Chapter 4

My mother-in-law's face went dark at once. She jabbed a finger at me.

"Irene Donaldson, Zion is gravely hurt right now, and you want a divorce? What exactly are you playing at?"

I looked at her with a cold, level stare, then at my father-in-law, who was glowering at me.

"What I mean is that your son cheated on me for ten years and let his mistress walk all over me, and I want to divorce him."

"I'll be taking what's mine. Twenty percent of Barber Group's shares and the three billion my family poured in. My lawyer has already written it into the divorce agreement."

My father-in-law slammed a palm down on the table.

"Nonsense!"

Then he fixed me with a venomous glare.

"Irene Donaldson, don't think that riding on the Barbers has bought your family a seat in high society."

"You take one share of the Barber shares, and I'll have you people back down in the gutter before you know it. Try me."

I smiled and raised my hand, holding out the evidence of Zion's bribery.

"I believe you, Dad."

"But I wonder who ends up in the gutter first, once I hand this to the financial crimes commission, and take Zion's affair and that little rainstorm rendezvous he ran off to for his mistress straight to the board."

Zion's face darkened too. He looked at me, wounded.

"Nini, did you really marry me just for money? Weren't you the one who loved me most?"

"I'm gravely hurt now, and instead of getting through this with me, you're threatening me? How can you do that?"

My mother-in-law spat out her contempt.

"You, the daughter of some broke-down family, what right do you have to walk off with three billion of the Barbers' money? If we hadn't brought you in, would your family even know which way the door to a great house swings?"

"Zion has just spoiled you rotten. Coddled you until you forgot your place."

I stepped forward and spoke coldly.

"On the grounds that when your Barber family was days from bankruptcy, I knelt in front of my father for three days and three nights to get the capital that pulled Barber Group through."

"On the grounds that I fought at Barber Group for ten years, took Donaldson money three times to invest, and drove Barber Group to the very top."

"As his wife, as the one who saved Barber Group, tell me, do I have the right?"

"Or does that right belong to Delia Simmons, who's only ever good in bed, who cries that her stomach hurts to make your son rush out to her in the rain?"

My father-in-law's face turned as ugly as it could get. He opened his mouth to roar at me.

"You—"

I flung the evidence straight at Zion's chest.

"Zion Barber, let's part on good terms. You give me my compensation, or you can wait to go to prison."

And with that, I didn't spare the three ugly-faced figures another look. I walked out with long strides.

That night, Zion came back, bracing his wound.

The usual smile surfaced on his face, and he leaned against my shoulder, all injured self-pity.

"Nini, let's not divorce, all right?"

"Ten years. I've really fallen in love with you. How can you not love me?"

"If I didn't love you, I could have quietly frozen an embryo with Delia and you'd never have known. Have I ever hidden a single thing from you?"

I drew a deep breath and studied him calmly.

"Zion Barber, back when we made our deal, it was a marriage of convenience. I secured my position in the Donaldson family, you got my capital behind you."

"I knew all about your history with Delia Simmons, and I agreed that when the arrangement ended, I could divorce you and let you have her."

"You were the one who wouldn't divorce. You were the one who said you'd settle things with Delia Simmons, that you'd love me my whole life. And yet you let her come and provoke me six times. Do you think I'm some kind of saint, sitting there swallowing it?"

Back then, my stepmother whispered in my father's ear, and again and again he signed assets over to her and her son.

For my little brother, to take back everything that was mine, I went looking for Zion Barber in his hour of crisis.

We signed a cooperative marriage agreement.

My father was just a nouveau-riche who'd made his fortune off a demolition deal, desperate to climb into an old-money family and move into real industry.

Seeing a chance to marry into a century-old house, my father generously threw in a billion as my dowry and pushed me to marry into the Barbers.

With money and my help, Zion cleared the crisis within a year, opened a new market by the second, and as I talked my father into fresh investment and kept up the planning, Barber Group climbed to the very peak.

In all that time, Delia Simmons proposed five times that she and Zion freeze an embryo, so that after the divorce she could carry it legitimately through a surrogate and give birth to their child.

Every time Zion brought it to me, I set the divorce papers down in front of him.

I told him that the moment an embryo was frozen, it was a life, and a life had inheritance rights, and I would never let a mistress's child carve up my assets.

Freeze it, fine. Divorce first.

And if he dared betray the marriage, he would forfeit every share to his name.

That clause was one the Barbers had deliberately written into the prenuptial agreement to guard against me.

But now he couldn't bear to part with any of it. Even my dowry and the capital I'd put in had become the Barbers'.

Zion looked even more aggrieved.

"Sweetheart, I'm sorry. I really have no choice. Give me one more year, and I'll deal with Delia for good, all right?"

He buried his head against my chest and nuzzled hard.

"Sweetheart, I hurt all over right now. You can't just abandon me. Otherwise I'll take it to your father to settle, and let everyone know what a heartless woman you are."

I closed my eyes and swallowed down the disgust.

I used to think three thousand six hundred and fifty days of standing by him, of everything I'd given, meant Zion felt something for me, that he was only tangled up in old gratitude and couldn't tell right from wrong.

Now I finally understood. He was selfish. He was arrogant.

He believed no woman could live without him.

Like Delia Simmons, who took a knife for him and lost her baby, who lay in his bed for over ten years without a word of complaint.

He used the pretense of gratitude to serve his own appetites.

And he couldn't bear to give me back the three billion and the shares, so he coaxed me every time, sure I'd fall in line every time, like a good girl.

It hit me all at once. If they were going to cling to what they owed me and refuse to hand it over, then I'd take Barber Group itself, and make every one of them look up to me.

I smiled.

I turned to him, a smile rising, and patted Zion's back gently.

"Zion, ten years of marriage. We became one long ago."

"The new-energy venture between our families is about to launch. We truly can't do without each other. I'll give you one last year. I hope you'll treasure what I feel for you."

Zion was overjoyed at once. He grabbed me and planted a loud kiss on me.

"Sweetheart, I knew you loved me most. I knew you could never bring yourself to throw me away."

"Once my wound heals, I'll draw a clear line with Delia Simmons. And then we'll have a sweet little baby of our own."

Watching the smugness flicker in his eyes, I curved my lips.

"All right. Whatever you say."

Zion Barber, go make a baby with your little darling if you've got it in you. All I want is the money.

The moment Zion was coaxed back to the hospital, I dialed the financial crimes unit.

"I'm reporting the chairman of Barber Group for illegal payoffs and rigging a bid in a tender project. Please send someone to investigate immediately."