Delivery to My Cheating Husband's Second Home, Heiress Unmasked

The day before Valentine's Day, I was covering flower deliveries for my best friend's shop, and I picked up an interesting order.

Same man. Two orders. Two bouquets.

The first: 999 air-freighted Blue Iceberg roses, sixty-eight hundred dollars.

Note: Every single one has to be the freshest. Make sure the thorns are stripped clean. My baby's skin is delicate.

The second: a 0-0.99 clearance mystery bundle.

Note: For my wife. Whatever's fine. Nothing special.

I arranged those 999 roses, laughing coldly to myself the whole time.

Sixty-eight hundred to sweet-talk his precious. A dollar ninety-nine to fob off his wife.

A cheating dog like this. If his wife ever found out, wouldn't she lose it right there on the spot?

I finished wrapping the flowers and looked down to check the delivery details on the second order.

The address was my home.

The number on the order belonged to my husband, Oliver Harding.

Half an hour ago, he'd kissed my forehead and told me he had to fly overseas for work, that he couldn't spend Valentine's Day with me.

"You're the sensible one. You always understand me, right?"

I stood there holding that dollar-ninety-nine clearance bundle.

So the wife I'd spent all that time pitying.

From start to finish, that wife was me.

I peeled off my gloves and dropped the dollar-ninety-nine bundle into the trash.

As for the sixty-eight hundred, I'd deliver it myself.

I wanted to see this "delicate baby" who'd be receiving the flowers.

And that husband of mine, off on his business trip.

I wanted to see their faces when the delivery rider at the door turned out to be me.

I wheeled the shop's folding flower cart to the door of the big penthouse unit at Starhaven Estate.

When I flipped the lid open, 999 Blue Iceberg roses nearly buried the entire doorway.

The door opened.

Oliver stood behind it in silk pajamas, an indulgent smile on his face.

"Baby, your flowers"

His gooey little line caught in his throat before he could finish it.

Oliver froze where he stood, his pupils blowing wide.

Every trace of color drained from his face.

I looked at him, expressionless.

Five years married, and this was the first time I'd ever seen that look on him.

A sugary female voice floated out from inside.

"Honey, who is it? Did my surprise arrive?"

A woman in the matching silk pajama bottoms leaned half out the door.

It was Renee Pruitt.

The younger sister of Oliver's company vice president, and his college first love.

She'd been all sweetness a second ago, but her eyes landed on me and she paused.

Then she covered her mouth and gave a delicate little laugh.

"Well. Isn't this Jessica Fox, the campus beauty from our med school days?"

"What's this, then. Didn't make it as a big-shot doctor, so you're running deliveries now?"

Oliver came back to himself with a jolt and gripped Renee's shoulders, trying to steer her back inside.

"Renee, go back in. I'll handle this."

He kept his voice low, and there was no hiding the panic in it.

Renee took the chance to hook her arm through his.

Pressing half her body against him, she looked at me, taunting.

"Handle what? The campus beauty brought delivery right to our door. Shouldn't we thank her properly?"

As she said it, she reached out to take the flowers from my arms.

I didn't move.

Renee wasn't the least bit embarrassed. She leaned in on purpose to smell them, the smugness on her face practically spilling over.

"Honey, you're so thoughtful. I only mentioned it in passing and you actually had them air-freighted in."

"Miss campus beauty, how much is a bouquet like this? Could you afford even one stem on a month of delivery wages?"

I didn't bother with her. I kept my eyes on Oliver.

Fine beads of sweat were breaking out on Oliver's forehead, and the look he gave me was pure pleading.

"Jess, let me explain. I was reviewing a project proposal with Miss Pruitt"

"Reviewing a proposal requires matching couple's pajamas?"

I cut him off.

Oliver choked, his face ugly.

Renee let out a snort of laughter.

She still hadn't caught what Oliver had called me. She just took it for jealousy.

"Jessica, you're a flower delivery girl. Bit nosy for the job, aren't you?"

With that, she lifted a hand and pushed her hair back.

In one glance I saw the diamond ring on her ring finger.

A three-carat pink diamond.

I'd seen it in Oliver's phone browsing history.

At the time my heart had been full. I'd thought it was the gift he was preparing for our fifth wedding anniversary.

Later he'd complained to me that the company was laying people off.

He was under so much pressure, his bonus had been docked, he could barely make this month's mortgage.

And I'd felt so sorry for him that I quietly transferred him the fifty thousand I'd been saving, told him not to wear himself out.

So this was where all his pressure had gone.

"The ring's lovely."

My voice came out so calm it surprised even me.

Renee grew smugger, deliberately holding her hand up and waving it in front of my face.

"It's gorgeous, isn't it? Oliver insisted on buying it for me. Six hundred grand."

"I told him it was too expensive. He said his woman deserves nothing but the best."

I turned to look at Oliver.

"Didn't you say you could barely make this month's mortgage?"

Oliver's face changed in an instant. Frantic, he grabbed for my hand, dropping his voice almost to a beg.

"Jess, go home first! I'm begging you, go home and I'll tell you everything!"

I shook his hand off.

"Go home to collect my dollar-ninety-nine trash, you mean?"

Renee sensed something was off.

She frowned, sizing me up, then looked back at Oliver.

"Oliver, what does she mean? You two know each other?"

Oliver swallowed, unable to look at her, even less able to look at me.

I took a step forward and stared Oliver down.

"Of course we know each other."

"After all, we've had a marriage license for five years now."

Renee's smile froze on her face.

She shoved Oliver's arm off her, her voice going shrill.

"Oliver! Didn't you say you were divorced?"

Oliver panicked completely.

He turned and pulled Renee into his arms, rushing to explain:

"Renee, don't be upset, listen to me, she and I haven't felt anything for each other in ages!"

"I just didn't want to mess up your brother's evaluation of me for the VP spot right when I'm about to get promoted, that's the only reason I kept it quiet!"

I let out a cold laugh.

This morning, before he walked out the door, he'd called me sweetheart with every other breath.

Said that when he got back from his business trip, he'd bring me my favorite perfume.

So it turned out his business trip led straight into another woman's bed.

After hearing Oliver's explanation, Renee's expression eased a good deal.

She looked me up and down, a note of pity settling into her eyes, the kind you look down on someone with.

"Oh. So you're the ex-wife who got dumped and still won't let go."

"No wonder, look at you, everything you've got on your body wouldn't add up to two hundred bucks, that broke, shabby look. What part of you deserves who Oliver is now?"

Renee slid an arm through Oliver's and stepped aside from the doorway, her eyes taunting.

"Since you're here, come in and sit awhile. Let you see for yourself what kind of life Oliver actually wants."

Oliver was throwing me frantic looks, begging me not to go in.

But I wanted to see exactly what I'd raised in five years of scrimping and saving.

The place was luxurious to the point of hurting the eyes.

Italian imported leather sofas, a crystal chandelier worth hundreds of thousands.

A hand-woven rug underfoot, and even the paintings on the walls didn't come cheap.

Renee pointed at the sofa set and said:

"Oliver already said it, from now on every piece of furniture in our home gets chosen by my taste."

Then she rapped her knuckles on the coffee table in front of her.

"This table, two hundred grand. How many years of delivery runs would that take you?"

I looked at that coffee table, and something jabbed at my chest like an awl.

Last month, I'd wanted to replace the table at home. I'd had my eye on one for three thousand.

Oliver said I was wasteful, said his money didn't come easy, said we had to plan ahead for when we'd have a kid.

I believed him.

In the end I went to the secondhand market and dug one up for three hundred.

Renee wasn't done showing off.

She walked over to the kitchen and opened the double-door refrigerator.

It was crammed with imported fruit and ingredients.

"I mentioned once, offhand, that I wanted cherries, and he found a private supply line to order me the Curtis Wilkerson ones, had a courier bring them over overnight."

"He said, whatever other people have, his wife has to have too, and it has to be the best."

Renee picked up a cherry and held it out to me.

"I hear that back in the day you'd haggle with vendors over a few cents just to buy groceries?"

"No wonder Oliver didn't want you."

I turned and looked at Oliver.

And felt that all those five years of swallowing everything had been a joke.

He was staring guiltily at the floor, not daring to meet my eyes.

Because I didn't want to put pressure on him, back then I'd hidden that I was the only daughter of the richest man in the city.

I'd refused to take over the family business, fought with my family until it nearly tore us apart.

Even living on thirty dollars a day, I'd stayed with him in that inner-city neighborhood, freezing in winter and sweltering in summer.

Eaten instant ramen with him, walked with him from having nothing to where he was today.

I'd thought that was love, two people sharing the bitter and the sweet.

Turns out, in his eyes, I was poor, I was cheap.

Reeking, head to toe, of a broke shabbiness that couldn't be shown in public.

He'd taken the connections I'd quietly laid down for him, climbed up on the back of everything I'd poured out, and used it to grovel at another woman's feet.

Seeing me stay silent, Renee assumed I felt small.

She pulled out a jade necklace, deep green all through.

"See this? Oliver's mother gave it to me."

"Said it's a family heirloom of the Hardings, passed down only to the Harding daughter-in-law."

I looked at that necklace, and the blood shot straight to my head.

It was the coming-of-age gift my grandmother gave me on her deathbed, the most important piece of my dowry.

Last month, Oliver's mother kept saying the family's fortune had been bad these past few years.

She insisted on borrowing it, said she wanted to take it to a temple to have it blessed before the Buddha, to protect Oliver's career.

I never imagined the one she took it to bless.

Was this shameless mistress!

"This necklace is worth two, three million at least. Oliver said only someone with my kind of presence deserves a piece of jade like this."

Renee stroked the necklace, laughing until she was trembling like a flower on a stem.

"Tell me, you married him for five years, what did you get out of it? Besides that smell of delivery food all over you."

My fingernails dug into my flesh, and there wasn't a trace of warmth in my voice.

"Oliver. What's the story with this necklace?"

Oliver's whole body jerked, and he hurried to snatch the necklace back.

"Renee, this necklace is too valuable, put it away for now, don't damage it."

Renee dodged him and pouted sweetly.

"What are you scared of? If it breaks, you just buy me a better one, right?"

Oliver gave a dry laugh and went along with it.

"Right, right, a better one."

He turned to me, lowered his voice, and said it at a volume only the two of us could hear:

"Jess, my mom grabbed the wrong necklace, can't you just stop making a scene?"

"I'm begging you, leave me a little face."

When he'd used my dowry to keep his mistress happy, had he ever once thought of me?

I was about to open my mouth when the sound of the keypad lock releasing came from outside the door.

"Son, Renee, I made you both bird's nest soup!"

The door opened.

My dear mother-in-law came in carrying a thermal food container, her face flushed and glowing.

Behind her was Oliver's own sister, Cheryl Harding.

The moment Cheryl stepped inside, she called out to Renee, thrilled.

"Sis! That Chanel bag you bought me is so gorgeous, all my classmates are dying of envy!"

Mother and daughter changed out of their shoes like they belonged here.

Sybilla Harding looked up and saw me standing in the middle of the living room.

The smile froze on her face.

"What are you doing here!" Sybilla shrieked.

She rushed over and shoved Renee behind her.

"Well, well. You actually dared to follow my son here!"

"What, still hoping to cling on and make a scene? Let me tell you, not a chance!"

I looked at this mother-in-law who used to bring me every receipt down to the salt she bought to be reimbursed.

Now she wore a silk dress worth thousands.

Then I looked at the Burberry trench coat on Cheryl.

The limited edition I'd just bought last month.

Cheryl had said she needed it for an interview, that she'd borrow it for one day.

I lent it to her.

And now she stood there in my coat, calling the woman inside her sister-in-law.

Cheryl sneered and looked me up and down.

"Look at her, dressed like a delivery girl. She's obviously here to drop something off."

"How embarrassing. If the security guards see someone like this walk into Starhaven, the neighbors will be laughing behind our backs!"

Behind Sybilla, Renee crossed her arms.

"Mom, don't be angry. People from the bottom like her, they love chasing after money, they can't stand seeing an ex-husband move up in the world."

The instant Sybilla heard Renee call her Mom, she put on a fawning smile.

"Oh, my Renee, that's real breeding, coming from an old family. Aren't your legs tired, standing like that? Go sit on the couch."

"You're carrying now, you mustn't let anything upset you."

My mind went blank with a ringing noise.

Carrying?

I stared at Renee's flat stomach.

"She's pregnant?"

I couldn't keep my voice from shaking.

Oliver turned his head away, not daring to meet my eyes.

Sybilla lifted her chin.

"That's right! Renee is already carrying our Oliver's child, three months along!"

"Not like you, a hen that can't even lay an egg! Taking up space and doing nothing, married into our family for five years and never so much as farted out a child!"

"What did our family ever do to deserve marrying a jinx like you!"

I drew a deep breath, my eyes stinging and swollen.

This morning, I'd just gone to the hospital to pick up my test results.

I was pregnant. Four weeks.

I'd meant to wait until he came back from his business trip and surprise him.

But now, another woman was carrying his child. Three months.

The phone in my pocket buzzed.

I answered it numbly.

"Hello, Ms. Fox, this is the city women's and children's hospital. For your prenatal checkup scheduled next Wednesday, please remember to come in on an empty stomach for the blood draw."

The living room went dead silent.

Oliver's head snapped up to look at me, panic flickering in his eyes.

"You... you're pregnant?"

Renee's face shifted, and she grabbed a fistful of Oliver's sleeve.

"Oliver, what is she saying? What are you trying to pull?"

Sybilla panicked and lunged over to snatch my phone.

"You're definitely faking it!"

"Not pregnant before, not pregnant after. Don't think you can use a cheap trick like this to hang onto my son!"

"Let me tell you, even if you really are, it's a bastard! Our family will never claim it!"

I shoved Sybilla's hand away and looked coldly at Oliver.

"Oliver, is that what you think too?"

Oliver looked at me, then at Renee, his eyes struggling back and forth.

Just then, Renee grabbed a perfume bottle and smashed it on the floor.

She pulled out her phone, opened the audio she was recording, and said in a shrill voice:

"Oliver! Don't put on this old-flame melodrama for me!"

"In the promotion candidate list my brother submitted today, the deputy head slot for the marketing team was set aside for you and you alone!"

"One phone call from me and he can kick you back to your rental in three minutes!"

Renee's threat, dressed up as a bribe and laid right out in the open, severed the last thread of Oliver's conscience.

The fear and guilt that had lingered on his face were buried now under pure self-interest.

Finally, he gritted his teeth:

"Jess, Renee is delicate, she can't take this kind of stress. And this baby... it came at the wrong time."

"Get rid of the baby first, and we'll part on good terms."

A rush of heat shot straight to my head.

This was the man I'd loved with everything I had for five years.

For him, I'd fallen out with my family, walked away from a fortune worth billions, and lived hard alongside him.

I'd secretly poured everything into pushing him from a rural graduate with no connections all the way up to department manager.

Afraid of wounding his pride.

And in return, he was telling me to get rid of the baby and make room for his mistress.

Beside him, Sybilla piled on:

"You heard him! Get out already!"

"If you have any shame left, go to the hospital and do it yourself. Don't make us do it for you!"

Cheryl chimed in too:

"Exactly, take a good look at what you've got going for you."

"My brother's about to be made deputy head, and Renee's brother is a senior executive at the group. What could you ever do for my brother?"

"All you'd do is hold my brother back!"

I looked at this utterly selfish family and found it almost funny.

I laughed, low and quiet.

The sound made Sybilla's skin crawl. She jabbed a finger at my face and shouted.

"What are you laughing at? Have you lost your mind?"

Renee had run out of patience.

She shoved Oliver.

"Oliver, can you handle this or not? Because if you can't, I'm calling my brother right now!"

"And when I do, you can forget about ever setting foot in that company again!"

The threat wiped away whatever line Oliver still had left.

He crossed the room and stopped in front of me, every trace of his earlier panic and guilt gone.

"Jessica, there's no point pretending anymore."

"I stopped having feelings for you a long time ago. You have no idea what kind of pressure I'm under at work."

"Renee can give me resources. One word from her brother saves me ten years of climbing."

"And you? What do you do besides circle the stove all day?"

Oliver pulled a printed stack of divorce papers out of his bag.

The signature date was already filled in. Two weeks ago.

Something in me went cold all the way through.

"So he'd had his exit ready this whole time."

Oliver didn't even bother with the act anymore.

"You're a smart woman. You should understand what it means when two people are worlds apart. Whatever patience and tolerance I had for you, I burned through all of it back when we were scraping by."

"Take the paperwork to the county clerk's office tomorrow."

"For the sake of the marriage, and because you did look after my mom and my sister these five years, I'll give you fifteen grand in compensation."

Five years of my youth.

Every quiet thing I'd carried for him, at work and at home.

In his eyes, all of it came to fifteen thousand dollars.

I looked at that pious, righteous face of his.

"Oliver, do you really think all those promotions and raises came from your own talent?"

He looked as if I'd insulted him to the core.

"Jessica, don't stand there talking nonsense! Everything I have, I earned! The late nights, the overtime, the drinking and schmoozing to land clients!"

"What, are you saying I rode in on your food-delivery tips?"

I ignored his fury and walked over to Renee.

She shrank under my stare and took an instinctive step back.

"You what do you want?"

I pointed at the carpet under our feet.

"You said a minute ago that Oliver bought you this place?"

Renee steeled herself and threw it back at me.

"That's right! Oliver's name is on the deed!"

I laughed once.

"This building was developed by Zenith Group. Am I right?"

Renee blinked, then turned smug.

"Well, at least you know something. What, jealous? This was an insider allocation. People with money can't even get a full-floor unit like this."

Oliver stood off to the side, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.

I took out my phone and dialed.

Oliver thought I was going to record him. He shouted, "What are you doing?"

I didn't answer. I pressed speaker.

A moment later, a respectful, middle-aged man's voice came through.

"Ms. Fox. What can I do for you?"

Renee frowned. Sybilla stopped her wailing.

I kept my eyes on the color draining from Oliver's face and spoke into the phone.

"Butler Lambert, look into Oliver Harding. Currently a marketing manager at Zenith."

The voice on the line didn't hesitate for a second.

"Of course. One moment, Ms. Fox."

Renee snorted out a laugh.

"Jessica, has the shock rattled you that badly? Have you actually gone crazy?"

"Ms. Fox? And I'm the Queen of England."

Sybilla came back to herself too, scrambling up off the floor to sneer.

"No money and a broken brain to boot."

"Oliver, throw her out already, before she dirties our house!"

But Oliver's expression kept shifting.

The sweat on his forehead only came faster.

Because only he knew that when he'd joined that company, someone really had put in a quiet word for him.

In under a minute, Butler Lambert's voice returned.

"Ms. Fox, I have it. Oliver Harding, five years with the company"

My voice went cold and hard.

"Two things."

"First, suspend Oliver Harding from his post immediately and open an internal audit."

"Take all the dirty accounts from his rule-breaking back then, hand them to the legal department, and file a police report."

Oliver's legs gave out. He dropped to the floor.

Renee still didn't believe it.

"Where'd you hire the extra? Not a bad performance, I'll give him that."

I didn't bother with her.

"Second, I paid the down payment on the Starhaven Estate unit."

"File for an asset freeze and trace the balance and where the money involved came from."

"Freeze the property now, and send legal over to settle accounts!"

The words were barely out when Oliver's phone started ringing off the hook.

The screen read: Mr. Pruitt

Renee's own brother.

Oliver's hand shook as he hit answer.

A man's voice came through, terrified and furious.

"Oliver! Who the hell did you piss off?"

"Corporate just handed down a dismissal order, and now I've been dragged into a suspension and an investigation!"

"The chairman's secretary called me personally, said you crossed someone you had no business crossing! Get your ass back to the office right now and explain yourself!"

The smile froze and died on Renee's face.

The thermos slipped out of Sybilla's hands and hit the floor with a clang, the gourmet delicacies spilling everywhere.

Oliver had gone bloodless, his voice shaking apart.

"Jessica who who are you, really?"

I slid my phone away and bent down to look at him.

"The chairman of Zenith Group. His last name is Fox."

"He's my father."