Natalie was still struggling to process what she had discovered when she got into a cab back to the office.
She rushed upstairs as soon as she arrived at the company. Before she reached the CEO's office, she heard muffled voices and intimate noises coming from the lounge nearby.
"I've already waited for three years! How much longer are you going to keep that woman around? I'm your real wife!"
Natalie recognized the voice immediately.
It was Vera Curtis, Waylon's childhood friend. The two had grown up together, then fallen out of touch when the Curtis family went bankrupt.
They had crossed paths again two years ago. Because of their shared history, Waylon had given Vera a job as a marketing manager in his company.
Natalie had taken his willingness to help an old friend as proof that he was a good man.
It hadn't occurred to her that he had staged the whole thing to deceive her.
All along, Vera had been his legal wife, not her!
Waylon was breathing harder now. "Give me a little more time... I can dump her as soon as I close the RL International deal. That contract could bring in billions in profit and keep the company funded for years. After that, I'll have no use for her."
"Fine, you get another month," Vera replied in a sweet voice. "But you'd better keep your word this time. If you don't, I can't guarantee what I'll do."
"You and that jealous streak." Waylon chuckled fondly. "Trust me, I know what you're capable of. Last time, I only spent her birthday with her, and you went and hit her with your car. You think I'd dare make you mad again after that?"
"Good. Keep that in mind. Mmm... be gentle..."
Soon, they were doing more than murmuring between breaths.
The noises from the lounge became more intimate.
Natalie sucked in a sharp breath and quickly stepped back from the door.
Vera was the one who had hit her with the car last time?
That explained why Waylon had offered to take care of everything after the accident. He rarely took anything seriously, but he had told her to leave it all to him and concentrate on getting better.
Was that what he had meant by taking care of it? Letting Vera get away with everything when she had almost bled to death because of her?
Natalie made as little noise as she could as she slipped into the CEO's office. She took an easily overlooked document from the pile on his desk that was waiting for approval.
Once she was out of the office, she finally breathed easier. Then, she casually slipped the document into a shredder.
It was the divorce agreement she had prepared. No one would ever read the words on it again.
Natalie smiled a little.
She had spent so much time trying to work out how to divorce Waylon without letting him catch on.
And now, it turned out they hadn't even been legally married.
Well, that made things a lot easier for her.
***
Six months ago, Natalie opened her eyes in a hospital bed and felt an odd emptiness inside.
She had come close to dying, but there was no sign of her husband by her side now.
When she checked her phone, she found a photo Vera had shared on social media only minutes ago. In the photo, Waylon was holding a controller and playing a video game, completely focused on it.
The caption was, "As long as I've got you beside me, I can make it through anything."
Natalie had thought that would leave her heartbroken.
But she didn't feel a thing. She even hit Like on Vera's post.
Waylon and Vera had overstepped plenty of times before.
For their wedding anniversary, Natalie and Waylon had gone to a romantic restaurant. But then, Vera had suddenly called about a stomachache, and Waylon had left her there alone.
She had once worked herself to the bone to land a deal, only to find Vera's name on the contract. According to Waylon, Vera needed some achievements to her name so she could find her footing at the company.
When the orphanage that had raised her faced money problems, she wanted to put money into it to keep it running. But Waylon had spent those funds on a limited-edition designer bag for Vera...
They had dated for four years, then spent three more in what she had believed was a marriage. She had put up with a lot because she wanted their relationship to last.
But he had left her fighting for her life so he could play video games with Vera...
Natalie suddenly felt that the relationship wasn't worth holding on to anymore.
She had waited far too long to leave.
At that moment, someone knocked on her hospital room door, and a man in a well-tailored suit walked in.
"You're Ms. Natalie Stephens, correct? We've verified that you're Gerald Campbell's only daughter. He was the former chairman of the Campbell Group. His will entitles you to everything he left behind."
The car accident had left Natalie in need of a blood transfusion. Because her blood type was rare, representatives of a trust company had been able to locate her.
The story they told her was almost impossible to believe. An heir from a wealthy family had fallen in love with a woman, but the two had been forced apart. He had never married after that. As he grew older, he had begun searching for his biological child so he could leave her a fortune of more than a hundred billion dollars.
But instead of getting caught up in the excitement of such an enormous inheritance... Natalie thought of one thing first: that bastard Waylon wasn't getting a cent.
She stopped herself from confronting him and breaking things off right now.
She spent the rest of her hospital stay quietly recovering, then went back to the Ashton family's residence as if nothing had happened. She continued to work as Waylon's personal secretary.
All the while, she looked everywhere for their marriage certificate without his knowledge. Her plan was to tuck a divorce agreement among the papers awaiting his signature.
But she had searched the entire estate without finding the certificate.
That left her with no choice but to visit the city hall.
She hadn't expected that single trip to reveal the truth. Her marriage to Waylon had been a lie from the start.
Now, she could hardly believe how well things had turned out.
Without Vera hitting her with her car, the Campbell family, the richest family in the country, would've never tracked her down.
And if Waylon hadn't passed off a fake marriage certificate as real, he might've had a claim to half the vast fortune she stood to inherit.
How had she managed to get this lucky?
***
Natalie went back to the villa.
Waylon was still fooling around with Vera at the office, so she used the chance to pack.
She wasn't his wife. So why waste another minute in a home where everything was a lie?
She only needed to leave, and she could start a wonderful new life.
Natalie was already imagining sunshine, sandy beaches, and handsome young guys with sculpted eight-pack abs...
She was humming cheerfully as she dragged her suitcase downstairs and pulled open the front door.
Just then, her phone buzzed.
Natalie gave the screen a casual glance and went still.
Her lawyer had sent her a message.
"We've hit a snag with the paperwork for your inheritance."
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