My Cheating Husband Faked a Peach Allergy,So I Made Him Drink Ten Glasses

My husband was allergic to peaches. He couldn't touch a drink with even a drop of peach juice in it.

Five years of marriage, and I'd been careful about everything he put in his mouth.

Then he landed a ten-million-dollar contract for his company.

At the victory banquet, he drank a glass of peach juicepoured for him by his little childhood friend Deborahright there in front of everyone.

I wasn't surprised. I just turned and handed him a set of divorce papers.

The employees all piled on, calling me unreasonable.

Thaddeus Harding was so furious he tore the papers to shreds and flung them in my face.

"Debbie was worried I'd feel sick from the drinking, so she poured me some juice to settle my stomach. That's it!"

"And you know what? Without Debbie's help I never would've landed that contract. Know when to stop with the jealousy!"

I lifted a hand, brushed the scraps of paper from my face, and pulled out my phone.

"Cancel the deal."

I hung up. The room filled with sneering.

"Ma'am, you been watching too many soap operas? Now you're acting one out for us?"

"If Deborah hadn't brokered the introduction, our company never would've signed that contract with Blue Horizon Group. Read the room before you throw a jealous fit!"

Thaddeus stared at me, his face dark as stone.

"Just because Debbie poured me a glass of juice, you want a divorce? Have you lost your mind?"

"Everything I do is for you. For this family. You can't even appreciate how hard I work, and now you want to divorce me over a glass of juice?"

His little speech had every friend and relative in the room seething on his behalf.

"Thaddeus is famous for how good he is to his wife. All these years, he's been so afraid of making you jealous he won't even hire a woman unless she's married with kids."

"He's wrecked his stomach drinking at business dinners for you, for this family. And instead of showing a shred of sympathy, you're filing for divorce over a glass of juice? You don't know how good you have it!"

In everyone's eyes, Thaddeus had always been the model husband.

Five years of marriage, and he still went along with whatever I wanted.

When I couldn't get pregnant and his family blamed me, he'd step in front of me and tell every last one of them that the problem was his, not mine.

And yet this good husband had turned me into a fool.

His assistant Deborah walked over looking wounded and took my hand.

"Maud, I've been married with a kid for ages. Why are you still jealous of me?"

"I was just worried Thaddeus's stomach would act up from all the drinking, so I poured him some juice. If it bothers you, I won't do it again. That's all."

Deborah and Thaddeus had grown up together. They'd always called each other brother and sister.

When he and I first got together, their closeness bothered me.

But then Deborah rushed into marriage and had a baby, and I let my guard down.

I shook her hand off. My expression didn't change.

"Once we're divorced, you can spoon-feed him juice every day for all I care."

Thaddeus's face turned even uglier when he heard that.

"Maud, are you done? All this over a glass of juice?"

"Today is my celebration with Debbienot some place for a housewife to make a scene!"

My expression stayed the same. My voice was cold.

"I'm not done."

Deborah heard that and stepped closer, deliberately lowering her voice.

"Maud, I know Thaddeus is always busy with work and you're stuck at home by yourself, but no matter how good-looking those boys on the outside are, none of them can compare to him. He started his own company so young, and now he's just signed a ten-million-dollar deal with Blue Horizon Group. His future is limitless."

Deborah said it, then immediately clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Oh no, Mauddid I say something I shouldn't have?"

Then she pulled out her phone, opened her photo album, and held up a picture of me sitting inside a Maybach for the entire room to see.

"Maud, I just happened to see you that day, I swear I wasn't trying to say anything! You're not going to hold it against me, right?"

Her words turned every pair of eyes in the room on mescrutinizing, contemptuous.

"Wait, Maud's been cheating? No wonder she's throwing a fit over a glass of juice and demanding a divorce. Shameless!"

"I was wondering how she could bear to give up a man like CEO Harding. Turns out she already had someone lined up on the side!"

Thaddeus's face darkened instantly. He jabbed a finger at the man in the photo and rounded on me.

"Who's that pretty boy? Are you divorcing me for him?"

I was done wasting breath on any of them. I sent Thaddeus the divorce appointment I'd already booked.

"Tomorrow morning, ten o'clock. The registration office."

I turned to leave.

Thaddeus rushed forward and blocked my path, his eyes full of earnest sincerity.

"Honey, I know I've been busy with work, I know I neglected you. And I don't blame you!"

"As long as you're willing to cut things off with that man on the side, I guarantee youI'll pretend none of this ever happened. Just come back to me!"

His words sent a wave of emotion through the room.

"Maud, if you have even a shred of conscience, you should know you're wrong! Don't throw away a family for some random man!"

I shook Thaddeus's hand off without a trace of warmth.

"This divorce is happening."

Something flickered in his eyes. He hadn't expected me to actually mean it.

"Honey, tell me. What do I have to do to make you stay?"

Looking at that false, devoted face, I swallowed down the nausea churning in my stomach, turned around, and poured ten glasses of peach juice.

"You love peach juice so much? Go ahead. Drink every last one."

Thaddeus stared at the row of glasses lined up in front of him, and his expression went cold.

"Maud, you know I'm allergic to peaches. One sip could kill me. You're trying to force me to die!"

I raised an eyebrow and let out a cold laugh.

"Then why did you drink the peach juice Debbie poured for you just now and come out perfectly fine?"

"Or was what you drank not peach juice at all?"

The crowd heard me and turned to Thaddeus, confusion spreading through the room.

"That's rightCEO Harding's peach allergy is supposed to be serious. Last time we went out to eat, the kitchen squeezed a little peach juice into a dish for flavor, and he took one bite and swelled up all over. Nearly died!"

"So how come he drank a whole glass of Debbie's peach juice and nothing happened? I watched him finish the entire thing!"

The murmuring hit a nerve. Thaddeus's face twisted with rage, and he swept the entire row of glasses off the table. They shattered across the floor.

"Maud, when did you become this unreasonable?"

"You want a divorce that badly? I'd love to see how you survive without me!"

Shattered glass and sticky peach juice spread across the floor, and my eyes stung looking at itbecause Thaddeus had always been certain that a caged bird he'd fed for five years would never actually dare to fly.

The others piled on, one after another.

"You're a housewife. How are you going to survive once you leave CEO Harding?"

"Exactly! You've been out of the workforce for years. What company is going to hire a woman your age with zero experience?"

Not a word of it reached me. I held my eyes steady on Thaddeus.

"We're done. Courthouse. Tomorrow!"

Thaddeus's face went dark.

"Fine! You want a divorce so badly? Let's see how you survive without me."

"You've lived off me for five years. I'm cutting your cards off right nowfend for yourself."

He pulled out his phone and made a call, freezing every card under my name.

I didn't bother with him. I turned and walked toward the door.

A server stopped me before I could leave.

"Ma'am, you poured ten glasses of juice and haven't settled the bill. Will that be cash or card?"

I looked at the POS machine in her hand and understood instantly.

Thaddeus watched me with a sneer.

"Weren't you just full of fight? Since you're so set on divorcing me, don't think you're spending another cent of my money. You poured the juice yourself, so you pay for it yourself."

He'd frozen my cards. He knew I couldn't pay. This whole thing was about making me bow in front of a room full of people.

Deborah was watching me too, lips curled.

"Maud, this is a five-star hotel. Juice is two hundred and eighty a glass. You poured tenthat's two thousand eight hundred. And you don't have a single cent on you, do you?"

"Looks like you'll have to wash dishes in the kitchen to pay it off!"

My nails dug into my palms hard enough to break skin.

"Two-eighty a glass still beats whatever you give away for free."

Something shifted behind Deborah's eyes, and her expression went cold.

"Maud, you'd better get on your knees and apologize to Thaddeus right now. You think a man like him grows on trees? Walk away and no one else is picking you up."

I let out a cold laugh.

"You like garbage. I don't."

Thaddeus's expression hardened the second the words left my mouth. He turned to the server.

"Take her to wash dishes."

"Maud, I'll be waiting for the day you regret this."

I looked at him and smiled.

"Then you won't be waiting. You'll never see that day."

Because the one who should regret it was him.

My hands were nearly raw by the time I came out of the kitchen, fingers swollen and stinging, and my legs barely held as I stumbled through the hotel lobby toward the exitbut Thaddeus's driver was already walking over.

He looked at me with open amusement.

"Maud, CEO Harding says that since you two are getting divorced, everything you're wearing was bought with his money. He'd like you to take it off and return it."

I stared at the driver, teeth clenched so hard my jaw ached.

Thaddeus knew perfectly well all I had on was a black evening gown. He was telling me to strip in public.

He wanted to break me.

When I didn't move, the driver's smirk widened.

"A housewife who lives off her husband, and you're dumb enough to throw your marriage away over a glass of juice. Starting to see how hard life gets without a man to take care of you?"

I ignored every word. I clenched my teeth, reached behind me, and pulled the zipper.

The driver had his phone out before the dress loosened. He opened a livestream and pointed the camera straight at me.

"Come watch, everyone! This woman wanted to divorce her husband because he drank a glass of juice. Unbelievable!"

The viewer count spiked. Comments flooded in, every one of them mocking me.

"Divorcing over a glass of juice? That's got to be a first in human history."

"Thinks she's a princess. Thinks the whole world should cater to her. Guess her husband stopped playing along."

"Stripping in public? How is that any different from a stripper?"

I clenched my teeth and peeled the dress off, inch by inch.

At least I was still wearing a base layer underneath, so I wasn't fully exposed on camera.

Only after I'd pulled the gown off did Thaddeus finally step out of the car.

He rushed to shrug off his own jacket and drape it over my shoulders.

"Babe, no matter whatyou're my wife. All you have to do is turn around, and I'll be standing right here."

I looked up into that fake, rehearsed face and whipped the gown straight into it.

"Thaddeus, you make me sick."

I turned and walked away.

I hadn't gone far before a Mercedes came speeding up from behind and pulled to a smooth stop beside me.

Thaddeus and Deborah sat in the back seat, watching me with cold eyes.

"Maud, apologize to me and Debbie right now. Do that, and I'll forget tonight ever happened and let you come back."

Deborah chimed in right on cue.

"Thaddeus just landed a ten-million-dollar contract with Blue Horizon Group. His net worth is about to multiply overnight. Pretty soon you couldn't climb your way back to him if you tried."

I met Thaddeus's eyes with a slow, contemptuous smile.

"Thaddeus, if I'm not mistaken, your contract with Blue Horizon Group hasn't actually been signed yet."

"Let's see if you're still smiling tomorrow."

His face went rigid, eyes narrowing to something ugly and venomous.

"Maud, since you don't know what's good for you, don't blame me for forgetting we were ever married."

"You want a divorce? Fine. We'll see each other in court. And you'll walk out with nothing."

He floored it, and the Mercedes tore off down the road.

The moment he was gone, I walked straight to the Maybach parked under the streetlight.

As soon as I got in, my assistant handed me the tablet.

I tapped open the surveillance footage immediately.

There, in the family lounge across from the banquet hall, Deborah was straddling Thaddeus with her top hiked up.

"Thaddeus, baby like what you taste?"

The footage hit my stomach like a fistI doubled over the wastebasket and threw up everything I had.

Greg watched me, his expression grim.

"CEO Henson, I've already notified the contracts department to cancel the signing with Thaddeus Harding's firm. They should get the news first thing tomorrow morning, and I'd expect them to come running to Blue Horizon Group the moment they do."

My gaze hardened.

"I'll be at Blue Horizon Group, waiting for them to come beg."

Thaddeus had won me over with what I believed was his whole heart. To protect his pride as a man, I gave up everything and made myself invisible so he could shine.

I'd burned through every connection I had to pave his way. And this was what I got in return.

That night, I went back to my estate, worth over a hundred million.

I was about to rest when my phone rang.

It was Greg.

"CEO Henson, we have a problem."

"Thaddeus didn't just livestream what happened tonight. He had the footage edited to make it look like you stripped in public to seduce another man, with zero shame."

My heart sank. I pulled up the latest news immediately.

My name was sitting at the very top of the trending list.

Every link I tapped opened a video of me taking off the gown in front of the driver.

Thaddeus had even had someone photograph me getting into my assistant's car. Now the entire internet was calling me a slut who'd sleep with anyone.

"This kind of woman is trash. Stripping for a random man right there on the street."

"Did you see her face during the livestream? She was enjoying it. That's who she is down to the bone."

"She's probably been cheating on Thaddeus for years. He loved her so much, and she fed his heart to the dogs."

I was about to turn off the phone when a flood of new messages came pouring in all at once.

*Thaddeus Harding must've been cursed for eight lifetimes to end up with Maud Henson.*

*Maud Henson desperate slut, stripping in public for attention. The whole city's had a ride.*

I scrolled through the flood of abuse and understood immediately: my personal information had been sold.

Thaddeus really would stop at nothing to back me into a corner.

I pulled the SIM card out of my phone.

He moved fast.

The very next day, a court summons and a lawyer's complaint arrived.

I tossed the complaint straight into the trash and headed for Blue Horizon Group.

I was about to walk through the front doors when a familiar mocking voice drifted up behind me.

"Maud, everyone online is calling you the town bicycle now and you still have the nerve to show your face? Honestly, I'm impressed."

I turned and found Deborah's smug little face staring back at me.

Thaddeus stood beside her, his expression dark.

"What are you doing here? You think Blue Horizon Group is somewhere a person like you can just walk into?"

Before I could answer, Deborah cut in first.

"I bet she's here looking for a job! Finally realizing how hard life gets once you leave Thaddeus, hm?"

"Someone like you? You couldn't get hired as a receptionist at Blue Horizon they wouldn't even take you on to mop floors. Stop embarrassing yourself."

"You'd better hurry back and apologize to Thaddeus. Go home and keep being his little housewife."

His face sank, and he turned a cold look on me.

"A housewife trying to walk into Blue Horizon Group? You have no idea how small you are."

"Apologize to me now, and I might might let you keep being Mrs. Harding."

I looked at him and laughed, short and cold.

"That title? Give it to your precious childhood sweetheart."

His face went rigid.

"Maud. I'll be waiting for the day you crawl to me on your knees."

He wrapped an arm around Deborah and strode inside without looking back.

I watched him go, my gaze turning cold.

The moment Thaddeus disappeared through the doors, Greg hurried out to meet me.

"CEO Henson, Thaddeus and the others have arrived. They're practically begging for a meeting with you."

I glanced at Greg, my tone clipped.

"Send them to my office. And have ten glasses of peach juice ready."

Thaddeus pushed open the office doors, all smiles, his eyes full of fawning eagerness.

"CEO Henson, regarding the cancellation of our partnership I'd love the chance to discuss that with you."

The words were still hanging in the air when his gaze landed on me, seated behind the desk. He froze where he stood.

I smiled faintly and gestured toward the ten glasses of peach juice lined up in front of me.

"The partnership can wait. Finish all ten of these first."

Thaddeus's eyes went wide, full of undisguised panic.

"How are you why are you in the CEO's office at Blue Horizon Group?"