Her Assistant Came First, I Walked Away

I was bitten by poisonous mosquitoes, running a high fever with aching joints, so weak that I asked Vanessa Scott to take me to the hospital.

But she snapped impatiently, “It’s just a mosquito bite. Why are you being so dramatic? Just take some Tylenol at home. What’s the point of going to the hospital?”

With her makeup perfectly done, she went to the airport to pick up Jason Clark.

I called 911, and on my way to the hospital in the ambulance, I saw a photo Jason had just posted on his social media.

In the picture, he was holding a woman’s hand tightly, and at a glance I recognized it as Vanessa’s.

Jason captioned it: “No matter how late, the one I love most will always come to pick me up and take me home.”

I clicked “like” on his post and left a comment:

“Congratulations, I hope you two end up together. By the way, tell that beloved woman of yours that I’ve left the divorce papers on the living room couch. She can come home and sign them whenever she has time.”

Moments after I commented, Jason deleted the post.

Right after that, Vanessa called me.

Weakly, I picked up, but before I could say a word, she scolded me furiously:

“Ethan Miller, are you insane?”

“What nonsense are you spouting on Jason’s social media?”

“He just came back from a business trip where he landed a huge client. I went to the airport to pick him up—it’s only right. What are you jealous about?”

“Do you have any idea how much damage your comment could do to his reputation?”

“Stop trying to scare me with divorce papers. You’re nothing but a dependent husband in the Scott Family. If you leave me, you’ll walk out with nothing. Who would want you then?”

“Tomorrow at the office, you’re going to apologize to Jason in front of all the employees, or I won’t forgive you!”

Before I could answer, she hung up.

Inside the ambulance, the paramedic gave me a strange look and quietly asked, “Your wife?”

“She doesn’t know you’re in an ambulance right now?”

I replied tiredly, “She’ll be my ex-wife soon.”

That night, I finally gave up completely on Vanessa.

Back then, I had married into the Scott Family because her parents insisted on it. Although Vanessa was reluctant at first, she was eventually moved by my sincerity and agreed to marry me.

Not long after our wedding, Mr. and Mrs. Scott died in a car accident.

It was around that time Jason joined Scott Corporation.

While I was busy handling her parents’ funeral arrangements, I also devoted myself to stabilizing the company by keeping key employees from leaving and bringing in new clients.

During those days, I slept no more than four hours each night, pouring my heart and soul into the work.

In the end, not only did Scott Corporation avoid collapsing after her parents’ death, it even grew stronger—and most of the credit belonged to me.

Yet during that period, Vanessa promoted Jason to be her assistant.

Jason was slick and smooth-talking, especially skilled at flattering women. Vanessa’s attitude toward him clearly crossed the line between boss and subordinate.

I argued with Vanessa about it more than once, but each time I was the one who ended up apologizing first.

I had truly loved her.

But she always mocked me, saying things like:

“If my family didn’t have money, would you really have agreed to be a dependent husband in the Scott Family?”

“Ethan, without my family’s wealth and connections, you’d still be nothing more than a poor boy from the Midwest countryside.”