While I was busy handling her parents’ funeral arrangements, I also devoted myself to stabilizing the company by keeping key employees from leaving and bringing in new clients.
During those days, I slept no more than four hours each night, pouring my heart and soul into the work.
In the end, not only did Scott Corporation avoid collapsing after her parents’ death, it even grew stronger—and most of the credit belonged to me.
Yet during that period, Vanessa promoted Jason to be her assistant.
Jason was slick and smooth-talking, especially skilled at flattering women. Vanessa’s attitude toward him clearly crossed the line between boss and subordinate.
I argued with Vanessa about it more than once, but each time I was the one who ended up apologizing first.
I had truly loved her.
But she always mocked me, saying things like:
“If my family didn’t have money, would you really have agreed to be a dependent husband in the Scott Family?”
“Ethan, without my family’s wealth and connections, you’d still be nothing more than a poor boy from the Midwest countryside.”
“Don’t think that just because you’re my husband you get to control me.”
“Remember your place—you’re just the dependent husband of the Scott Family. If this were ancient times, someone like you wouldn’t even have the status of a household manager.”
She used cutting words like that more than once to wound me, and with each blow, my love for her eroded a little more.
I took a deep breath, picked up my phone, and said into the receiver, “I’m going to divorce Vanessa.”
After the ambulance brought me to the hospital, I had no money to pay for treatment.
Vanessa had frozen my bank card.
Just like the time Jason had a birthday and Vanessa gave him an expensive watch. Overjoyed, Jason hugged her and kissed her cheek right in front of me.
Blinded by rage, I punched him in the face.
In return, Vanessa slapped me hard in front of everyone, called me petty and jealous, then froze my bank card, leaving me to survive on bread and tap water for a month.
Jason and I had clashed several times, and every time, Vanessa punished me by cutting off my access to money, calling it a “lesson to teach me a little humility.”
She even humiliated me publicly, sneering, “Everything you eat, wear, and use comes from me. Don’t make me unhappy, or you’ll end up on the streets, begging for food.”