Chapter 2
For Daniel, the loving husband and perfect CEO image he'd built would collapse overnight.
For Gianna, the dignified rise to the top she'd wanted would turn into a company-wide scandal.
The airport came into view.
I paid, got out, and walked into the brightly lit terminal.
I went through security and waited at the gate. People passed by all around me, no one knowing I'd just set off a bomb and walked away.
I even had the appetite to eat a bowl of noodles in the lounge. It was surprisingly good.
The boarding announcement came. I picked up my bag and headed to the gate.
"Welcome aboard," the flight attendant said with a smile.
"Thank you," I said.
I found my seat, sat down, and buckled my seatbelt.
The plane taxied, then accelerated down the runway. The thrust pushed me back into my seat.
I looked out the window at the city shrinking beneath me.
Goodbye, Daniel.
Goodbye, my stupid marriage.
Goodbye, the five years of my youth I'd wasted.
I closed my eyes, not to grieve, just to better welcome the life that was waiting for me.
The plane cruised smoothly through the clouds. I wasn't sleepy. My mind was unusually clear.
I started replaying everything. This wasn't an impulsive decision. It felt more like a long-prepared contingency plan that had finally been activated.
When did my marriage to Daniel start falling apart? Probably two years ago.
He'd received angel investment from my father to start AetherNet.
The company had expanded rapidly from a small operation of about a dozen people.
He got busier and busier, came home later and later.
The scent of perfume on him stopped being the one I knew and turned into various women's fragrances I didn't recognize.
I asked him once. He was very impatient.
He said, "Isabella, can you be more mature? I'm the CEO of a company now. How many people do I meet every day? Isn't it normal to pick up some scent at social events?"
He said I hadn't been like this before. He was right. I hadn't.
The old me would have believed every word he said, prepared hangover soup for him and waited until late at night, managed his life so perfectly that he never had to worry about anything.
But trust was like a piece of paper. Once wrinkled, it could never be smooth again.
I started paying attention.
He changed his phone password.
I found an earring in his car, under the passenger seat, that wasn't mine.
He said a female client had left it.
I saw lipstick marks on his shirt collar.
He said they were from a casual brush at a drinking party.
Lie after lie, each one lamer than the last.
His patience wore thinner. And my heart grew colder.
When did Gianna appear? About a year ago.
A top graduate from a prestigious university. Young, pretty, with ambition written all over her eyes.
The way she looked at Daniel was with undisguised admiration and adoration. As a woman, I knew that look too well.
Daniel ate it up.
He'd even brought her home for dinner, the time I recalled earlier.
He praised her competence and her thoughtfulness right in front of me.
That was when I knew their relationship went beyond just work.
But I didn't act. Alerting the enemy was the stupidest move.
If I was going to act, I had to get the most solid evidence and strike a fatal blow.
I hired a private investigator.
The cost was high, but worth it.
He gave me a folder with photos of Daniel and Gianna coming and going from various hotels and apartments, with clear dates and times.
There were also message exchanges, the kind that made me want to scrub my eyes.
Apparently, in front of Gianna, my mature and steady husband was greasy and frivolous. And in Daniel's version of things, I was a dull, rigid, and uninteresting wife.
I sat with that folder in my study for an entire night.
When dawn came, I didn't confront Daniel.
I also gathered evidence of him moving assets around.
He thought I didn't know anything.
He thought I was still the canary he kept in a cage.
He was wrong.
Since my father had trusted him with that large sum of money, he'd also taught me how to protect my interests.
I held thirty percent of the company's shares.
The house was in my name. I even knew about his secret offshore account. These were all my cards.
I'd been waiting for the right moment, a chance to destroy his reputation so completely that he could never recover.