I don’t think I’ll ever forget the exact second I stopped thinking of myself as Adrian Cole’s wife.
It was my thirty-fourth birthday, thrown in the massive ballroom of the Cole estate. Everything about the night was obnoxious; the overflowing crystals, the expensive flowers, and the hundred people Adrian invited just to stroke his own ego. Midway through the evening, I “accidentally” bumped into Vanessa Hart, and spilled a glass of red wine all over her silver designer dress.
The catch was that Vanessa was Adrian’s mistress. They’d been sleeping together for eight months. I’d found out three weeks prior, but didn’t react in any way. I simply didn’t want him to know that I knew of his double life.
Adrian saw his chance to humiliate me in front of the entire room. He walked over, and sneered, “Maybe now you’ll learn your place.”
He demanded that I apologize to his lover, so I just went with it and said I was sorry. Vanessa thought she won, and she gave me this sarcastic smile, but then I went on and said, “I’m sorry that you think this is the end of it all.”
Then Margaret Cole, Adrian’s mother, started laughing at me and made sure she reminded everyone that I came from nothing and should kiss the ground the Cole family walked on. To them, I was just “poor Elena,” expected to bow down and thank them forever.
Sure, they knew I had five brothers, the ones my husband refused to invite to my birthday party because he liked to dismiss them as “gangsters,” and I never bothered correcting him. What he and the rest of them didn’t know was that Dominic ran an international security firm, Matteo owned a massive logistics network, Luca was a top-tier defense attorney, Gabriel was a forensic accountant, and Nico worked in corporate intelligence.
The second Adrian finished his little public spectacle, I walked over to my table, picked up my phone, and texted a single line to our group chat:
“I need all of you here.”
An hour later, a row of black SUVs rolled up the driveway. Dominic stepped out first, followed by Matteo, Luca, Gabriel, and Nico. The guests started wondering what was going on. Maybe they expected some sort of a show, and the best part was that they were all going to get one.
Adrian puffed out his chest, trying to look imposing. “This is private property.”
Luca gave him a polite, chilling smile. “Great. That means we can safely assume your security cameras are recording.” Nico didn’t even look up from his screen. “Already backed up to the cloud.”
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Gabriel stepped forward, dropping a thick envelope right onto the table in front of Adrian’s parents.
Everyone in high society believed Adrian had successfully inherited his grandfather’s fortune and businesses. The truth was that three years ago, when Cole Development was on the brink of bankruptcy and blacklisted by every bank, a mysterious private investor had stepped out of nowhere with a bunch millions of dollars to buy their mortgage and secure their credit lines.
That private investor was Moretti Capital.
My company.
Adrian had never cared about reading fine print. Whenever paperwork crossed his desk, he just shoved it toward me, fully expecting his obedient little wife to sign away without looking. Gabriel casually flipped open the forensic audits, which laid bare how Adrian had been siphoning company funds into shell companies to finance his mistress’s lavish apartment, her Mercedes, and her entire lifestyle.
