Chapter 1
On the drive to my husband’s family home for Christmas break, the female voice from Waze sounded unusually sweet.
“Speed limit ahead is seventy-five miles per hour. Who’s speeding? Keep that up and I might stop liking you.”
Cody Miller, who was usually a man of few words, actually responded to it.
“Alright, alright. I get it. My bad.”
A flicker of jealousy stirred in my chest. “You sound closer to your navigation app than you do to your own wife.”
He waved me off casually, then kept flirting with the voice. “I know you’ve been guiding me all this way. Must be exhausting. I’ll reward you when we get there.”
I didn’t feel like embarrassing myself any further, so I lowered my head and scrolled through my phone.
The first TikTok livestream pushed to me by the algorithm was titled:
【When Your Marriage Is in Trouble: How a Wife Can Turn the Game Around】
Something in my gut twisted. I tapped into it.
The next second, the exact same voice from the navigation system poured through my earbuds.
“Babes always ask how I get along with my boyfriend. Honestly, the longest love confession is companionship. When he went back to his hometown for the holidays and I couldn’t go with him, I just made myself his navigation voice so I could stay with him the whole way.”
The woman’s tone remained gentle and soft, but my hands had already gone ice cold.
Cody didn’t notice anything strange. He kept responding to the navigation with indulgent affection.
“Guess I owed you in a past life. Fine, I’ll slow down.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the streamer’s profile lit up live.
Her name was Amber.
I clicked into the livestream.
My pupils contracted violently.
The background behind her was unmistakable.
It was the condo I had lived in before I got married.
After the wedding, I had moved in with Cody. Every time I mentioned going back to my place, he stopped me.
“If you keep going back there, people will start saying our marriage isn’t solid.”
When I suggested moving my old belongings over, he refused.
“You don’t need that stuff. Why make it complicated?”
I had assumed he just didn’t like the place.
Now I understood.
He hadn’t disliked it.
He had been using my condo to keep his mistress.
My nails dug into my palms.
The viewer count in the livestream surged.
[Wow, this place looks huge. Did your boyfriend buy it?]
[Isn’t this one of those ocean-view penthouses near Vanguard Plaza? That’s at least twenty million dollars, right?]
Amber’s eyes sparkled with satisfaction.
“I told him he didn’t need to spend so much on me, but he just can’t help it. Everything here? He bought it for me.”
“He says a woman like me should be raised like a delicate flower. If he spoils me enough, no one else will be able to steal me away.”
Then she turned the camera to show the entire apartment.
The antique vase I had left behind.
The rare decorative pieces.
An entire walk-in closet full of luxury brands.
Everything that had once been mine now belonged to her.
[Can you interact with your boyfriend on stream?] someone asked.
I instinctively glanced at Cody.
His phone chimed with a notification.
The second I reached for it, his expression changed. He slapped my hand away.
“Didn’t we agree that even married couples deserve privacy?”
The back of my hand stung red.
I said nothing.
On the livestream, Amber smiled and held up her phone.
“I always get instant replies from him.”
She scrolled through their chat history slowly, deliberately.
My blood ran cold.
Three days ago, when she was on her period, Cody had personally prepared nutritious meals for her.
That same day, I had collapsed at work from low blood sugar. I had called him five times after I woke up.
He hadn’t answered once.
Six months ago, when my company was in crisis and reporters had chased me down outside the building, Cody had been at Disneyland with her.
One year ago, when I told him I wanted a baby, he shut me down immediately.
The very next day, he had bought her prenatal vitamins.
His voice pulled me back to the present.
“Baby, don’t be like that. I’m driving.”
I looked at him. “Who are you talking to?”
He sounded annoyed. “Victoria Sterling, I was just responding to the navigation. Can you stop being paranoid all the time? You’re acting crazy.”
On the livestream, Amber turned on speaker mode.
A contact saved as “My Love” had just sent a voice message.
It was Cody.
The exact same words he had just spoken in the car.
The chat exploded.
[This is what real love looks like!]
[Rich and spoils his girlfriend? Where do I pray to get a man like that?]
Quietly, I started screen recording the entire livestream.
Then I sent a message to my family.
The rest of the drive, I leaned back in my seat and stared out the window, swallowing down the nausea.
We soon pulled into Cody’s family home.
His mother, Brenda Miller, hurried out to greet us.
I took a deep breath.
Whatever happened, she had always been kind to me.
I didn’t want to create a scene in front of her.
But in the livestream, Amber suddenly rolled up her sleeve and revealed a bracelet on her wrist.
An emerald bracelet.
“I’m not just loved by my boyfriend,” she said brightly. “His family adores me too. His mom even gave me their family heirloom emerald bracelet.”
My heart dropped.
That bracelet belonged to the Miller family.
And it was meant for the daughter-in-law.