The Ex-Wife's Ultimate Revenge

"You can keep him." I didn't cry. I didn't scream. I just dropped those words when I caught my husband in bed with my best friend.

After all, I was the ultimate strong independent woman. My friends praised my grace. They said I was the embodiment of a badass heroine coming to life.

But things didn't play out like a fairy tale. After a brief storm of gossip, they just signed the marriage papers.

A year later, my former best friend gave birth to twins—a boy and a girl. My exhusband built a multimilliondollar business. They became the pictureperfect family everyone envied.

And me? Shortly after the divorce, my cool facade crumbled. The emotional backlash hit me like a freight train. The trauma and the public humiliation consumed me.

My belief in karma shattered. My career tanked. My love life died. I hit rock bottom. I spent years in a fog. Then, I was sent flying by a car while crossing the street.

As I lay dying, she came to visit. She looked down at me with pity and nostalgia. "I knew you always prided yourself on being a strong independent woman.

So I made sure you caught us that day…" I died drowning in regret and fury. When I opened my eyes again, I was right back at the scene of their affair.

Chapter 1 I lay in the emergency room, barely breathing. The doctor had just delivered the grim news. My injuries were too severe. I was beyond saving.

Just let me die, I thought through the haze. Then, the sharp click of high heels echoed in the room. Zoey walked in. She was dressed in designer clothes. Her skin glowed.

She looked even younger than she did eight years ago when I caught her naked in my bed. She looked at me with sorrow and pity. "Stella. I never thought you'd end up like this.

Fate is so strange. "After everything, I'm the one sending you off…" She paused. "Since we're here, let's have a little confession session with the time you have left." I had no idea why she was here.

I wanted to turn my head away. I didn't want to look at her. But my body wouldn't obey. Because I was dying.

Zoey sat by my bed and let out a soft sigh. "I fell in love with Julian at first sight. For years, I had to watch you two date and get married.

I had to watch you live a better life than me. "A random bracelet you bought cost my entire month's salary. I couldn't understand it. We came from the same background.

We had the same education. "We were equally pretty. Why did Julian fall in love with you and not me? Just because you got to that coffee shop ten minutes earlier?

So I decided to fix it myself. "I found a way to get Julian into my bed. But when he woke up, he was so full of regret.

He actually offered me money to keep it a secret from you. "Even though he couldn't resist sleeping with me a second time, and a third time, he regretted it every single time." She let out a soft chuckle. "I couldn't have that, could I?

I knew you prided yourself on being a strong independent woman. "You always said if your husband cheated, you wouldn't throw a crazy tantrum like other women.

You'd divorce him immediately and never look back. So, I begged Julian to sleep with me one last time. And… I made sure you caught us." My lungs tightened.

I stared at her, paralyzed by disbelief. After the divorce, my cool and collected exit proved to be only temporary.

I choked on the trauma of being betrayed by the two people closest to me. The public humiliation ate me alive. Then, I had to watch them get married, have kids, and succeed.

They thrived. Meanwhile, my trust in love was so broken I couldn't even work as a wedding designer anymore. I didn't dare start a new relationship. My life just kept rotting away.

The contrast was pure torture. It plunged me into severe anxiety and selfloathing. My entire belief system collapsed.

It felt like acid burning a hole through my chest, keeping me awake night after endless night. Chapter 2 I always thought I was just unlucky. I thought I was weak.

I even hated myself for failing to bounce back. It never crossed my mind that my ruin was a calculated setup. "Thank you, Stella," Zoey whispered. "You really didn't let me down.

Your pride and your precious grace saved our reputations too. It's the only reason Julian and I bounced back so quickly. "But of course, I should thank myself most of all.

I put in so much work. I mimicked your tone and your mannerisms in front of Julian.

I paid people to get you fired from every job." A slow smile spread across her face. "I even went to an international sperm bank.

I picked a donor who looked exactly like Julian and got pregnant with twins." My shattered body had no strength left. But my eyes snapped wide open.

After our quick divorce, Julian had refused to let go. He dropped to his knees. He cried and swore he only loved me.

He begged for another chance and promised on his life to never see Zoey again.

That was until Zoey announced she was pregnant with his kids. "Anyway, over the last few years, especially after I gave birth to our two beautiful babies, Julian treated me better and better.

He actually fell in love with me, piece by piece. Stella, I finally stole your life.

I changed my own destiny with my own two hands. "It just felt a little empty with no one knowing the truth. Thank God He gave me the chance to spill it all right before you die.

Look at how honest I'm being. I hope you don't hold a grudge. "Rest in peace." She stood up, brushing off her designer skirt.

Pure, unfiltered triumph radiated from her face. "Oh, right. Are you wondering why I'm even here at the hospital? "My favorite local bakery closes at nine.

My driver was terrified I'd be disappointed if we missed it, so he sped up a little. Please don't blame him. It was an accident. "He's probably traumatized from hitting you.

I'll pay you full legal compensation, of course. Not that it matters. The payout is barely the cost of one of my purses.

Except…" She tilted her head, feigning a troubled frown. "You're completely alone now. You don't have a single family member left.

Who am I supposed to write the check to?" She laughed, shaking her head. Her heels clicked a rhythmic, elegant beat as she walked out of the room. My eyes slid shut.

A silent, bloody scream tore through my soul. My eyes snapped open. I was standing in a secondfloor hallway.

Downstairs, the cheerful chatter of my friends drifted up from the Airbnb living room. Inside the room right in front of me, two naked bodies tangled frantically on the bed.

Heavy, desperate pants leaked through the crack in the door. I froze for two seconds. Then I raised my hand and slapped myself hard across the face.

Stinging heat flared on my cheek. Good.

I drew in a ragged breath and screamed at the top of my lungs. "You shameless, disgusting animals!" Two flushed, sweaty faces whipped toward the door, gasping for air.

Julian's pupils shrank to pinpricks the second he saw me. A violent shudder ripped through his body, and in his sheer panic, he finished right then and there.

Zoey took the brunt of it with a sharp gasp.

Then she yanked the blanket up to cover their naked skin. "Stella," she whispered, her voice raspy and frantic. "Don't do anything crazy! "It's all my fault. I seduced Julian.

Please don't blame him. If you want to hit someone, hit me!" Zoey had said those exact same words in my past life.

Back then, I was a highly successful wedding designer with a perfect marriage. I demanded flawlessness in love.

If a man got his hands dirty, if his eyes wandered, I would throw him away like trash.

Chapter 3 So, despite my rage, disappointment, and disgust back then, I acted like the ultimate strong independent woman. I looked down at them with pure contempt.

I dropped a cold line: "You can keep him." I didn't even step into the room. I turned and walked away. Right now, Zoey's eyes flickered. She was waiting for that exact reaction.

Instead, I lunged into the room. I grabbed the water kettle off the table and hurled it straight at Julian's face. Thud. Scalding hot water splashed over him.

He shrieked, clutching his face. In the same breath, I vaulted to Zoey's side. My left foot swept their clothes across the floor and kicked them deep under the bed.

I braced my right foot against the mattress. Both hands plunged into Zoey's hair. I yanked her backward with everything I had. She spent hours maintaining that hair.

It was her pride and joy. Thick. Long. The absolute perfect grip. She orchestrated this entire setup. She got to face the karma first.

I twisted my wrists, wrapping her hair around my knuckles to tighten my hold. I raised my hand. I slapped her stillflushed face ten times in a row. My palm stung. I switched hands.

Ten more slaps. The movements flowed out of me in one smooth, violent sequence, like it was coded into my DNA. Zoey was halfway off the bed. Her fake, seductive charm evaporated.

She stared up at me in sheer terror, suspended in the air, making an endless string of pathetic sputtering noises as she gasped for breath.

During all those sleepless nights of emotional torment in my past life, I regretted my cool exit a thousand times. Why didn't I humiliate them right then and there?

Why didn't I expose their filthy secret to the world? I had played this exact scene in my head over and over. Nothing beat the pure release of slapping faces and pulling hair.

When my scream finally drew the crowd upstairs, this was the exact scene they walked in on. I was playing a brutal game of tugofwar with Zoey's hair.

Zoey, stripped bare, had a death grip on the blanket, refusing to let go.

Julian was clutching his burnt face with one hand, his other hand desperately yanking the opposite end of the blanket to cover his own naked body.

The three of us were locked in a bizarre, pathetic stalemate. The crowd in the doorway stood frozen. A bunch of our friends had booked this Airbnb for a weekend getaway.

I had work and was supposed to arrive tomorrow. But Zoey had called me, claiming Julian was drunk, so I changed my plans and drove over through the night.

Now, her face swollen like a pig, Zoey mumbled a desperate plea through bruised lips. "Help… help me!" No one moved. Everyone just stared at her with unfiltered disgust.

It wasn't like this last time. In my past life, they didn't see the actual cheating. They only pieced it together from our expressions and a few vague words later.

Seeing it live was entirely different. The visual impact hit harder. The sheer grossness couldn't be ignored.

In fact, years later in my previous life, when Julian's business blew up and Zoey became a rich housewife, those same friends had sighed in awe: You guys proved that true love conquers all! "Stella… please… calm down…" Julian's voice trembled.

His entire head and neck were beet red. His handsome face was now covered in patches of shiny, rising blisters. His hair was literally steaming. He looked like a boiled shrimp.

I remembered the day I met him. Zoey and I had planned to meet at a coffee shop. She was late. I opened my laptop to work on my graduation project while I waited.

Julian had been sitting at the next table. He smiled at me. Chapter 4 "Are you a design student too?" Zoey had been ten minutes late that day.

Julian and I talked until we were the only two people in the room. When Zoey finally arrived, I missed the hunger in her eyes when she looked at him.

Julian was an art gallery designer. Everyone saw him as gentle, kind, and talented. He was the sensitive type.

His heart was so soft he always kept cat food in his pockets for strays. But his heart was a little too soft.

In my past life, he fell to his knees in front of me, crying and begging for forgiveness. He claimed Zoey had gotten drunk and confessed her feelings.

She told him she had harbored a crush on him for years, even saving herself for him. She cried, saying she didn't want to steal him. She just wanted him once.

He said he rejected her over and over. But when he realized she was suicidal, he caved. Back then, the story made me physically sick.

I just wanted to get as far away from these two disgusting people as possible. Within a month, I split our assets and filed for divorce.

Right now, I only hated that I had just two hands. I couldn't reach over, grab his face, and pop every single blister on his skin. But I couldn't rush this.

Zoey was trapped right now. If she ran, I might not get another chance. And Julian had to come home with me. "Calm down?" I gritted my teeth, glaring at him.

His blistered face flushed deeper. His eyelashes trembled. Shame dripped from his voice. "Stella, please let her go first. "Just let us put some clothes on.

I'm begging you." I let out a cold laugh. "You want to play the hero? Fine. Zoey and I made a pact once. "If either of us ever betrayed the other, the traitor gets thirty slaps.

I just gave her twenty. My hands are tired.

You give her the last ten. "Once you're done, I'll let her go." Julian shook his head frantically. "Stella, I'm not trying to play hero—" "Just do it," Zoey sobbed, cutting him off. "I seduced Julian!

I drugged him! I'm cheap and shameless! "I'm a homewrecker! It has nothing to do with him! Just hit me!

My stomach… my back can't take this anymore!" Her voice was desperate and pitiful.

She was playing the victim for Julian, but she genuinely couldn't hold this halfsuspended position much longer. After all, she was carrying twins right now.

Our friends were still crammed in the doorway. A few of them muttered weak protests. "Don't do anything crazy." "Let's talk this out." But no one stepped forward.

They just watched the show with wide eyes. I thought Julian would hesitate. He was supposed to be kind and softhearted.

But the second Zoey finished speaking, he wrapped the blanket tighter around himself and shuffled over to her.

Then, the sharp, crisp sound of skin slapping skin echoed through the room. One of the slaps landed a bit too soft. I frowned. Julian immediately hit her harder.

Blood splattered from Zoey's nose. A flash of shock and genuine hurt crossed her face. But she had planned this for a long time. She knew exactly what she wanted.

Now she was paying the price. After the tenth slap, she looked up at a panting Julian.

Her face was swollen beyond recognition, but she still managed to force a smile. "I don't blame you." She mumbled through broken lips, staring at him like they were starcrossed lovers being tortured by a villain.

But Julian just looked away. Two seconds later, his trembling eyes found mine. "Stella. Is that enough?" I stared back at him. My face was dead cold.

Chapter 5 "Of course not," I said. "You handed me this disgusting cuckold label. If I only hit the homewrecker and not you, people will call me a pickme.

They will say I only attack other women." Julian nodded instantly. He squeezed his eyes shut, tilted his face up, and put on a pained voice. "Stella, do it.

I just want you to let your anger out. "Then we can go home and talk." I stared at the shiny, swollen blisters on his face.

They looked like they would burst with unidentified fluids if I even grazed them. I changed my mind. I looked down at Zoey. "You do it." Shock flashed across her face.

She shook her head. "No. No!" Julian suddenly roared. "Hurry up! Do it! Anything is better than this!" So, from an incredibly awkward angle, Zoey began slapping him.

Her face was a mask of misery. "Are you two flirting?" I asked. Julian clenched his teeth. "Harder!" When Zoey pulled her hand back, I saw the sticky, cloudy fluid coating her palm.

The ugly farce finally ended with Julian wrapped in a blanket and Zoey draped in a bedsheet. They crawled on the floor, fishing their clothes out from under the bed.

My rage meter was finally ten percent empty. Going crazy was just going crazy. It just let out the toxic resentment I swallowed in my past life because I wanted to look cool.

But I finally got a second chance at life. I could not just throw a tantrum. Who cared about a little embarrassment today? People would forget soon enough.

Julian was an independent designer. He had deep roots in the art industry, real talent, and a solid portfolio. A cheating scandal would not ruin him.

It would just become another spicy rumor attached to his name. I knew Julian. The thing he cared about most in this world was his career.

In my past life, an art investment group backed him. He secured angel funding, built his business, and became a multimillionaire. Zoey morphed into a wealthy socialite.

Right now, the exact design proposal he used to get that funding was already in the works. Before I caught him cheating, we used to discuss concepts and ideas all the time.

I even helped him design some of the specific layouts. I could still be a strong independent woman. But I could not be a stupid one.

Acting unfazed and walking away was just surfacelevel acting. A real strong independent woman uses every available resource to her advantage.

She uses her enemies' momentum to build her own empire. She makes sure she is the one standing at the absolute top. I was going to rewrite destiny.

I was going to rewrite Julian's destiny. I was going to rewrite Zoey's destiny. I was going to rewrite mine! Julian kneeled in front of me for three straight days.

One evening, I stared out the window and let out a long sigh. I looked at him with sad, wronged eyes. "Do your knees hurt?" He froze in disbelief. Pure joy lit up his face.

His voice trembled. "Yes. "Stella, are you finally willing to talk to me?" That night, he kept repeating how much he loved me.

He claimed he only pitied Zoey, that he got too close to her out of sympathy and gave her an opening.

I forced my eyes to turn red. "Did she really drug you before you slept with her?" He nodded without a second of hesitation. "Yes." I stayed quiet for a few seconds. "I am going to quit my job.

What you two did ruined my faith in marriage and love. I cannot face couples who are dreaming about their weddings anymore." Julian looked devastated.

He lowered his voice. "This is all my fault. But it is okay. "I will take care of you. I have been talking to an investment group recently.

I know I will succeed." I looked at him and spoke slowly.

Chapter 6 "But I do not want to throw away my design skills," I said. "If I cannot do weddings, bring me into your industry." His eyes lit up. "No problem!

Stella, I will teach you everything. We can build a business together as a married couple. "We will share the success.

It will be amazing!" I lowered my eyes. "Okay." The very next day, he transferred all his design materials and notes to my computer. He started drafting lesson plans just for me.

Like I said, he was highly talented. During the day, he juggled his work and took over all the household chores.

At night, he poured his heart out, teaching me everything he knew without holding a single thing back. We slept in separate rooms.

He played the understanding husband. "That is okay, Stella," he told me with a relaxed smile. "I believe one day, you will completely open your heart to me again." Meanwhile, I did not forget about Zoey.

She worked as a public kindergarten teacher. I took the audio I recorded from the day I caught them in bed. I paid someone to remix her exact words into a catchy beat.

Then I hired a guy to blast it on a loudspeaker outside her school on an endless loop. [I seduced Julian! I drugged him! I am cheap and shameless!

I am Zoey and I am a shameless homewrecker!] The track was upbeat. An absolute earworm. Anyone who heard it once could sing along.

A massive crowd of parents gathered at the front gates before dismissal. They gossiped and hummed the tune with heavy interest. The music only cut off when the kids walked out.

Zoey sneaked out through the back door. She was staying at her parents' neighborhood. A second loudspeaker was blasting the exact same track right outside their building.

Her parents were furious enough to call the cops, but she stopped them. I knew what she was doing. She was enduring it. She was laying low. Because she still had a trump card.

Julian was Catholic. He had stated multiple times in front of our friends that life was sacred and abortion was a mortal sin.

Right before my fatal car crash in my past life, a highly successful Julian came to see me. By then, I was a depressed shell of myself. I had lost a ton of weight.

I coldly told him to get lost. He just smiled, unfazed.

He handed me a bank card with the calm, steady tone of a superior. "Stella, no matter what, I still love you," he had said. "I want to share my success with you.

But Zoey gave me a son and a daughter. I cannot let my own flesh and blood grow up without their biological mother. "I know you are struggling financially right now.

I can buy you another house. I have to go back and spend the weekends with the kids, but I can make time to be with you during the week." I chased him out of my place with a mop.

Looking back, Zoey was incredibly calculated. She must have known she could not lock Julian down purely on her own merit, so she targeted his ultimate weakness. Kids.

One day, I came home from running errands. I found Zoey sitting on my living room couch. Julian stood next to her. His brows were knit tight, letting out heavy sighs.

The second I walked through the door, Zoey slapped on a look of sheer panic. I did not waste a single breath. I lunged forward to rip her apart.

Julian grabbed my arm, holding me back. He stared at me with an agonizing expression for a long time.

He finally gritted his teeth and spat it out. "She is pregnant with my baby!" Zoey choked back a fake sob. "Stella, I am so sorry. I had no other choice but to come here.

He is the father. "It is only right that I let him know." I turned to Julian. "You believe her?" Julian lowered his head. "I do," he muttered. "Why?" His face flushed a deep, ugly red. "When she and I slept together the first time… she was a virgin.

I could… feel it." Chapter 7 Zoey suddenly dropped to her knees with a heavy thud.

Tears spilled down her cheeks as she raised a hand to the ceiling, swearing to the heavens. "Stella, we were best friends.

You know I have never dated anyone in my life. "If this baby is not Julian's, may I rot in hell in my next life." She stared up at me.

Naked provocation and cold calculation gleamed in her eyes. I knew exactly what she was doing. She was baiting me.

She was waiting for me to break down, flip the table, and scream for a divorce.

The fact that I had not instantly divorced Julian after catching them in bed must have shocked and confused her.

So she laid low for a while, biding her time before playing her trump card. She must have thought the Stella she knew could never tolerate her husband having illegitimate children.

Julian froze for a second. Then, slowly, he dropped to his knees right beside her. "Stella, I am begging you.

I will transfer every single asset I own, premarital and postmarital, entirely into your name. "Please, just let these two innocent little lives stay." I looked down at the two of them kneeling on my floor.

I stayed silent for a long moment.

Then, I buried my face in my hands and forced my voice to crack with sheer agony. "I am not a vicious, heartless person. "Since things have already reached this point, then…" "Let her have the babies