Chapter 3

Looking at these text message logs, the angrier I got, the more my blood boiled.

Just beating him up, giving him physical pain, would let him off far too easy.

He'd stolen my woman, made a cuckold of me. If I didn't ruin the two of them, disgrace them so they'd never recover, then I'd write my name, David Lambert, backwards.

I screen-recorded and photographed all of it—the text message logs, the money transfer receipts, the hotel booking records—and made more than a dozen backups.

Lucy came home at ten o'clock that night.

She had a smile on her face she couldn't hide, a rosy glow to her cheeks, her hair freshly washed, and along with the disinfectant she carried the scent of some unfamiliar men's cologne.

The afterglow of passion still lingered in her eyes, and the foundation between her brows was smudged a little too abruptly, done in too much of a hurry.

Did this look like a woman wrung out from three back-to-back surgeries? I'd just been too careless before.

"You're back?" I said evenly, giving nothing away.

"Mm, I'm dead tired. I'm going to take a shower." She hung her bag by the entryway and went straight into the bathroom.

The smile on my face vanished in an instant, leaving only a cold light in my eyes.

The next morning, I timed it for the department's morning meeting and went straight to the doctors' office.

Lucy was clustered with a few surgical residents, getting ready to go to breakfast. When she saw me walk in, a flash of panic and surprise crossed her eyes.

"Aren't you in surgery today? What are you doing here?"

I smiled, all tenderness, my voice pitched neither loud nor soft—just enough for everyone in the office to hear. "Baby, your residency is almost done. I've had a word with the department and talked to the hospital leadership. Your permanent staff position here—I've got it taken care of for you."

"What? A staff position?" Lucy's eyes went wide in an instant.

"That's right." I reached out and ruffled her hair, my tone doting. "We're getting married soon. If you want to stay on at this hospital, of course I'm going to give you the best security there is. Not just the position—the flagship journal paper you need for your board certification review, I've already lined up the journal. I'll fill in the lab data myself. I guarantee you'll make attending next year."

The office erupted at once, colleagues crowding around, faces full of envy as they egged us on.

Amid everyone's cheering and envy, the shock on Lucy's face slowly turned into excitement and smugness she couldn't hold back.

I knew her far too well.

She cared about face more than anything, loved to measure herself against everyone around her. I'd deliberately picked a moment when the whole department was there to say it, precisely so she could bask in the glory. In less than half a day, the news would be all over the hospital.

If you're going to put on an act, do the whole thing. That very day I took her to the HR Department, pretended to ask a colleague I knew about the policy for a permanent position, then showed her the flagship journal paper I was about to finish, with her listed as first author.

Lucy was completely lost in the joy of the position she was about to get, and even the way she looked at me was clingier than ever before.

"Should we tell my parents about this?" I probed on purpose.

Lucy's face changed at once, her tone impatient. "What's there to tell them? This is my position, my job. Once I've got it all locked down, then I'll tell them."

I sneered inwardly.

Her family favored sons over daughters—every good thing was saved for her younger brother, Wesley. Now her brother was talking marriage, and the girl's side wanted a house and a car, so her parents were on her every day to earn money and help him out.

If they found out she was about to get a permanent staff position, there was no telling how they'd force her to pave the way for her brother.

My face instantly took on a look of tender concern, and I pulled her into my arms. "Baby, I know all about it. Your parents don't love you, but your husband does. From now on your job, your future—I'll have it all arranged perfectly for you, and no one will get to push you around."

Lucy was so moved the tears fell. That very night she snuggled up to me on her own, pulling out every trick she had to please me, mumbling promises that from now on she'd truly make a life with me, be a virtuous wife and loving mother after we married.

A virtuous wife and loving mother? The virtuous wife of an adulterer, or the loving mother raising some other man's brat?