Chapter 1

I was three years older than Ethan. Five years into our marriage, right as I hit thirty, he started looking at me with distaste.

"Natalie just turned thirty. Once a woman turns thirty, her face starts to sag. I really don't want to wake up every morning staring at her crow's feet."

Yet years ago, he’d held my face and promised: "Natalie, true beauty never fades. I’ll grow old with you, hand in hand."

Five short years, and our age-gap romance had withered away.

Fine by me. Honestly, I was already getting tired of his lack of energy in bed.

It was time for an upgrade—someone younger.

I wrapped up my business trip early, planning to give Ethan a surprise.

The apartment was empty.

Three hours ago, he had texted me a photo of himself sitting on our balcony.

I texted him again, saying I’d ordered him some food via UberEats.

Half an hour later, he replied instantly:

"You're the best, babe! Just picked it up. Love you!"

A woman's intuition never lies. Ethan was cheating. And luckily, I still held the upper hand.

I dragged my luggage to a hotel for the night and returned home the next morning as originally scheduled.

Ethan had already cleaned the place spotless. The moment I walked through the door, he pulled me into a tight hug.

Glancing at the damp hair clinging to his neck, I patted his shoulder with a faint smile.

"Look at you, all showered and clean. Were you waiting for me?"

Without skipping a beat, Ethan leaned in and gave me a long, lingering kiss.

His mouthwash had been switched to a sickly sweet orange flavor.

Just as he tried to take things further, his phone buzzed.

His brows knitted. He answered, then hung up almost immediately.

"Natalie, there's an emergency at the office. I have to go."

"The project team messed up the data, and the client is furious. I need to go put out the fire!"

"Sure. Go ahead."

He lied with absolute perfection, without a single hesitation.

The second he walked out, I followed him.

Ethan didn't even leave the apartment complex. Two buildings down, he punched in the passcode at a front door with practiced ease and stepped inside.

I headed straight to the security desk, slipped the guard a generous tip, and lied, claiming my cat had slipped out and I needed to check the hall cameras.

Sixteenth floor, unit 1603. The tenant was a young woman.

The second the door swung open, the two wrapped their arms around each other.

They didn't even bother closing the door before making out furiously.

"Your old lady is back, isn't she? Did she kiss you? I'm going to wipe her taste completely off your lips!"

"Go ahead. Wipe it all off."

Ethan's large hands roamed hungrily over her body, locking lips with her in a breathless frenzy.

The heavy door slammed shut, cutting off the view. Calmly, I recorded the entire security footage with my phone.

Then, I turned and walked out of the security office.

The guard asked, "Did you find your cat, ma'am?"

"I did. He wandered into someone else's place. I don't want him anymore."

I recognized that girl. Six months ago, I accompanied Ethan to a business dinner. A waitress had accidentally spilled hot soup on my dress, and Ethan had lost his temper on the spot.

Ethan had always been gentle, but that night, he berated the poor girl until she broke down in tears, eventually forcing her to pay me a few hundred dollars out of her own pocket.

Back then, I even told him he went too far. But Ethan had insisted:

"She clearly did it on purpose! You're my queen. What if that soup had burned you?"

Now I didn't know if they were already hooking up back then, or if that little drama was how their affair started.

Either way, Ethan had stepped out on me. That was a fact.

I called my divorce lawyer, Rachel. "Draft a divorce settlement for me."

She choked on her coffee. "Already tired of him? Ethan is only twenty-seven. He's literally in his prime!"

"He's cheating. No matter how hot he is, he's second-hand trash now."

Rachel gasped. "Natalie, you can't throw around accusations like that without proof!"

Without answering, I forwarded her the video.

A long silence followed before she texted back: "Understood. Out with the old, in with the better."

Sinking back into the sofa, all the strength drained from my body.

Five years ago, Ethan had bawled like a baby when he proposed to me. Five years later, his little mistress called me an old lady, and he didn't even bother to disagree.

Right now, I didn't need tears. I needed a clean break.

Twenty-five-year-old Natalie would have cried her eyes out over a broken heart.

Thirty-year-old Natalie, faced with a cheating husband, only cared about settling the score.