The Mute Wife's Silent Revenge

The Mute Wife's Silent Revenge

Our Time

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I haven't spoken a word in three years. As a professional art restorer, I spent my days fixing seventeenth-century Dutch oils and playing the role of the perfect, silent wife to billionaire Arno Rutledge. I thought our marriage was a cold but stable arrangement, a gilded cage I had accepted to keep my father's medical bills paid. That illusion shattered when I found a VIP hospital pass in Arno's suit pocket. Following the trail, I discovered my husband was keeping a woman named Serena on life support in a restricted wing. He wasn't just paying for her care; he was micromanaging her vitals from a tablet like a volatile stock portfolio, obsessed with controlling her every breath while lying to me about late-night board meetings. When I confronted him at the hospital, the mask of the refined businessman slipped. He didn't offer an apology; he offered a violent shove. I crashed into a glass display case, the shards slicing deep into my dominant hand-the hand I used to restore history. As blood pulsed onto the white tiles, Arno didn't even look back. He was too busy cradling the other woman's hand, leaving me to stitch my own mangled flesh together with industrial glue in a public restroom. Back at the penthouse, the nightmare only escalated. When I tried to pack my bags, Arno froze my bank accounts and reminded me that he controlled the ventilator keeping my father alive. He dragged me into my studio, snapped my custom sable brushes in front of my face, and forced himself on me atop my own workbench. "You're an asset, Edlyn," he whispered against my skin. "And right now, you're underperforming." He told me that since my hands were now "broken equipment," I had to find other ways to compensate for my lack of value. He thought he had successfully liquidated my soul, leaving me a hollow shell trapped in his high-rise fortress. But Arno made one fatal mistake. He thinks because I am mute, I am also blind. He thinks because he broke my hand, I have lost my touch. He doesn't realize that a restorer's greatest skill isn't her hands-it's her ability to see the hidden rot beneath the surface. He wants to treat me like a line item on a balance sheet? Fine. I'm about to show him exactly what happens when an asset decides to set the entire portfolio on fire.

Chapter 1 1

Edlyn Booth adjusted the magnification loupe over her eyes, the world narrowing down to a single square inch of canvas. The smell of solvent was sharp in the air, a chemical comfort she had known since childhood. She held the scalpel with a steadiness that defied the tremors in her chest. This was a seventeenth-century Dutch oil painting, and the varnish had yellowed into a sickly amber. Her job was to remove the decay without harming the history beneath. It was the only time she felt in control.

The intercom buzzed, a harsh, electronic intrusion that made her hand freeze mid-air. She exhaled slowly, placed the scalpel on the velvet tray, and tapped the monitor on the wall. It was the concierge, announcing a delivery from Arno's personal assistant.

Send it up, she typed on the keypad. She did not speak. She had not spoken a word in three years.

Moments later, Magda, the housekeeper, bustled in with a garment bag. It was Arno's charcoal suit, the one he had worn yesterday. Magda hung it in the master closet with the reverence due a religious artifact. Edlyn watched from the doorway. Her eyes traced the hem of the jacket. It hung slightly askew. Arno Rutledge did not tolerate asymmetry.

Magda left to start dinner. Edlyn stepped into the closet. The space smelled of cedar and expensive dry cleaning, but underneath, there was a faint, metallic scent. She reached out, her fingers brushing the fine wool. The pocket flap was tucked in, but a corner of white cardstock protruded against the dark fabric.

She held her breath. Her heart hammered against her ribs, a frantic bird trapped in a cage. She pulled the paper out.

It was a visitor pass. Mount Sinai Hospital. VIP Wing. The time stamp read 11:00 PM last night.

Edlyn stared at the small piece of paper. The edges were sharp against her thumb. Last night, Arno had texted her. Board meeting ran late. Don't wait up.

He had lied.

She pulled out her phone, her hands shaking so badly she almost dropped it. She took a photo of the pass and moved it to a hidden, encrypted folder. She slid the pass back into the pocket, exactly as she had found it.

A notification popped up on her screen. An automated email from the nursing home. Payment Overdue. Final Notice.

The air in the closet felt suddenly thin. The walls were closing in. She needed air. She needed answers.

Edlyn grabbed a nondescript gray trench coat and wrapped a scarf around her lower face. She bypassed the elevator that led to the private garage and took the service exit. She walked four blocks before descending into the subway, merging with the anonymous flow of New York City.

The hospital was a fortress of glass and steel. Edlyn kept her head down, her scarf pulled high. She navigated the lobby, blending into the stream of worried relatives and tired staff. The VIP wing was different. The air was cooler, the lighting softer, the silence heavier.

Two men in dark suits stood guard at the double doors. They were not hospital security. They wore the silver lapel pins of Rutledge Global.

Edlyn stopped by a donor plaque, pretending to read the names. Her pulse roared in her ears. A nurse pushed a cart filled with rare, white orchids past the guards. Edlyn turned slightly, her eyes catching the small card tucked into the blooms.

Get well. A.R.

The initials burned into her retinas. Arno never sent flowers. He considered cut flowers a waste of capital.

She waited for the nurse to swipe her badge, then slipped through the closing doors behind the cart, using the bulk of the flowers as a shield. She followed the cart down the corridor. Room 1208.

The door to 1208 was ajar. Edlyn pressed herself into a recessed alcove. Through the gap, she saw machinery. A ventilator hissed rhythmically. There was a team of doctors in white coats, their voices low and urgent. She could not see the patient, only the sheer volume of technology keeping them alive.

One of the Rutledge guards turned his head. His gaze swept the hallway and locked onto her.

Edlyn froze. Her instinct was to run, but her legs felt like lead.

"Excuse me, ma'am," the guard said, stepping forward. "This is a restricted area."

Edlyn pointed to her throat. She opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She made a series of frantic, nonsensical gestures with her hands, mimicking confusion.

The guard frowned, his aggression dampening into annoyance. He assumed she was lost and disabled. He pointed firmly toward the elevators.

"Exit is that way."

Edlyn nodded rapidly, playing the part of the frightened, mute woman. She turned and walked to the elevator, her back prickling with the sensation of being watched. Only when the doors slid shut did she allow herself to gasp for air. She leaned against the cold metal wall, seeing her reflection in the polished steel. Her eyes were wide, terrified.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket.

Come home for dinner.

It was Arno. The command was simple, brutal. He was summoning his asset. Edlyn looked at the message, then up at the floor indicator as it descended. She had seen the truth, or at least the edge of it. Now she had to go home and pretend she was blind.

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And you need to back off. You' re not welcome here." "I' ll go where my fiancée goes," Mark sneered. My father, a man I' d never seen lose his temper, walked up to Mark. "She is not your fiancée here. Here, she is the woman who destroyed my son. Now get off this sacred ground before I have you removed." The air was thick with hate. My quiet funeral had become a battlefield. Chloe stood amidst the shouting, pale and streaked with tears and dirt, clutching a piece of her wedding dress. Mark tried to pull her away. "Chloe, let' s go. We can fix this. We' ll go on our honeymoon, forget any of this ever happened." She shook her head, pulling her arm from his grasp. "No," she whispered, a new, terrible finality in the small word. Sarah stepped between them, deeply exhausted. "You should go, Chloe. He wouldn' t have wanted this. He wouldn' t have wanted to see you like this." The words finally reached Chloe. She looked at my grave one last time, body shaking with a suppressed sob. 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She threw herself into the work, determined to make my last game, "Chloe' s Star," a success. One night, looking for a file, she found a 'Personal' folder. Videos. Candid clips I' d taken. Me and her, years ago, laughing at an arcade. Us pulling an all-nighter in college, arguing playfully. Dozens of them. A hidden library of our friendship. "You saved all these?" she whispered to the empty room, a sad smile. "You nerd." Her phone rang, jarring her. The cemetery caretaker. "Ms. Clark? I' m sorry to bother you so late. But you need to come down. There' s been a problem at Mr. Miller' s grave. It looks like someone tried to… dig it up." Sarah' s car tore through the night, headlights cutting through darkness. Her knuckles white, face a mask of cold fury. At the cemetery, under harsh security lights, the scene was worse than imagined. My grave was torn up. A shovel discarded. And standing there, in the middle of the mess, were two figures: Chloe and Mark. Chloe looked lost, eyes vacant, clothes disheveled. Mark held a second, smaller shovel, his suit rumpled. "What in God' s name do you think you' re doing?" Sarah' s voice was a low growl. Mark had the audacity to look indignant. "We' re paying our respects! Chloe wanted his ashes. We were going to move them to a proper family mausoleum. A place of honor." "A place of honor?" Sarah laughed, harsh and bitter. "You mean a place where you could control his last remains? You think there' s some inheritance, don' t you? You think this struggling game developer was secretly a millionaire, and you want to get your hands on it." Her furious gaze turned to Chloe. "And you. I almost felt sorry for you. I almost thought you understood. But this? To do this with him? How could you?" Chloe shook her head, muttering, "I had to… I had to have him near me." That was the last straw for Sarah' s promise. "You want to know about honor, Chloe?" Sarah' s voice trembled with rage. "You want to know about the man you threw away? Let me tell you about him." She stepped closer. "Two years ago, your father' s company was about to collapse. A mysterious benefactor paid off all his debts. Anonymously. Do you know who that was, Chloe?" Chloe just stared, confused. "It was Ethan," Sarah said, words landing like hammer blows. "He sold everything his grandparents left him. Every last cent. That was the 'failed investment' he told you about. He chose to look like a failure in your eyes rather than let you see your family' s shame. That' s the money you accused him of wasting. That' s the man you said was holding you back." Color drained from Chloe' s face. Vacant eyes replaced by dawning, soul-crushing horror. "No," she whispered. "No, that' s not true." "It is true," Sarah said, relentless. "And you want to know about the man you chose instead?" She pulled out her phone. "I did some digging after the funeral, Mark. You' re not as careful as you think you are." She turned the screen to Chloe. Photos. Mark, kissing another woman. Screenshots of damning texts from before the wedding. Chloe looked from the phone to Mark. The final piece of her shattered world crumbled. "You…" she whispered, a strangled gasp. She launched herself at him, grief and rage finding a target. She beat at his chest, screaming. Mark, shocked, shoved her hard. "Get off me, you crazy bitch!" Chloe stumbled backward, her heel catching on the disturbed earth around my grave. She fell, her head hitting the corner of my granite headstone with a sickening, final crack. She lay still. A dark pool spread from her head. Mark stared, panicked. Sarah screamed. In the ensuing chaos of sirens and flashing lights, I felt my purpose fade. The truth was out. My legacy safe with Sarah. My name cleared. As they covered Chloe' s body, just as they had covered mine, I felt a lightness. The pain, love, betrayal-all dissolved into the cool night air. My game, "Chloe' s Star," released by Sarah, became a global sensation. My name, a symbol of a legacy that triumphed in death. And me? I was finally at peace. I turned from the living, from the wreckage, and faded into the quiet, starlit darkness.

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Rain hammered against the asphalt as my sedan spun violently into the guardrail on the I-95. Blood trickled down my temple, stinging my eyes, while the rhythmic slap of the windshield wipers mocked my panic. Trembling, I dialed my husband, Clive. His executive assistant answered instead, his voice professional and utterly cold. "Mr. Wilson says to stop the theatrics. He said, and I quote, 'Hang up. Tell her I don’t have time for her emotional blackmail tonight.'" The line went dead while I was still trapped in the wreckage. At the hospital, I watched the news footage of Clive wrapping his jacket around his "fragile" ex-girlfriend, Angelena, shielding her from the storm I was currently bleeding in. When I returned to our penthouse, I found a prenatal ultrasound in his suit pocket, dated the day he claimed to be on a business trip. Instead of an apology, Clive met me with a sneer. He told me I was nothing but an "expensive decoration" his father bought to make him look stable. He froze my bank accounts and cut off my cards, waiting for the hunger to drive me back to his feet. I stared at the man I had loved for four years, realizing he didn't just want a wife; he wanted a prop he could switch off. He thought he could starve me into submission while he played father to another woman's child. But Clive forgot one thing. Before I was his trophy wife, I was Starfall—the legendary voice actress who vanished at the height of her fame. "I'm not jealous, Clive. I'm done." I grabbed my old microphone and walked out. I’m not just leaving him; I’m taking the lead role in the biggest saga in Hollywood—the one Angelena is desperate for. This time, the "decoration" is going to burn his world down.

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