Chapter 1

Everyone thought I'd lost my mind---my husband just died, and I burned down the factory we'd built together.

But they didn't know that a week ago, I caught my supposedly dead husband embracing his first love, smugly plotting:

"The marriage certificate between me and that stupid woman is fake.

Once I fake my death and she helps me pay off the debts, the factory will still be mine."

I stood behind a tree, my whole body ice-cold, yet I wanted to laugh.

Turns out what I'd desperately protected all these years was never really my home.

Since he faked his death to escape, dumping all the debts on me, I didn't mind adding fuel to the fire myself.

This blaze would completely "burn" the old me to death, along with his factory, reducing everything to ash.

Outside the villa's ornate iron gate, I saw the man who should have died in the fire.

He was carefully supporting Lucy, whose delicate face glowed above a belly swollen with six months of pregnancy.

And I could clearly see---the gemstone bracelet on Lucy's wrist and the gold earrings dangling from her ears were the dowry my parents had specially made for me.

Years ago, when I first took over factory management, Harrison had gently persuaded me:

"Jewelry gets in the way when you're working. It'd hurt if you bumped it."

I'd believed him and locked all my jewelry in an iron box, never imagining he'd secretly taken them out and given them to his childhood sweetheart.

This was the devoted husband who'd promised to take care of me for life.

He tightened his arm around Lucy's waist, his voice sticky-sweet like melted candy:

"Haha, Lucy, don't worry. The factory's buried in a million dollars of debt right now. Once that stupid woman fills the hole, Edith will call us right back."

"The factory manager position is mine. Then our little family of three..."

Lucy stroked her swollen belly, asking coquettishly:

"But Vivian is so capable. After she pays off all the debt by herself, will she really give the factory back to you?"

Harrison laughed. "That factory was left to me by my dad. She's just an 'outsider'."

"I'll tell you a secret, but keep it quiet---Vivian and I never actually got our marriage license. My mom had someone forge the certificate years ago. She still has no idea..."

I trembled with rage, my teeth grinding audibly.

A week ago, when I discovered the missing funds in our accounts, I confronted Harrison.

Knowing he was exposed, he knelt and begged for forgiveness, claiming his failed investments were all "for our home."

He grabbed my pant leg, pleading with me to get money from my family to save us.

But a million dollars was an astronomical sum. Even draining my parents dry wouldn't cover it.

I refused to drag my family down, but softened at his seemingly remorseful expression and agreed to shoulder the debt together.

Now I could see---the moment he realized we'd have to suffer and repay together, he'd already planned this fake death to slip away, leaving me holding the entire mess.

This man was utterly vicious.

"Vivian, Harrison? He's not dead?"

Grace, my trusted confidant who'd accompanied me, had stopped at the station to get a cup of coffeeand arrived a few steps behind.

Seeing this scene, she immediately flared up with anger.

"He found a mistress and deliberately wants you to handle the factory's debts alone."

I quickly pulled her behind a sycamore tree to hide.

Grace asked, confused:

"Vivian, Harrison wronged you. He's the one who should be hiding. Why are we hiding?"

I'd already calmed down.

I looked at Grace and asked:

"Grace, all these years, how do you think I've treated Harrison?"

Though Grace didn't understand why I was suddenly asking this, she answered honestly:

"Vivian, you've been incredible for the factory. You handled so many things personally. Without those contracts you negotiated, our factory would have collapsed long ago."

"Harrison... when problems hit the factory, he pretended to be sick and hid. When you were running a fever negotiating contracts, he was drinking at the card table. If you hadn't mortgaged your own dowry, how could their family property and land still be intact?"

I smiled bitterly. "Harrison inherited the family business but couldn't preserve its foundation. You can see that truth clearly. Too bad he's willfully blind."

"Vivian, Harrison is living it up in that villa with his mistress while leaving you to shoulder all that debt. You should divorce him."

I laughed coldly. We never even got a marriage license---what divorce?

"Does he think I'll still stupidly exhaust everything to protect the family assets for him like before? Haha..."

"Since Harrison chose to fake his death, I'll grant him his wish."

My lips curved upward, the flames of anger burning away my grief.

Since Harrison dared to fake his death and enjoy himself, I could sever our marital bonds just as decisively.

In this world, he wasn't the only one who could fake a death.