Chapter 1

I slaved away for months to close a mega-project with the National Design Institute, only for my wife to turn around and claim I was holding the company back.

She handed all the credit over to her golden boy.

Instead of blowing up, I laughed.

In fact, I handed over my position as Chief Design Officer to him on the spot.

"Since running projects is so exhausting, why don't you just take my title as Design Director too?"

Everyone in the office thought I had completely lost my mind.

None of them realized that the project was only ours because of my unique architectural style and deep industry connections.

Without me, the project wouldn't just collapse—the entire company would burn to the ground.

I woke up with a brutal hangover after entertaining a massive client late into the night.

The moment I stepped into the office, a sickening scene greeted me.

"Austin, our company couldn't have achieved this without you!"

"You've worked so hard. Let's make a toast!"

There was Claire, lifting her champagne glass with flushed cheeks, playfully linking arms with Austin in front of our cheering colleagues.

After finishing the drink, Austin casually wrapped his arm around Claire’s waist.

"Claire, as long as it helps you, no amount of hard work is too much for me."

A sycophantic coworker immediately piped up to flatter them:

"Austin, I've never seen Boss Hayes drink with anyone like that before. She clearly values you above everyone else!"

"Austin's the real hero of the company today! Let's all raise our glasses to him!"

Watching the festive mood in the office felt like a boulder crushing my chest.

Today was Saturday. Claire and I were supposed to go to a nice restaurant to celebrate the launch of our new quarter.

Yet when I woke up with a throbbing headache, she was nowhere to be found.

If one of my team members hadn't casually texted me about the team party, I’d still be completely in the dark.

At first, I thought she just wanted to let me sleep off the hangover.

Only now, watching her sip champagne and cozy up to her long-time crush, Austin, did the reality hit me.

She didn't forget. She deliberately excluded me.

Austin turned around, caught sight of me, and feigned dramatic surprise:

"Julian? What are you doing here so late?"

"We thought you called in sick, so we started the meeting without you. My bad!"

His words were polite, but the gloating in his eyes was unmistakable as he leaned even closer to Claire.

Claire didn’t offer a single word of explanation. Instead, she frowned in irritation.

"Julian, you reek of alcohol. You know how much I despise that smell!

Besides, you knew today was the company celebration. Why are you just showing up?"

"Since you're finally here, hand over the Institute project to Austin. That way your drinking won't ruin our biggest deal."

Hand the National Design Institute project to Austin?

That was a multi-million-dollar deal I spent six brutal months fighting for!

It was an impossibly complex contract, with countless well-funded firms trying to tear a piece off for themselves.

Our firm, Apex Design Group, was merely an ant compared to those corporate giants.

I ran myself into the ground, schmoozing with city planners and industry chiefs, drinking until 3 AM and vomiting blood from gastric ulcers.

Now, right at the finish line, Claire dismissed all my blood, sweat, and tears with a wave of her hand, handing my baby over to Austin.

It was truly pathetic.

Back when Claire decided she wanted to start an architectural firm, I didn't hesitate for a second. I walked away from my prestigious, tenured position at the National Design Institute, poured my entire life savings into her dream, and built this company from scratch with her.

She had a background in accounting; she knew nothing about architecture, let alone how to grow a firm.

Over the years, the entire burden fell on my shoulders.

I was running sales, pitching clients, and pulling all-nighters over blueprints. I practically squeezed the life out of myself to push Apex into the city's top three firms.

And Austin? He merely shared a few glasses of wine with Claire, and he effortlessly snatched away everything I built.

Looking back, Claire had probably wanted to push me out for a long time.

Years of marriage, utterly worthless against her high-school crush. What a sick joke.

Perhaps it was time to let go.

A bitter laugh welled up inside me, but my face remained deadpan. "Fine."

Austin's eyes flashed with petty triumph, yet he kept up his humble act:

"Julian, I'm just the new guy. This deal involves tens of millions. How could I possibly qualify?"

"I only mentioned it because Claire said you've been drowning yourself in alcohol with clients and barely had time to work. I just wanted to lend a hand."

Claire smiled warmly and patted Austin's arm. "Austin, you're an Ivy League Yale graduate. If you can't pull this off, no one in this company can."

I couldn't help but chuckle out loud.

The 'Yale' she kept bragging about was just a shady, unaccredited community program that happened to share the town's name.

Only someone as blinded as Claire would treat him like an elite prodigy and hire him with a bloated salary.

Hearing my laugh, Claire's face hardened.

"What's so funny, Julian? With your trashy habit of relying on alcohol to get things done, you wouldn't even be Chief Design Officer if I hadn't made you one!"

"The company is running smoothly now. If Austin hadn't stood up for you, I would have fired your useless ass a long time ago!"

I let out a cold smirk.

Claire conveniently forgot that when the firm was struggling, I closed every single contract myself. I taught her the business step-by-step and wrecked my health drinking with stakeholders to keep our lights on.

Now that the company was thriving, she saw me as a burden and looked down on me.

Seeing her venomous glare, I took a slow, deep breath and walked straight up to Austin.

The surrounding coworkers hastily backed away, nervous that a fistfight was about to break out.

Instead, I stayed remarkably calm. Smiling faintly, I pulled an equity transfer agreement right out of my pocket.

"Since running projects is so exhausting, why don't you just take my title as Design Director too?"