Too Late,Mr.Billionaire:You're Nothing Now

“I spent three years playing the perfect trophy wife for Adam Payne, the billionaire CEO of Payne Corp. I managed his household, cured his chronic fatigue with custom supplements, and stood silently by his side at every gala, content to be the "boring, silent prop" he wanted. But at the Metropolitan Museum gala, the mask finally slipped. Adam bypassed me on the red carpet to walk in with his "colleague" Karly, while a security guard shoved me aside, telling me that "only talent" was allowed on the carpet. When I finally found my seven-year-old son, Joshua, he didn't run to me. He sprinted past me into Karly's arms, calling her his favorite. "Why is she even here? Dad said she wouldn't come. She's embarrassing," my own son whined, looking at me with the same disdain Adam used at home. Later that night, I accidentally triggered an audio message on Adam's iPad and heard his true voice. "She's just a prop to stabilize the stock price. I don't love her. I never did," Adam told Karly. "Once the patent renewal is signed next month, I'll cut her loose. She won't even know what hit her." I stood in the middle of the crowded ballroom, realizing that my sacrifice-giving up my career as a world-class scientist to be a "nobody" wife-was nothing more than a line item in a merger. I was the engine of his life, yet he treated me like a broken appliance. I didn't scream or cry. I simply pulled off my ten-carat wedding ring, dropped it onto the iPad screen, and walked out into the Manhattan rain. Adam thought he married a trophy, but he forgot that the "Daedalus" enzyme powering his entire company belonged to my family trust. I pulled out a burner phone he didn't know I had and dialed my old chief of operations. "This is Dr. Haley," I said, my voice finally steady. "Revoke all licensing for Payne Corp. It's time to show him what happens when the prop stops supporting the stage."”