell through.

Lance still wanted to protect her, so he blamed me and demanded that I take responsibility.

"Do you know how wrong you are, Brianna?!" he snarled.

I nodded to myself. "I sure know how wrong I was now."

This marriage had lasted a decade. I couldn't believe I had been blind for so long, trapping myself in this torment for all those years. I was ridiculous.

He seemed pleased with my answer. Even his tone softened. "Then you should make amends. You can start by feeding her goldfish before cleaning her room. And I do mean putting in some elbow grease."

I could almost hear my bones creak as I clenched my fists tighter. "Not a chance."

His voice rose sharply. "What did you just say?!"

I hung up before he could launch into another torrent of verbal abuse.

The clerk handed me a notice. "The review process takes three days. Please be patient."

I nodded. Three days was enough time. Lance should be back by then.

…

The first thing I did after getting home was arrange a memorial service for my father.

I wrote and posted his obituary on my account: [I've lost another person who truly loved me today.]

The post immediately drew skepticism.

One commenter wrote: [What a high-level narcissistic attention-seeker. Is she using her dad to get Mr. Mitchell's attention now?!]

Many of my online "friends" were actually employees and colleagues I had once supervised, but most of them were close to Lucinda. Very few believed me when I said my father had passed away.

…

My father had opposed our marriage at first. After seeing how much I wanted to be with Lance, he softened his stance and finally gave his blessing.

But the experience had left a wound on Lance's ego that never healed. Over the past ten years, he had never once shared a meal with my father. He had never even referred to him as his father-in-law. I had explained why my father had been reserved at first, but Lance never listened.

Then one day, I overheard a conversation between him and Lucinda. Apparently, he had never wanted to acknowledge my father because he was originally "just a backwater bumpkin." In Lance's eyes, my father was beneath him. He mocked him and treated him like garbage.

At the same time, though, he called Lucinda's father "Dad." That man was nothing more than a construction worker!

The room originally reserved for my father had been forcibly converted into a storage room. Lance was that opposed to my father's presence. Every time my father came to visit me, he had to stay in a hotel. A millionaire forced to stay in a budget inn every single visit. No one would have believed it if I told them.

…

A group gathered at the door. They were my relatives from my father's side of the family, so I welcomed them inside and served refreshments.

"Brianna, dear... I'm sorry for your loss," one of them said. "You were all he had left."

Laura, one of my distant relatives, arrived in an elegant dress. She scanned the room and asked, "Where's Lance?"

Not a single one of them even glanced at my father's photo.

"No way. So the rumors are true? You're just using your dad for clout?"

"I can't believe you! No wonder Lance ended up with his secretary. How much of a failure does a wife have to be to lose her own husband to another woman?"

"I was hoping to introduce him to my niece. Everyone knows the best son-in-law is a rich one!" Laura admitted.

My knuckles turned white. All they cared about was how wealthy Lance was. I had naively believed they came because they still cared about their relative and wanted to pay their final respects. But no one gave a damn about my father or me, after all.

I pointed at the door and shouted, "Get out!"

The crowd froze in shock.

Laura tried to salvage the situation by guilt-tripping me, but I wasn't having it. When no one showed any sign of leaving, I grabbed the nearest floral spray and started swinging it at them until they fled.

"Get out! All of you, get out!" I yelled before slamming the door shut in their bewildered faces.

They ranted and whined on the porch for a while before finally leaving.

It was just me and my father again.

"I guess I'm the only one here to say goodbye. I hope you don't mind," I muttered as I tidied the room and picked up the urn to place it in a columbarium.

…

My eyes were puffy and sore when I showed up at the office the next day.

I came with only one goal: to hand in my resignation letter.

Idle chatter was already underway when I stepped into the HR office. Apparently, Lance had moved Lucinda into an office of her own, and the company was even renovating it for her.

"Mr. Mitchell really dotes on her, huh? She has her own office now, and he's paying to get her into a new home!" a woman said. "I wish I had a CEO boyfriend like that..."

Someone noticed my arrival and hushed, "Ms. Carter!"

The woman pursed her lips and greeted me reluctantly, "Good morning."

I handed over my resignation letter. "I'm leaving today."

They were stunned. The department head, Monique, responded reflexively. "You can't resign immediately. You need to wait for two weeks—"

"I can. I have the right to resign whenever I want. Mr. Mitchell signed a document granting me that right."

It was an agreement I had made with him a month earlier. I would take the blame and be held responsible for the losses caused by Lucinda's forgetfulness. In exchange, he would allow me to quit whenever I wanted and give me the freedom to compete against him in the same industry.

He had sneered from his luxurious chair, "I'll sign if you agree to take this shit off Lucy's hands. But do you really want to quit? I doubt it. No other company out there would be willing to give you so many benefits. You won't find a position this good anywhere else, I guarantee it.

"Don't do anything rash just because you're itching to throw a fit. I'm only helping Lucy because I feel sorry for her, that's all. You don't have to be so dramatic over nothing."

He had assumed it was an impulsive decision. He couldn't have been more wrong. I had planned to resign the moment Lance abused his authority as CEO to promote Lucinda to chief secretary and give her the power to hire and fire employees.

"Just sign it. I'll take the blame," I had said.

…

After verifying my documents, the HR department got to work.

As I waited, I could already hear the gossip spreading.

"She sure has a lot of tricks up her sleeve."

"She knows she can't get Mr. Mitchell to look at her, even after turning her father's death into a melodrama, so now she's moving on to her next backup plan. It's pathetic."

I ignored them and let the gossip continue. Once I received my formal discharge letter, I left without giving the company a final glance.

…

Three days passed.

I arrived at the courthouse early to receive my divorce decree.

I had also managed to see all the posts Lucinda had shared on social media. She must have unblocked me.

They all appeared to have been posted within those three days.

I scrolled through the posts.

Every place Lance took her was somewhere he had once promised to take me but never did. His promises had been fulfilled, along with the photography skills he had learned to take flattering pictures of me. But the woman who got to enjoy all of it was Lucinda, not the wife he had spent the last ten years with.

Under one of the photos, I found a comment where Lance identified himself as her boyfriend.

He used to do all of this for me. Now it was all part of Lucinda's experience.

I doubted he would be back anytime soon. He seemed to be having far too much fun.

…

I took the divorce decree with me and went to a restaurant I had always liked.

To my surprise, I overheard the laughter and chatter of Lance, his family, and Lucinda.

They had apparently reserved a private room, but the door was slightly ajar. His mother, Leah Vedel, held Lucinda's hand affectionately and looked at her son.

Leah said, "She's such an angel, dear. Divorce that one and bring her into the family already! Don't you know how insufferable Brianna has been all these years?

"It's been a decade, and she still puts on airs whenever she's around us, as if she's too good for us! Pfft. Arrogant girl. She wouldn't even give you a child!"

"But this darling? I heard she's incredibly capable. She brings in huge profits for the company and gets along with everyone with ease!

"What you're missing in your life is a sweet, warm-hearted cheerleader, Lance. She's that girl!"

Lucinda lowered her head as though embarrassed while stealing a glance at Lance's reaction.

Lance took a quiet sip of his coffee. "I've been married to Brianna for ten years. A divorce could attract unnecessary attention and bad press."

He conveniently left out the fact that we were childless only because he never wanted children, and that every one of Lucinda's so-called achievements had been built on other people's work and claimed as her own.

I was about to enter the room when Marlene, Lance's sister, chimed in, "Really?! You think people are going to think you're weird for that? Get with the times already! People divorce for far less, even after being with someone much longer!

"Honestly? I hate having Brianna as my sister-in-law. She's embarrassing to talk about. People at school have been laughing at me because of her!"

"I know, right?!" Nolan, his brother, added. "Just marry Lucy already, Lance. She's better than Brianna in every way. I really don't want to be the laughingstock of my class when the next semester starts."

These two ingrates had only gotten into university because of me. I had found the best tutors to give them private SAT prep. I was the one who had contacted college administrators to help secure their admission. I had even tutored them myself when they struggled with their coursework.

And now I was suddenly too embarrassing for them?

I let out a snicker. Ingratitude clearly ran in this family. They even used the same excuses to put me down.

Back when I invested so much of my money and effort into the company, Leah had praised me to the skies. She would tell everyone she met that I was the best daughter-in-law anyone could ask for. She would go on and on about how I was Lance's greatest blessing.

Now? The company was bringing in huge profits, so they no longer needed me. Suddenly, I had become the stain on their otherwise perfect record.

I pushed the door open and told the waitress, "I don't need my own room, thanks."

Lucinda and the Mitchells froze in surprise.

Lance quickly took another sip of his coffee to hide his expression. He managed to put on a frown and asked, "Why are you here? Shouldn't you be working?"

I wondered whether he already knew I had quit. My resignation had caused quite a stir, after all.

There was no way no one had reported it to Lucinda. And since he had apparently been spending the last three days with her, why would he be unaware? Besides, HR must have emailed him about it.

If Lucinda had quit her job, I was certain that he would have noticed much sooner.

I met his gaze. "I've resigned. I can be anywhere I want."