My husband slapped me across the face with a million in counterfeit bills; I made him and his mistress beg for mercy

### Chapter 1

At the family banquet, my husband peeled off hundred-dollar bills one by one and flung them in my face. Take the money and get out. Don't soil this dinner.

My mind went blank. I stared at him, unable to believe it.

Five years married to Julian Farley. Five years of quiet, endless work behind the scenes, all so I could reach this day, the day the Farleys were finally set to rejoin the four great families of New York.

And this was what it bought me. His eyes across the table, full of disgust.

"Lorraine Pruitt, don't think I don't know. To keep your seat as Mrs. Farley, you spent five years passing yourself around a dozen men to win the backing of the Whitneys and the Pruitts."

Before I could get out a single word, his housekeeper, Anna Henson, curved her red lips and twisted the knife, slow and sweet.

"Lorraine came out of Chairman Whitney's room the other day and had to lean on the wall, her legs shaking so hard she couldn't walk. And that other time, young Mr. Pruitt's car seat, was it soft enough for you?"

She flicked a hand, and the screen at the far end of the hall lit up. One "intimate photo" after another began to scroll.

Me stepping in and out of hotels with different men. One with an arm around my waist, another carrying me sideways into a room, everything staged to look filthy, to make people imagine the worst.

The guests erupted at once. Contempt, disgust, laughter, every gaze pricking at me like needles.

I looked at those so-called intimate photos, and my fingertips went cold.

I raised my head and looked Julian dead in the eye.

"So these photos are enough for you to condemn me to death?"

He gave a cold snort and tossed a divorce agreement at me.

"You have no shame. I won't have a slut like you at my side. As of today, you're cast out of the Farley family, and your shares in the Farleys are wiped to zero."

"Julian, maybe you should look into whether those photos were AI"

He cut me off, furious. "You mean tell me Anna faked the photos to frame you? Shut up!"

There was nothing else to do, so I stopped talking and bent to pick up one of the bills. Julian's face instantly filled with contempt, the look that said I knew you were a gold-digger.

But I turned and tucked the bill into his suit pocket, patting it flat.

"Take your fake money and treat yourself to something nice. You won't get the chance much longer."

...

Julian went from humiliated to enraged in a breath and seized my wrist.

"Lorraine Pruitt, the Farleys clawed their way back to where they are today, every single one of us fighting for it. And you're the only one who makes me sick."

His eyes were bloodshot, his grip crushing enough to grind my bones. "Haven't I been good enough to you all these years? And you go around making a cuckold of me, humiliating me in front of everyone!"

Every guest looked at him with sympathy.

The pain forced a sharp breath out of me, and I struggled to explain. "Julian, let go. Don't let people turn you against me. You know in your heart how much I've done for the Farleys all these years. Those photos"

Anna cut across me with a light sneer.

"Done what, exactly? Climbed into a few families' beds? Everyone saw it. You put in some very 'thorough' effort."

Laughter broke out at once.

One of the Farley relatives spat on the floor. "Shameless. Who knows how many men have worn her out. And to think I used to hold her up as a model, telling everyone what a capable woman Mrs. Farley was."

"Exactly. A woman who drags the Farley name through the mud has no right to be Mrs. Farley!"

The insults came one after another, hurled at me like stones.

I never imagined that the Farley relatives who fawned over me and flattered me every single day would all turn on me now, each one wearing a different face.

"The photos don't prove anything." I clenched my fist and forced down the tremble in my throat. "I was only discussing business with them."

"What business gets discussed all over a man's body?"

Anna pointed at the frozen image on the big screen. "Then explain it. What is this?"

"Everyone, I'll stake my word these photos are one hundred percent real. If she doesn't believe me, I'll bring in an expert right now to prove it." Anna folded her arms, her smile certain, as if the outcome were already decided.

I stared at the screen.

In the photo, Byron Whitney, head of the Whitney family, had his arm around me as we ducked into the back seat of a luxury car, the angle sly, the pose suggestive.

I looked at it, and I almost laughed out of sheer fury.

Because Byron Whitney is my own uncle.

### Chapter 2

It had happened a few years ago.

That night I'd been in meetings with a client until well past midnight. Stepping out of the elevator, still riding the high of a billion-dollar contract I'd just signed, I lost focus and rolled my ankle.

I called Julian to come get me. He said he was still working late.

The club was out in the middle of nowhere and impossible to get a cab from, so I called my uncle, who happened to be closing a deal nearby.

He rushed over to pick me up. And the moment he helped me into the car was the moment someone caught on camera.

No wonder. The next day was our second wedding anniversary, and the resort we'd booked suddenly claimed it had no rooms.

That was also the day Julian abruptly decided to take Anna Henson on an out-of-town business trip. He was gone a whole week.

Back then I never once doubted him. Looking back now, all that's left is bitterness and the joke I made of myself.

Five years ago my mother died, and I came back from abroad to settle in New York.

The plane hit heavy turbulence and shook violently. I went rigid with fear. The man in the seat beside me kept talking me through it, steady and low, until the flight smoothed out again.

I fell for that handsome man with the calm voice and the deep, searching eyes at first sight.

That man was Julian Farley.

But my father looked down on the Farleys, a family in decline.

My uncle warned me too, said Julian didn't seem like the faithful type.

And my grandfather was set on arranging a marriage for me with someone of equal standing.

But I wanted to marry for love. I didn't want to repeat my parents' tragedy, a business marriage that fell apart in three years.

So I married into the Farleys under a hidden name. Even Julian never knew who my family really was.

I thought that if I just worked hard enough, if I brought the Farleys back from the dead alongside him, I could prove to my family that I hadn't chosen wrong.

Suddenly I saw us again, hunched under the lamp late into the night over a proposal, so exhausted we'd fall asleep holding each other on the couch.

One word of approval from a client and we'd be dancing around the room with joy.

Back then he kissed my hair and told me that once the Farleys were back on their feet, he'd make me the happiest Mrs. Farley alive.

The memory of all that hardship and all that happiness pulled a laugh out of me before I could stop it.

"Lorraine Pruitt, you still have the nerve to laugh?" Julian's eyes were pure disgust.

I looked him straight in the eye and asked, slowly,

"Do you honestly believe I slept my way to a position?"

His look was contemptuous, like he was staring at a piece of garbage. "What else? Lying flat and servicing men is the only thing you're good for."

The words drove into my chest, and the pain made my breath catch for a beat.

Just then a crowd of people surged into the banquet hall, cameras and lenses in hand, and the second they saw me they swarmed in like flies to blood.

"Word is you slept with dozens of men over five years to hold on to your place as Mrs. Farley. Is it true?"

"They say all your promiscuity and miscarriages left you unable to ever conceive again. Do you think that's fair to Mr. Farley?"

"Tell us about your relationship with the man in this photo!"

I clenched my fists and forced my voice level.

"This man is my uncle."

"And I miscarried because I overworked myself, not because I sleep around!"

"Uncle?" Their laughter turned filthier, microphones shoved almost into my mouth. "You really think anyone's going to believe a lie like that?"

Anna picked up the thread right on cue. "Everyone knows Chairman Whitney doesn't even have a niece. This 'uncle' of yours, is that what you call him in bed?"

"I hear you even had old Mr. Whitney, well past eighty, eating out of your hand."

"Right, and there's no telling whose kid you miscarried."

Flashbulbs kept firing. Every side of me was full of the sneering of guests and reporters.

The cold in Julian's eyes deepened, as if even one more glance at me would dirty him.

"Lorraine Pruitt! Stop making a fool of yourself. From today on, there is no such person in the Farley family."

Looking at that frozen stare, I knew nothing more I said would matter.

He really could bend when it suited him.

Enduring all these years, waiting until I'd poured out my heart's blood dragging the Farleys back from the brink of collapse to the glory they had now.

Waiting until I'd helped him claw his way to the top through a pack of circling wolves and secure his place as head of the family.

Waiting until the timing was ripe, then tearing off the mask and driving the knife into me.

What a fine husband I had.

I grabbed the pen, signed the divorce agreement cleanly, and flung it back at him.

"Julian Farley, I'll be waiting for the day you come crying and beg me."

He laughed like he'd heard the biggest joke in the world. "Beg you? A shameless woman like you? I'd die on my knees before I ever begged you."

With that, he slid an arm around Anna's waist, and the two of them walked toward the press without an inch between them.

Only then did I see clearly that the jade necklace at Anna's throat was the heirloom that marked the Farley matriarch.

"Tomorrow, the Farley family officially returns to the four great families. Thank you all for witnessing it. This glory belongs to every one of us." In front of the cameras, Julian traded a lingering look with Anna. "Especially my housekeeper, Anna Henson. None of this would have been possible without her."

The press were broadcasting it live around the world, and in an instant the whole internet was in an uproar.

### Chapter 3

When we married, I wanted that jade necklace. Julian told me to wait.

Once the Farleys were back on their feet, he said, he'd give it to me openly, and no one would dare gossip.

So I waited. Five whole years. I waited until he fastened it around Anna Henson's neck with his own hands.

The guests crowded around Anna's slender figure, praising how capable and gracious she was, saying she and Mr. Farley were a match made in heaven.

She leaned into Julian, laughing without a care, their fingers laced tight, as if the two of them wanted to melt into each other's blood and bone.

Watching it, all I felt was disgust.

The two of them. So they'd been at it a long time already.

I'd grown up abroad with my mother, always longing for free love, a happy marriage.

Turns out my judgment of people was garbage.

But Julian, you'll soon learn what it costs to betray me.

The moment I walked out of the ballroom, I called my grandfather.

"Grandpa, I'm willing to marry Orson Craig."

His voice couldn't hold back its delight. "Wonderful! That Craig boy has been waiting for you all along! But what about Julian"

"Already divorced."

"Good! My sweet girl, I'll officiate the wedding myself!"

I hung up and dialed the second number.

The little company I'd founded years ago to help Julian was now worth billions.

He had no idea I was the boss behind it all.

"Mr. Hughes, pull all my capital out of the Farleys. Every cent."

"Yes, Ms. Pruitt. Right away!"

The last call went to the Pruitts.

The instant it connected, I let my voice break with tears. "Dad, Julian betrayed me"

I was only halfway through when my father's tone went cold.

"I understand, sweetheart. It's getting cold out. Time for the Farleys to go bankrupt."

I hung up and the corner of my mouth curved.

Julian, Anna, savor the last of your celebration.

Back at the home that was no longer mine, I packed my things and left.

I'd barely reached the bottom of the stairs when the head housekeeper, Josephine Chavez, blocked my way.

"Miss Pruitt, stop right there!"

She planted her heavy body in front of me, chin lifted high. "Farley rules. Luggage gets searched before you leave. Wouldn't want anyone slipping out with things they've got no business taking."

Back when I was Mrs. Farley, back when I'd closed one huge deal after another, she'd bowed and scraped to me every day, ready to fetch my shoes.

Turn around, and she flipped faster than a page.

I stared at her and couldn't help the cold laugh. "You? You want to go through my suitcase? Who do you think you are?"

Josephine stretched her voice out, crowing like a rooster.

"I'm Mr. Farley's head housekeeper. There's no one above me but Miss Henson. After all the shameless things you've done, Mr. Farley not beating you to death is already mercy. Now open the case. Nicely."

Every extra word to her was a favor she didn't deserve.

"Riding on someone else's power. Get lost."

Josephine's face went dark, and she lunged for my suitcase.

"Don't you dare!" I snapped.

"Why wouldn't I dare?" Anna had appeared behind her at some point, tilting her chin. "Take it. She's got a guilty conscience written all over her. Let's see what dirty little secret she's hiding!"

Josephine was big and burly, and she slammed her hip into me and knocked me to the floor.

They wrenched the suitcase away, and Anna turned and handed it straight to Julian behind her.

Julian fiddled with the combination lock for ages and couldn't get it open. Losing his patience, he loomed over me and barked, "The code!"

"The day of our first date."

Julian's fingers went still.

He frowned, thinking for a long time, his mind a blank.

I looked at that lost expression on his face and only found it laughable.

Laughing at myself, for going on thinking he was still the man he'd been at the start.

Finally, humiliation curdled into rage. Julian stood and kicked the suitcase. "Smash it! Break it open if you have to! There's got to be proof in there of her and her men!"

The suitcase was one my mother had left me. I'd always treasured it.

I threw myself over it and held on for dear life, and the sight only made Anna more eager, her hand darting out to grab it.

"Stop it, I've done nothing! This is a violation of privacy!"

I shoved her off, and Anna staggered into the wall, clutching her belly and shrieking.

"Anna!"

Julian's eyes went red in an instant, and he backhanded me across the face.

The blow knocked me to the floor, half my face burning like fire.

"Lorraine Pruitt, drop the act. If you weren't desperate for those men, how would you land billion-dollar deals?"

The revulsion in his eyes nearly spilled over.

"Don't go telling me you did any of it for me."

"Whore."

### Chapter 4

Julian smashed the suitcase to pieces.

He flung my clothes all over the floor, and finally, from the very bottom, he dug out a stack of selfies of me with my family.

His face changed in an instant, and he threw the photos in my face.

"Well, well, Lorraine! You keep swearing you're innocent, so what are these? Pressed up that close to a man, and the next second you'd be spreading your legs for him, wouldn't you?"

The photos cut across my face, leaving thin threads of blood.

I watched my mother's keepsakes shattered, the room left in ruins, and my eyes burned red.

"They're my father and my brother!"

Anna stood at Julian's side and gave a knowing little smile. "Father and brother? Looks more like a sugar daddy and a fake brother to me."

I stared straight at Julian.

"You don't believe me, then call your grandfather and ask him yourself!"

In the entire Farley family, only old Duke knew who I truly was.

One phone call from Julian and the whole truth would come out.

But he only sneered. "You know perfectly well my grandfather's off in the mountains on vacation, and no one's allowed to disturb him. You think saying that will make me believe you? You cheap, worn-out slut."

Anna curved her red lips and tossed out a light little line.

"Right. If those two are really your own father and brother, I'll strip naked and crawl around on all fours on a livestream for the whole internet to see."

I ground my teeth and gave a cold smile.

"Anna, I'll be waiting for that."

Then I lifted my head to Julian. "And you, Julian. Humiliate me like this, and the Farley family can forget about ever rejoining the four great families."

For a beat, everything went silent.

Then the servants who'd gathered to watch burst out laughing.

"God, has this woman lost her mind?"

Anna hugged her arms to herself, laughing so hard she was shaking.

"I'm dying. One word from you and the four great families kick the Farleys out? Keep dreaming."

Julian rolled his eyes at me the way you'd look at a bug someone had already stepped on.

"Lorraine," he said, his voice thick with mockery, "your mother died five years ago, and you've never so much as met your father. You're nothing but an orphan with no father and no mother. Walk out that door and the only thing left for you is selling yourself on the street. And you think you can decide whether the Farleys live or die?"

My face was still stinging, but my voice held steady, each word measured.

"I'm not an orphan."

"My father is Quinn Pruitt, head of the Pruitt family. My brother is Clement Pruitt, CEO of Pruitt Group."

"My grandfather is old Lucas Whitney, first among the four great families."

"And Orson Craig, of the four great families, is my future husband."

"Every word you've said to me today, everything you've done, they will make you answer for it."

The laughter around me only grew more shameless.

Josephine stepped forward, seized a fistful of my hair, and sprayed spit across my face.

"I think you really have gone out of your mind. If Mr. Craig would ever want you, I'll stand on my head and eat shit!"

My scalp burned where she yanked it, but the corner of my mouth curled up instead, and my eyes swept viciously over every face in the room.

"Don't believe me? Then wait and see."

"You pack of frogs at the bottom of a well. The humiliation of today, I'll repay it double."

Julian shook his head, his eyes full of pity and disgust, as if watching a madwoman's last struggle.

"Enough, Lorraine. I get it. You couldn't handle being dumped, and it broke something in your head."

"I won't even hold it against you for dragging the Farley name through the mud."

"Now get out, before you disturb Anna and the baby."

With that, he pulled Anna into his arms, his large hand moving gently over her belly, every motion careful and tender.

My gaze fell on the slight swell of Anna's stomach.

So they'd had their little bastard growing there all along.

Fury made my fingertips tremble.

But in the end, I only wiped the spit off my face and, one piece at a time, gathered the scattered clothes back into the broken suitcase.

"You don't need to throw me out. Breathing the same air as you two dogs even one moment longer is more filth than I can stand."

"But we're not letting this go."

Through the waves of cursing, I strode toward the door.

The moment I left the Farley house, I dialed a number.

"At the Farleys' comeback ceremony tomorrow, I'm going to let Julian taste what despair feels like."

### Chapter 5

There was a beat of silence on the line, then a young man's steady voice came through:

"Sweet little sister, tomorrow we'll let you take your revenge yourself."

With my brother's backing, I let out a slow breath.

Julian Farley, I told you.

Every humiliation, I'll pay you back double.

Then I took a cab to a hotel nearby, to wait for the people my brother would send tomorrow.

In the middle of the night, the door was kicked open.

The instant I woke, I'd already been hauled up off the pillow.

Julian was wild with rage, nearly lifting me clean into the air. "Where have you hidden Anna?!"

I fought him with everything I had. "Have you lost your mind, Julian? I've never even met Anna Henson!"

"Liar!" His eyes were bloodshot. "If anything happens to her and my child, you'll die with them! Now talk. Where did you take her?"

Once, saving him, I'd had my leg broken by a drunk driver, and even then I'd never seen him this furious.

Anna vanished for a little while, and he was ready to bury me with her, no questions asked.

Maybe he'd never loved me the way I'd imagined.

Just then, Julian took a call.

"What? You found her? I'm coming right now!"

He shoved me into the car and ran every red light, tearing to the hospital.

The ward door swung open. Anna was lying in the bed, and the moment she saw me she scrambled off it and threw herself to the floor.

"The baby is innocent, Lorraine... I won't call the police and report that you kidnapped me. I'm only begging you, spare my child!"

I caught the flicker of calculation in her eyes, and I knew: this whole thing was her own performance.

"I have no idea what she's talking about." I turned to Julian. "Since she's fine, I can go now, can't I?"

"Apologize!" He blocked my path. "Anna's kind enough not to call the police, but you're going to make it right with her."

Absurd.

I stepped back twice. "I already told you, this has nothing to do with me. I will never apologize to her."

Anna suddenly clutched her belly, doubling over, and burst into tears.

"Julian, my stomach hurts so much! Are we going to lose the baby?"

At that Julian exploded and kicked the leg I'd once broken saving him.

The pain hit and dropped me straight to my knees.

He grabbed a fistful of my hair and slammed my head down against the hard floor.

He didn't stop until blood was running down my forehead, his voice vicious:

"This is what you get for betraying me and bullying Anna."

He was the one who'd cheated, yet he slandered me without a shred of doubt.

I lifted my blood-red eyes to him.

"Julian, which of us ends up worse off? Tomorrow you'll find out."

He slapped me across the face, then furiously ordered his bodyguard to bring an iron chain.

"Don't think I don't know what you're scheming."

"I will never let you ruin the Farley comeback ceremony! You'll stand there and watch me take back the glory that's mine, and you'll be nothing but a maggot rotting in the gutter, forever!"

Then, ignoring my struggling, he chained me to the corner of the bed and forced me to watch him and Anna together.

I drifted in and out, passing out again and again, jolted awake each time by Anna's cries.

They didn't stop until the next morning, when they finally dressed and left, smug and pleased with themselves.

The most important day for the Farleys had finally come.

Julian walked the red carpet with his arm around Anna, heading for the platform at the center.

Above it hung a banner reading "Celebrating the Farley Family's Return to the Four Great Families," the whole hall glittering with gold, packed with guests.

The two moved side by side, the man in a crisp suit, the woman in a lavish gown. They did make a striking pair.

The host smiled and held out the microphone.

"Congratulations to the Farleys on rejoining the four great families. This is a proud day. Does Mr. Farley have anything to say?"

Julian straightened his jacket and smiled, every inch the gentleman.

"The Farley family has stood in New York for a hundred years, through every rise and fall. That we can return today, in glory, to our place among the four great families, is thanks to every family member and every employee who never stopped fighting for it."

Anna took the microphone, her voice gentle and gracious.

"Julian has run the Farley family for five years, and he's given his whole heart to it. As the housekeeper and the woman closest to him, I've lost count of how many times I ached for him and cried in secret."

"With him leading it, I have no doubt the Farley family will rise to new heights and become an indispensable pillar among the four great families."

The host looked toward the far end of the red carpet and announced in a ringing voice:

"And now, please welcome the representative of the four great families, the head of Pruitt Group, to the stage to preside over the Farleys' grand investiture ceremony!"

At once the cameras of a hundred outlets swung to the Maybach at the end of the carpet.

Amid all the anticipation, the door opened slowly, revealing an expensive high heel.

Then a woman, her makeup stunning, stepped out.

Confused murmurs broke out on every side.

"Wait, isn't the head of Pruitt Group a man? Why is it a woman?"

### Chapter 6

A sharp voice cut through the murmurs of suspicion.

"Isn't that Mr. Farley's ex-wife? How does she still have the nerve to show up here?"

"No way, that's actually Lorraine Pruitt! This woman's been caught sleeping with dozens of men, and she still dares to come? The nerve on her."

Julian's face darkened.

He let go of Anna's hand, strode down the steps, and stopped in front of me.

"Lorraine, I don't know how you got out." He cleared his throat and looked me up and down. "Don't tell me you seduced one of my bodyguards into letting you go."

The truth was, after they'd left that morning, my brother's men had come and gotten me out.

I looked at him coldly and hadn't said a word before he suddenly put on a righteous expression.

"I gave you chance after chance to change, and you still had to come here and disgrace yourself. Then don't blame me for being ruthless."

With that, Julian grabbed the nearest microphone and turned to face the cameras.

"Everyone, my ex-wife Lorraine Pruitt has no shame. For her own selfish desires she sold her body countless times. As much as it broke my heart, for the sake of the Farley name I had no choice but to divorce her."

His brow knotted together, and he let out a long, helpless sigh.

"When we divorced, I gave her a million-dollar settlement, but she still wasn't satisfied. She actually kidnapped Anna to extort more out of me. With someone this greedy, my only choice is to call the police."

At once the crowd was in an uproar.

"Call them! This shameless woman kidnaps people and extorts money. She should rot behind bars!"

"Disgusting. How does she still have the face to ask Mr. Farley for money? Mr. Farley's too kind. If it were me, I'd send her out with nothing!"

"Let the whole world see what this filthy woman really is today!"

The abuse came at me from every direction, nearly drowning me.

A hundred cameras swung toward me at once.

In the livestream, the comments scrolled like something possessed, tens of thousands of messages dragging my name onto the trending list within minutes.

The corner of Julian's mouth ticked up, then quickly pressed flat again.

Anna stood at his side, her fingers gripping the hem of her dress, the smile in her eyes impossible to hide.

Julian took out his phone, ready to dial.

But just then, someone in the crowd spoke up, puzzled.

"But this car belongs to the Pruitts. A Maybach Exelero, the only one in the world. In the whole Pruitt family, only the head of the house is entitled to ride in it."

"Mr. Farley, is this Miss Pruitt really the kind of person you say she is?"

The smug look on Anna's face vanished in an instant.

"Guests, friends from the press, please don't let Lorraine Pruitt fool you. She looks innocent on the surface, but behind everyone's back she cozies up to the powerful. Maybe she got that car by selling her body too"

Another guest who knew the truth cut Anna off, looking at Julian with pure mockery in his eyes.

"But Mr. Farley, has it never occurred to you that Miss Pruitt's surname is also Pruitt?"

That one line, and Julian froze too, his finger stalling on the screen.

He stared at me, the composed, victory-in-hand look on his face splitting open, disbelief seeping into his eyes.

"You... who exactly are you?"