After the CEO Husband Went Sterile, the Scheming Secretary Was Stunned

On our tenth wedding anniversary, I was going through travel plans when my husband's little secretary burst in.

Ms. Donaldson, all I want is to freeze one embryo with Zion Barber. I'm not going to break up your family. Why won't you just agree?

This was the sixth time Delia Simmons had stood in my living room and demanded an answer.

I didn't even lift my eyes, just kept looking down at the itinerary.

"Secretary Simmons, this is between you and Zion. You should be talking to him."

"As long as Zion signs the divorce papers, forget one embryo. I'll hand you the position of Mrs. Barber outright."

I patted the leather sofa beside me.

Delia went rigid with anger, and after a moment a flicker of contempt crossed her face.

"Ms. Donaldson, so what if you have Zion's body? You'll never have his heart."

"Want to bet? In ten minutes, I'll have your husband lying in my bed."

She turned and swept out with her chin high.

A minute later, a message came from Zion.

"Babe, I'm with a client tonight, probably won't make it back. Don't wait up."

Sure enough, on the night of our tenth anniversary, Zion never came home. It was full daylight by the time he returned.

He tugged his tie loose, worn out, and frowned.

"Last night's client was a real pain. I drank until I blacked out. My head still hurts."

Then he smiled, all fawning, and leaned against my shoulder.

"Babe, rub it for me, my head's killing me. Your husband did all this for our family, you know."

I turned my head, met the face that was inches from mine with a cold stare, and shoved him off me.

Ten years of marriage. I thought even a stone would have softened by now, warmed under me.

Now I finally understood. A man's first love, his untouchable ideal, is a problem with no solution.

I was done playing the patient one. I wasn't going to solve this problem anymore.

I set down my cup, swallowed the last mouthful of water.

"Zion, your little secretary came to me again. She wants you to give her a child."

I took the divorce agreement off the table and held it out to him.

"Sign it. Go pay off your little debt of gratitude yourself. I don't want to be tangled up in your mess anymore."

Zion froze, then grabbed me and pulled me into his arms, wearing that shameless grin.

"Babe, angry again?"

"I'm sorry, okay? It's my fault, I didn't keep her in line. I'll talk to her, I'll really lay it out for her, I promise she won't bother you again."

"We've still got a trip to enjoy. No being mad, all right?"

My phone chimed.

"Ms. Donaldson, that body wash on Zion is a new brand I switched him to. Do you like it?"

"Oh, and want to bet? Ten minutes, and your husband will be lying in my bed again."

The whole thing lodged in my chest. Sick to my stomach, I shoved Zion away.

"Zion, have you no shame at all? Your client was hanging off you in bed, was she?"

I jabbed the message right in front of his eyes and gave a cold laugh. "Zion, you really can't teach an old dog new tricks, can you?"

Zion glanced at the message, guilty, then bristled.

"Why do you have to talk like that? Who's a dog?"

"Delia's stomach was hurting yesterday. I looked after her. What's wrong with her cleaning up there?"

"Back then she took a knife for me. Her uterus was hurt, it's hard for her to conceive. Even if I do an embryo with her, isn't that just repaying what I owe?"

I let out a scornful laugh and finally stopped imagining any future.

"Zion, ten years. Whether it's gratitude or the two of you sleeping around, you know in your heart which it is."

"Let's get divorced."

Zion looked at the divorce agreement in front of him and his face changed.

He was about to snap at me when his phone rang.

On the other end came Delia's whimpering voice.

"Zion, my stomach's hurting again. Come quick, come see me."

Zion tensed up at once.

"Delia, don't panic, just lie down. I'll be there in ten minutes."

He snatched up his clothes and strode for the door.

I stepped in front of him at once.

"Zion, they've forecast a storm and a typhoon. Is Delia really that important?"

Thunder cracked outside. Zion shoved me aside, and the moment he stepped through the door, his voice came impatient.

"It's exactly because of the storm that I have to go. Delia's sick right now, she can't manage without me."

"The new project's about to break ground. Don't bring up divorce again. Don't ruin the deal between our two families."

The door slammed shut, and Delia's second message came in.

"Ms. Donaldson, still need proof of who Zion loves? Clinging to a man who doesn't love you. You're really pathetic."

The moment his figure vanished into the crack of thunder, the last thread of feeling I had for him drowned in the downpour.

I quietly picked up my phone and made a call.

"Lawyer Barnes, draft me a divorce agreement. I want a divorce."

I hung up, opened my laptop, and began sorting through every cash flow record and equity asset of Barber Group.

Ten years.

I stood beside Zion Barber and pushed a nearly bankrupt Barber Group to the top of New York's Four Great Families.

As his investor, as the wife who weathered every storm building that company with him, I had every right to take what was mine.

Zion cheated during the marriage, siphoned company assets to prop up Delia Simmons, funneled illegal payoffs through the Old Town redevelopment project. I sorted every piece of evidence, encrypted it, and saved it to a hidden folder on the computer.

Just as I saved the last file, my phone shrieked.

The second I answered, a rushed voice came through.

"Is this Zion Barber's family? This is First General Hospital. Mr. Barber has been in a serious car accident. Please come at once."

I grabbed my phone and raced to the hospital.

My in-laws were already in the corridor. The moment my mother-in-law saw me, she jabbed a finger in my face.

"Irene, what kind of wife are you? Rain like this, and you didn't even stop Zion from going out. You got him into a car crash."

"I said from the start we shouldn't take you. A nouveau-riche daughter with nothing but money in her eyes, and in ten years you couldn't lay a single egg"

My father-in-law's face was dark. "Enough!" he barked, then shot me a furious glare.

She was winding up to scream again when the emergency room doors swung open and a doctor stepped out.

"Which of you is family?"

She lunged for the doctor's arm. "Doctor, how's my son? Is he all right?"

The doctor's answer was grave and blunt.

"The impact struck the lower abdomen and severely shattered both testicles. The reproductive system is destroyed. The patient will likely lose all ability to father children. He will never be able to have an heir."

The corridor went dead silent.

The color drained from her face in an instant, and she sank straight to the floor.

"No. No, it's not possible. My son is only thirty. He's the only child our Barber family has. How can this be?"

My father-in-law swayed on his feet, snatched the diagnosis, and stared at it, refusing to believe it.

"Doctor, is there any way to treat it? Whatever it costs."

The doctor shook his head with regret.

"The impact was too severe, the testicles shattered. There's no better treatment right now, not here, not overseas."

Her expression twisted. She sprang up with a shriek and clawed at me.

"You slut, this is all your fault, you jinx, you ruined my son. Why did you let him drive? Why didn't you stop him"

I didn't see it coming. My cheek exploded with a burning sting.

My phone chimed.

"Ms. Donaldson, I told Zion to get here in five minutes, and he's already run three red lights for me. Are you sure you're going to keep being Mrs. Barber?"

The nurse stepped in front of her at once.

"This is the emergency ward. Whatever this is about, settle it at home. Please don't raise a hand here."

My mother-in-law shoved the nurse aside and lunged at me again, still shouting, when the nurse's voice cut in.

"The patient's out. Family can move him into the room."

Zion lay on the gurney, face drained white, an IV in his arm and three tubes running into his body.

She forgot all about me then, turned and threw herself over him, wailing, my son, my baby.

Once we were in the room, she glared at me and dropped her voice.

"Irene, let me tell you something. Don't think that just because my son can't father children now, you're free to run around with other men. If I ever find out, I'll skin you alive."

"And another thing. Zion's badly hurt. You are not to tell him the truth about this. There'll be a way to treat it later on."

She grabbed me and shoved me forward, snarling.

"Irene, get over here and look after Zion."

"If it weren't for you, you jinx, my son wouldn't have crashed. If you weren't so heartless, he'd never have gone out in a downpour like that."

I looked at her rage, then at Zion, still unconscious, and lifted my phone to hold Delia's messages right in front of her face.

"Mom, someone else is the reason your son went out. That jinx title isn't one I can wear."

She scanned the messages, and her face changed on the spot. Then she roared.

"So it was that little tramp. I knew she was up to no good."

"How could Zion be such a fool? Running a red light in the pouring rain for some tramp. How am I supposed to go on living?"

"I'll tear that little slut apart. Ten years she's clung to Zion. What is she really after?"

The instant she turned to storm out, Zion woke. He pushed himself up and rushed to stop her.

"Mom, come back. It was my own carelessness, all of it. Don't go after Delia. She's not well."

"Mom, I'll heal up with some rest. Don't blame Delia, or she'll be heartbroken."

I watched him without expression, a cold laugh building inside me. So their love really was solid as gold. Even now, all he thought about was his little sweetheart.

I only wondered whether he'd defend Delia like this if he knew his testicles were shattered, that he'd never father a child for the rest of his life.

I couldn't be bothered to explain. I stepped up and held the divorce papers out in front of him.

"Zion, you didn't spare a thought for your own body. Ran three red lights to go take care of Delia, and now that you've been hurt you still keep defending her. The two of you are the real thing."

"So I'll set you free. Let's get divorced."

My mother-in-law's face went dark at once. She jabbed a finger at me.

"Irene Donaldson, Zion is gravely hurt right now, and you want a divorce? What exactly are you playing at?"

I looked at her with a cold, level stare, then at my father-in-law, who was glowering at me.

"What I mean is that your son cheated on me for ten years and let his mistress walk all over me, and I want to divorce him."

"I'll be taking what's mine. Twenty percent of Barber Group's shares and the three billion my family poured in. My lawyer has already written it into the divorce agreement."

My father-in-law slammed a palm down on the table.

"Nonsense!"

Then he fixed me with a venomous glare.

"Irene Donaldson, don't think that riding on the Barbers has bought your family a seat in high society."

"You take one share of the Barber shares, and I'll have you people back down in the gutter before you know it. Try me."

I smiled and raised my hand, holding out the evidence of Zion's bribery.

"I believe you, Dad."

"But I wonder who ends up in the gutter first, once I hand this to the financial crimes commission, and take Zion's affair and that little rainstorm rendezvous he ran off to for his mistress straight to the board."

Zion's face darkened too. He looked at me, wounded.

"Nini, did you really marry me just for money? Weren't you the one who loved me most?"

"I'm gravely hurt now, and instead of getting through this with me, you're threatening me? How can you do that?"

My mother-in-law spat out her contempt.

"You, the daughter of some broke-down family, what right do you have to walk off with three billion of the Barbers' money? If we hadn't brought you in, would your family even know which way the door to a great house swings?"

"Zion has just spoiled you rotten. Coddled you until you forgot your place."

I stepped forward and spoke coldly.

"On the grounds that when your Barber family was days from bankruptcy, I knelt in front of my father for three days and three nights to get the capital that pulled Barber Group through."

"On the grounds that I fought at Barber Group for ten years, took Donaldson money three times to invest, and drove Barber Group to the very top."

"As his wife, as the one who saved Barber Group, tell me, do I have the right?"

"Or does that right belong to Delia Simmons, who's only ever good in bed, who cries that her stomach hurts to make your son rush out to her in the rain?"

My father-in-law's face turned as ugly as it could get. He opened his mouth to roar at me.

"You"

I flung the evidence straight at Zion's chest.

"Zion Barber, let's part on good terms. You give me my compensation, or you can wait to go to prison."

And with that, I didn't spare the three ugly-faced figures another look. I walked out with long strides.

That night, Zion came back, bracing his wound.

The usual smile surfaced on his face, and he leaned against my shoulder, all injured self-pity.

"Nini, let's not divorce, all right?"

"Ten years. I've really fallen in love with you. How can you not love me?"

"If I didn't love you, I could have quietly frozen an embryo with Delia and you'd never have known. Have I ever hidden a single thing from you?"

I drew a deep breath and studied him calmly.

"Zion Barber, back when we made our deal, it was a marriage of convenience. I secured my position in the Donaldson family, you got my capital behind you."

"I knew all about your history with Delia Simmons, and I agreed that when the arrangement ended, I could divorce you and let you have her."

"You were the one who wouldn't divorce. You were the one who said you'd settle things with Delia Simmons, that you'd love me my whole life. And yet you let her come and provoke me six times. Do you think I'm some kind of saint, sitting there swallowing it?"

Back then, my stepmother whispered in my father's ear, and again and again he signed assets over to her and her son.

For my little brother, to take back everything that was mine, I went looking for Zion Barber in his hour of crisis.

We signed a cooperative marriage agreement.

My father was just a nouveau-riche who'd made his fortune off a demolition deal, desperate to climb into an old-money family and move into real industry.

Seeing a chance to marry into a century-old house, my father generously threw in a billion as my dowry and pushed me to marry into the Barbers.

With money and my help, Zion cleared the crisis within a year, opened a new market by the second, and as I talked my father into fresh investment and kept up the planning, Barber Group climbed to the very peak.

In all that time, Delia Simmons proposed five times that she and Zion freeze an embryo, so that after the divorce she could carry it legitimately through a surrogate and give birth to their child.

Every time Zion brought it to me, I set the divorce papers down in front of him.

I told him that the moment an embryo was frozen, it was a life, and a life had inheritance rights, and I would never let a mistress's child carve up my assets.

Freeze it, fine. Divorce first.

And if he dared betray the marriage, he would forfeit every share to his name.

That clause was one the Barbers had deliberately written into the prenuptial agreement to guard against me.

But now he couldn't bear to part with any of it. Even my dowry and the capital I'd put in had become the Barbers'.

Zion looked even more aggrieved.

"Sweetheart, I'm sorry. I really have no choice. Give me one more year, and I'll deal with Delia for good, all right?"

He buried his head against my chest and nuzzled hard.

"Sweetheart, I hurt all over right now. You can't just abandon me. Otherwise I'll take it to your father to settle, and let everyone know what a heartless woman you are."

I closed my eyes and swallowed down the disgust.

I used to think three thousand six hundred and fifty days of standing by him, of everything I'd given, meant Zion felt something for me, that he was only tangled up in old gratitude and couldn't tell right from wrong.

Now I finally understood. He was selfish. He was arrogant.

He believed no woman could live without him.

Like Delia Simmons, who took a knife for him and lost her baby, who lay in his bed for over ten years without a word of complaint.

He used the pretense of gratitude to serve his own appetites.

And he couldn't bear to give me back the three billion and the shares, so he coaxed me every time, sure I'd fall in line every time, like a good girl.

It hit me all at once. If they were going to cling to what they owed me and refuse to hand it over, then I'd take Barber Group itself, and make every one of them look up to me.

I smiled.

I turned to him, a smile rising, and patted Zion's back gently.

"Zion, ten years of marriage. We became one long ago."

"The new-energy venture between our families is about to launch. We truly can't do without each other. I'll give you one last year. I hope you'll treasure what I feel for you."

Zion was overjoyed at once. He grabbed me and planted a loud kiss on me.

"Sweetheart, I knew you loved me most. I knew you could never bring yourself to throw me away."

"Once my wound heals, I'll draw a clear line with Delia Simmons. And then we'll have a sweet little baby of our own."

Watching the smugness flicker in his eyes, I curved my lips.

"All right. Whatever you say."

Zion Barber, go make a baby with your little darling if you've got it in you. All I want is the money.

The moment Zion was coaxed back to the hospital, I dialed the financial crimes unit.

"I'm reporting the chairman of Barber Group for illegal payoffs and rigging a bid in a tender project. Please send someone to investigate immediately."