Nina grabbed the edge of the table to keep from collapsing.
It couldn’t be true. But documents didn’t lie. Vivian. The same Vivian who smiled so sweetly at her, who chatted about her supposedly loving husband. She was her husband’s mistress. And they had a son.
Nina let out a bitter laugh.
It didn’t fit in her head. Did Vivian know that Nina was Frank’s legal wife? Of course she must have. Or at least, she would have found out by now. If all this was true, then she must’ve grown tired of waiting for Frank to leave his wife and decided to scout out the situation herself. To see whether he was lying to her. To size up her rival. Or something else entirely. Who even knew what went on in that snake’s head? How could you smile at a woman whose husband you were sleeping with?
Why not just tell the truth? Why hide, why lie, why drag this out instead of leaving peacefully? Their daughter was grown. There was no longer any need to keep the family intact for a child.
But she already knew the answer.
It was too obvious.
It was all about the damn company. The company that brought in millions. Frank had sunk his teeth into it and wasn’t about to let go.
She kept going through the documents.
He’d bought Vivian a car. He’d bought their son an apartment for the future.All financed with her inheritance. That infuriated her the most.
All those designer clothes, beauty salons, vacations for Vivian, a private nanny for her son. Every bit of it had been paid for with her money.
That was the final straw.
Nina kept flipping through the papers. Copies of contracts. Statements. He’d kept everything. That sealed the truth completely. Her husband had a second family, and he was generously providing for it.
She couldn’t breathe. Her chest burned. She squeezed her eyes shut, but the birth certificate still hovered before her eyes. Ethan. The boy who’d drawn that very picture her husband had so carefully kept in his car.
Her head spun. Her husband’s name in the“father” line flashed inside her mind.
Just a few hours ago, she would’ve laughed in the face of anyone who dared tell her that Frank was living a double life. And now she was holding proof in her hands. Literally.
So what now? What was left for her to do?
Nina forced herself to breathe more evenly. She couldn’t make a scene right now.
So Nadine had been right. And if that“married womanizer” supporting Vivian really was preparing for a divorce, did that mean Frank was planning to leave Nina with nothing?
An icy chill ran down her spine. This was no longer just betrayal. This was a calculated plan.
He knew the company had come to her as an inheritance. Which meant that in a divorce, he had no rights to it. That was why he’d been pressuring her, persuading her, telling her it’d be easier this way.
“Let’s simplify everything, Nina. Transfer the shares to me.”
And she… she’d almost agreed.
Heat flooded her. She had no idea what to do. There was no one she could even ask for help. Frank had all the authority, not her. He’d spent twenty years working beside her father, building connections, earning a reputation. And she… she was nobody.
The luxury house in the suburbs, the apartments, the elite foreign property were bought over the years of marriage. What guarantees did she have that he hadn’t already sold it all through fake deals? That the money from their accounts hadn’t already been funneled offshore long ago?
If she let him strip her of everything, if he got the shares, she’d be left with nothing.It was a devastating, sickening realization.
He didn’t want a simple divorce. He wanted everything.
Nina made herself breathe slower. Panic wouldn’t save her now.
She carefully put the documents back into the safe deposit box, photographing every single page first. She would need those later.
As long as Frank believed everything was under control, as long as he thought she knew nothing, she still had time to prepare for the divorce.
