After He Faked His Death, She Unraveled

In our third year of marriage, my wife's kept boy toy decided he wanted to break up with her. He left her nothing but a long, dramatic message and blocked her on every platform before she could respond. [You can't give me what I actually want. I don't want to keep dragging this out with you.] I watched my wife's romantic drama play out with a cold, distant expression. After three years of them breaking up and getting back together more times than I could count, I figured this was nothing new. I expected Elena Sheridan to rush straight to coax him back like always. But this time, she was ice cold about it. "He was just a plaything I kept around for amusement. Now he thinks he can threaten me with a breakup? I’ve clearly indulged him too much." But a month later, the news broke online. He'd jumped from a building. The woman who had always been cold and unfeeling completely fell apart. Chapter 1 It was two in the morning, and Elena Sheridan was still slumped on the balcony, pouring one bottle of wine after another down her throat. Her eyes remained fixed on her chat with Jasper Smith as she muttered: "Be good, Jasper. I was wrong. Come back to me, okay? I'll divorce him right now and be with you. I'll give you the place you deserve, okay?" e words of comfort had already risen to my lips, but I forced them back down. There was a bitterness in my chest I couldn't hide. I was the one who was her lawful husband, and here I was, aching for the woman who cheated on me, and even wanting to comfort her too. "Ugh..." She'd had way too much to drink and hadn't eaten anything all night, so she kept throwing up between swallows. A sour stench of vomit mixed with the reek of alcohol and hung over the balcony. Just like our love, already rotten through. It made me sick to my stomach. The floor was covered in broken glass from bottles she'd smashed without a second thought. When I went to try to calm her down, I ended up cutting myself on the shards. A shard dug deep into my foot. The pain snapped me back to my senses, but I knew it was nothing compared to what she'd put me through these past three years. I didn't force myself to stay. I'd been avoiding her for days anyway. As far as she was concerned, I was the criminal who'd ruined her chance at real happiness. My parents didn't know what was going on between us. When it was time for our family dinner, we still had to play the happy couple and head back to the family estate. On the drive there, I sat beside her like always. "Why wasn't it you who died instead of Jasper? How do you get to walk around so at peace with yourself? If you weren't in the way, why would he have felt desperate enough to break things off?" she said coldly, looking at me like I was her enemy. I took a slow breath and answered flatly, "My condolences. He's already dead. It's all over the news." She looked at me like she wanted to burn me alive with her eyes. I couldn't blame her for hating me. I was the one occupying the position of her husband, the one standing in the way of the man she loved, the reason he jumped. A few days before Jasper jumped, he'd actually come to see me and asked me to file for divorce. I didn't think twice before turning him down. I never imagined he'd tell Elena about it, and now here we were with a suicide on our hands. My cold, distant attitude set her off, and she slapped me across the face without a second thought. "Don't think being an award-winning actor means I can't touch you. I can still bring you down. Whatever you did to Jasper, I'll do the exact same thing to you." I heard she spent days crying at his grave before pulling herself together and turning back into the decisive, formidable businesswoman everyone knew. After that, we barely saw each other. She never came back to the house we shared. And out of nowhere, business deals started falling through, one after another. "Owen, that partner is terminating the contract even though they’ll have to pay the penalty." "Elena is withdrawing her investment unless they replace you as the male lead with some third-rate actor." When I read my agent's messages, I knew exactly what this was. Elena was getting her revenge, settling the score for the man she'd loved in secret. Chapter 2 Elena really did want to destroy me. She was ready to burn everything down, even if it meant taking herself down with me. I didn't want this house anymore. I didn't want any of the awards I'd won for her sake either. Elena and I met in college. I never thought love at first sight would actually happen to someone like me, but it did. A glimpse of her across the library. A chance meeting at some campus event. That was all it took for us to exchange numbers. Our innocent college romance started quietly on a hot afternoon. Everyone around us said we made the perfect couple, and people envied what we had. I always knew there was a real gap between us. I was an orphan, while she was the heir to the Sheridan family fortune. But she kept setting aside her pride for me, repeatedly telling me I deserved every good thing that came my way. She used to squeeze into my tiny rented apartment just to cook for me. In the winter, we'd curl up together and watch movies. Her love warmed me up slowly, until I finally understood I could have someone to love, and that I could be loved too. I just wish that love had stayed mine alone. She ended up giving it to someone else—a third-rate actor named Jasper. It started on an ordinary day of filming. She came to visit me on set, like she always did. Jasper was playing one of the minor supporting characters in that project, and the scene they were shooting that day happened to be his character's tragic, heartbreaking death. Watching him look so fragile and pitiful captured Elena's attentiona, stirring something in her. When the director called cut, Elena was the one who rushed over to help him up, faster than his own assistant. That was how they met. After that, she kept finding him resources under the excuse of mentoring him, and Jasper naturally started meeting up with her, always framing it as gratitude. Elena convinced herself she'd found someone who made her heart race again. She started questioning what she and I had, telling herself that after so many years together, the spark between us had burned out. She thought she'd finally found her muse, and wanted to put that long overdue feeling up on a pedestal. As time passed, she started coming home less and less. At first, she'd still bother explaining herself. Later, she didn't even send a text. I lied to myself and said it was probably nothing serious, just some fun on the side. I tolerated it again and again. Even when I confronted her, I did it carefully, like I was scared of upsetting her. With the Sheridan Group's resources behind him, Jasper's career shot straight up. Within six months, he was closing in on my title as the industry's top actor. People called him the rising star, while I was seen as someone riding out the last of his luck, propped up by Elena. Whatever affection she used to give me, she was now giving double to Jasper. I barely got a chance to see her alone anymore, except in public settings. With Elena's favor behind him, Jasper dropped the humble, cautious act he used to have around me. He didn't look at me like some junior actor eager to learn from a senior anymore. He looked at me like a man who'd already won, full of mockery and defiance. I got angry a few times and tried to push back. Once, I stood in front of Elena's car to stop her from going to see him. I spread my arms and blocked the driveway, convinced she wouldn't just run me down to go chase after some homewrecker. I overestimated exactly how much I still mattered to her. She hit the gas without a second's hesitation, and I barely managed to jump out of the way in time. As I watched her disappear down the road, I knew it wasn't just the car driving away from me. What I never expected was that she'd go even further to protect him, signing him to the very company we'd built together. She gave him the same treatment as me, and in some ways, even better. I stormed into her office one day, ready to demand an explanation. Instead, I found it completely empty. She'd gone to find Jasper instead, without even giving me the chance to speak. Chapter 3 At first, Elena would still admit that she was wrong, that she'd let her feelings wander somewhere they shouldn't have. She'd beg me to forgive her. But over time, that changed. It stopped being a request and became a notification. Every time we fought about it, Jasper would somehow always find a reason to call her away. "Owen, Elena's drunk at a bar and threatening to kill herself. You need to go check on her." In front of other people, she never let me use any term of endearment for her. She wouldn't let me so much as touch her, wouldn't even walk beside me in public. To the outside world, she claimed we had nothing to do with each other. Only a handful of people close to her knew the truth. According to her, it was to protect my career, to avoid rumors. Jasper got the opposite treatment entirely. Elena didn't care who saw them holding hands or his arm around her waist. She didn't even flinch when paparazzi leaked intimate photos of the two of them, as long as it didn't hurt his image. Looking at our marriage certificate, the whole thing felt absurd. I was her legal husband in every sense of the word, yet I was the one being treated like some shameful secret. I felt like a joke, like it didn't matter whether I existed or not. I was the only person on earth who knew I still loved her. I let out a cold laugh and told him, "That's her business. Why come to me?" Because of Jasper, divorce had become the one thing hanging over us, unresolved. I loved Elena too much. Even with her cheating on me, I still couldn't bring myself to end things. But she'd grown to despise me so much that even sitting across from me at dinner made her uncomfortable. She brought up the divorce papers more times than I could count, always over the phone. The reason it was always calls or texts was simple. She was too busy with Jasper to see me in person, let alone actually sit down and talk. The only chance we ever got to be in the same room was at the family estate. During one of those gatherings, I tried to bring up the divorce with her, and her grandmother, Iris Sinclair, overheard us. She was so upset she passed out right there on the spot. Elena looked at me like I was the enemy, like I'd deliberately refused to step aside for the man she loved, like I'd hurt her family on purpose. It was as if she hadn't been the one who had caused all of this. I heard Iris had a long talk with her after she woke up, and Elena started coming home more after that. But there was nothing left for us to say to each other. By that point, I didn't see the point in putting on this one-man show anymore. I needed to face the truth. Whatever we once had was gone. I wasn't selfless enough to keep trailing after her, hoping she'd notice me. I remembered the words that had gotten me into this life in the first place. "Your face is exactly what it takes to become a top actor. It'll help me expand my business into entertainment too." That was all it took for me to give up my dream of starting my own company and dive headfirst into the messy world of show business, just to carve out a path for her. Now that I finally saw things clearly, I wasn't going to waste the rest of my life on this. If a divorce was what she wanted, I'd give it to her. That way, we'd owe each other nothing. My assistant, Zach Brown, was someone I'd rescued from a gang of thugs in an alley behind a bar. He'd stuck with me ever since I entered the industry, and knew exactly how deep my feelings for Elena ran. "Owen, Elena's just lost her head over him for a while. She'll come around and see how good you've been to her. If you walk away now, you're giving up everything you've built. You worked so hard for all of it." He was right. It was just a shame that everything I'd once fought so hard to win for her sake, I didn't want anymore. Elena had no idea I'd already packed my things and moved out of the house. She didn't know I'd signed the divorce papers either. After all, she was too busy mourning the lover who had supposedly taken his own life. Chapter 4 I walked through the house a few times. Three years wasn't a long time, but it had been enough to trap me here. And three years wasn't exactly short either, not with all the memories gathered during that time. I decided to leave with nothing. I'd walked in with my heart overflowing with love, and now I had nothing left, so there was nothing worth taking with me. I stopped at the wall we decorated together, covered in pictures of us from the very start of our relationship. [Our first ride on the Ferris wheel.] [The first time we held hands.] Every one of those photos used to prove how much we loved each other. Now, they were just knives, and each one cut straight into my heart. I was standing there staring at all those memories when Elena walked in, which surprised me. She barely glanced at the wall before she rushed over, tore every photo down, and ripped them apart one by one. When she finished, she turned on me with pure hatred in her eyes. "You actually have the nerve to stand here reminiscing. If it weren't for you, why would Jasper be dead? Come with me. You're going to apologize to him. I want you on your knees in front of him." I stood there quietly and watched her lose control in front of me, just as she had remained unmoved whenever I begged her. Elena gave a signal, and a few large bodyguards stepped into the room. If I refused, they'd drag me out themselves. I tried to escape, but they caught me and dragged me back before I got far. It looked like I had no choice but to accept whatever guilt she'd decided to pin on me. On the drive out to the cemetery, I managed to text Zach without her noticing. Whatever crime she wanted to blame me for, I wasn't going to admit to it. We reached the graveyard, and everything went dead silent. Jasper's memorial portrait seemed to mock me from where it sat. Someone stood off to the side holding up a phone, filming everything at Elena's request. She wanted to destroy me completely, starting with my reputation. She wanted me to bow my head in front of everyone and apologize to Jasper, to give him the justice she thought he deserved. I tipped my head back and laughed. Not hysterically, not out of control. When I looked back at her, there was nothing in my eyes but cold, quiet resolve. She looked genuinely shocked, having never seen me like this before. In front of her, I always played the part of the gentle, considerate husband. "Elena, since you love him this much, let's just get divorced. I've forgiven you time and time again, and you've treated every single one of those times like it was owed to you. Jasper's death has nothing to do with me. He killed himself. That's not on me. "You need to remember something. In this marriage, you're the one who did something wrong. I loved you so much I covered up your affair. I told myself over and over that I'd accept it, that you just didn't love me anymore." Something like guilt flickered across her face for a second, followed immediately by unmistakable rage. I could tell none of what I said had actually reached her. My love for her had stopped mattering to her a long time ago. Why would she care about it now? She used to lean against me and say, "Owen, they say there's no such thing as everlasting love, but I don't believe them. What you and I have, it's exactly that. If I ever do something to hurt you, I want you to walk away and never look back. I want to know what heartbreak actually feels like." Standing in front of that gravestone with her beside me, I thought, 'Now you know what it feels like. Just not because of me leaving.' I ran. I got out of there and climbed into the car Zach was waiting in, and the two of us drove without any real destination in mind. "Owen, you're really leaving without taking anything?" Zach looked at me like his heart was breaking for me.He had witnessed everything I had given to Elena over the past three years. He had even tried to persuade me not to love her so blindly. But back then, my eyes had been filled with Elena, and no one could have stopped me. Chapter 5 There wasn't anything left for me to bring along. The only love I ever had was completely used up by that point. I thought Elena wouldn't take things this far. I thought it really was just some fling, and once she got it out of her system, her heart would finally return to me. It didn't. I sat slumped in the back seat, feeling nothing but exhaustion. I bought a place near the ocean a while back, so I figured I'd stay there for a while. I barely had a few quiet days to myself when Zach came to me with shocking news. Jasper had faked his own death. The whole thing had been a setup he orchestrated against me, meant to drum up publicity and pressure me into stepping aside so he could take my place for good. What he hadn't counted on was me walking away on my own first. According to Zach, Elena already knew Jasper had faked his death but still hadn't found him. She abandoned her work and threw herself into the search, tearing the city apart to find him. When they finally tracked him down in some corner of the city, he was still speaking to her in a wheedling voice. "I knew you loved me, Elena. Don't be mad at me, okay? I just didn't feel secure enough. I wanted to test how you really felt about me." Elena just frowned a little. She didn't scold him at all. Instead, she comforted him. "You know you're the one I love most. How could I ever be mad at you?" It was almost funny, comparing that to how quickly I'd been forgotten when I disappeared. But the funniest part of all was that promise of "forever" she once made me. Zach kept trying to talk me into staying hopeful. "Owen, honestly, I still think Elena has feelings for you somewhere in there. Maybe once she finds out Jasper lied to her, she'll come to her senses." Three years of marriage was a lot to walk away from, and no matter how you looked at it, I was the one losing out by cutting ties. But here was reality. Paparazzi had caught plenty of intimate photos of the two of them. It was never officially announced, but everyone understood exactly what was going on. Anyone who didn't know the truth probably thought I was the villain, some minor supporting character trying to steal the leading man's spot. Love could change in a single instant. Once I knew I was done loving her, there wasn't any point in chasing after what we used to have. She had wanted to force a confession out of me before she even knew the truth. Was I really nothing more than some seasoning in their little love story? I was a person too. I had my own dignity and self-respect. Going back just to keep playing a supporting role in their on-and-off-again romance, being nothing but a stepping stone for the two of them? That wasn't something I was interested in. [I already signed the divorce papers.] When I saw that message from Elena, I actually felt relieved. It meant we were finally done, clean and complete. There was no reason left for me to stay. I told Zach I was moving abroad and rebuilding my career there. I planned on leaving him a good amount of money instead of dragging him along with me, since I had no idea how things would turn out. But no matter what I said, he insisted on staying by my side. I never expected that in the end, he'd be the only person left beside me. My phone's lock screen was still a photo of me and Elena, taken back when we first got together. Some people say love is forever. I always knew that was just a lie people told each other while they were still in love. My parents used to love each other deeply. For as long as I could remember, they had the kind of relationship everyone envied. I used to imagine having something like that for myself one day. But at some point, my dad stopped coming home, and my mom started forgetting to pick me up because she was too busy going on dates. At first, I told myself they were just busy with work. Until one night… I still remember exactly how frantic my dad looked, wiping lipstick off his collar, and how flustered my mom got trying to hide the hickey on her neck. Chapter 6 But neither of them ever explained anything. They just tore into each other with the sharpest words they had, ripping each other's wounds wide open without any mercy. As I hid in my room, that was the moment something inside me broke. Whatever I believed about love, it fell apart right there. The next day, they sat at the breakfast table together like nothing had happened. But I knew the truth. The affection I was seeing now was real, and so was the hatred from the night before. Love and the absence of it could apparently switch places in an instant, with no logic to any of it. I told Elena about all this once. She looked at me like her heart was breaking, wrapped her arms around my waist, and comforted me softly. "Owen, I love you. We're going to be together forever. My love for you will never expire." When she said the word "forever", I believed her in that moment. Around New Year's, the whole city lit up with lights and every family gathered together. But I didn't have a family. I sat alone in my rented apartment, eating some simple meal I threw together for myself. Spending the holiday alone was lonely in a way that was hard to describe. Then, someone knocked on the door. Somehow, I already had a feeling and scrambled to answer it. Elena was standing outside, holding a food container, smiling at me. "You've got me now. I'm not going anywhere." I admit that my heart skipped a beat, even knowing it might all be a lie. That night, we curled up together on the couch and watched TV. As we watched the glamorous celebrities on screen, she turned her head and studied my face carefully with her hand on my cheek. "Owen, you should be a star too." I assumed she was just joking. "I don't have the connections for that. You know how messy the industry is." But she looked at me seriously, no joke in her eyes at all. "You handle looking good on camera. I'll be the one running things behind the scenes. I'll hand you every resource I have and make you the biggest star in the country. Nobody will dare mess with you." Her eyes were practically glowing when she said it. After that, she really did work harder than ever, rising above her siblings until she successfully took over the family business. And just like she promised, she threw everything she had into launching my career. The night we started our film and television company, she had quite a bit to drink. When I carried her home, she kissed me and said, "Owen, let's get married." She had once loved me passionately. That love was real. I've always believed that. But now, I had to accept the truth of not being loved anymore too. When I first started out, my looks got me a decent amount of attention, and I was trending online for a while. On my agent's advice, I made a social media account. The first thing I ever posted was a selfie at home, and my fans immediately started calling me their husband in the comments. Elena saw it and stayed jealous for a while. It took me forever to smooth things over. Looking at the flood of comments of everyone calling me their husband, she said smugly, "Good thing I locked you down first. You're my husband. They can call you that, but they'll never have you for real." That was back when we loved each other the most, back when neither of us could stand the thought of anyone else having the other. Even when I was forced into some fake celebrity couple pairing for publicity, she'd get upset and jealous over it. It was a shame. Whatever sweetness we had back then, it was exactly as bitter now. We got married, but never made it public. I brought up announcing it more than once, and every time, she shut it down, always telling me the same thing. "Owen, you're a public figure. It's not a good time to go public about our marriage. Once you're the top actor in the country, we'll announce it then. I want everyone to know you belong to me." Chapter 7 So, for three years, I stayed quiet and devoted myself entirely to carving out a place for Elena in the entertainment industry. With me in the industry, she gained plenty of connections, resources, and even dirt on her competitors along the way. "Flight C5716 is now boarding..." The boarding announcement cut through my memories. It was time to go. The plane took off, and I watched the city that held way too much heartbreak shrink beneath me. A few months into living abroad, plenty of friends reached out, asking how I was doing. Word that a top actor like me suddenly quit the industry had caused a real stir, trending online for days. As the actual person involved, I honestly didn't care anymore. I ate whatever I wanted and went wherever I pleased. I took Zach around the country and hit every spot worth seeing, splurging on a luxury suite for weeks at a time. We encountered a few fans along the way, and photographs they had taken of me while I was sightseeing occasionally appeared on social media. Zach seemed weighed down during the whole trip, though. He kept thinking I was just faking being happy. "If you're not okay, just say the word and I'll go beat him up for you. Don't hold it in," he said. I looked at him, so worked up on my behalf, and shoved an ice cream cone into his hands instead. "If you already know something's a pile of garbage, would you still step in it on purpose?" He shook his head, a little lost. Beating Jasper up might feel satisfying for a second, but it would only bring more trouble down on us. At first, I'd been angry, bitter even. But now, mostly what I felt was the relief that came with finally seeing everything clearly. Zach wasn't the only one worried I couldn't move past this. An old friend of mine was worried too. We had once been close, but after I got together with Elena, I gradually stopped contacting him in order to keep her happy. [Owen, don't do anything stupid. Once you're done blowing off steam, come back and I'll buy you a drink.] Reading that message warmed something in me. I wrote back. [Once I've made it big, I'll be the one buying.] Elena texted me too, but I never opened it. Probably more questions, more demands. What had happened between my parents was playing out in my own life now. The difference was, I wasn't going to let it end the way theirs did, screaming and tearing each other apart. I kept a shred of dignity for myself instead. That was just how love went sometimes. Nobody needed to keep playing the fool. I guess that was the price of success. One had to be willing to cut ties with the person you loved. Now, I could focus completely on building something for myself. - Getting back into the field I actually knew well, everything fell into place. I caught the wave of the times and rode it all the way to the top, building a company from nothing into a real success. When I eventually returned, I wasn't Owen the actor anymore. I was Owen the entrepreneur. This time, I was coming back to make sure Elena got exactly what she had coming to her. The first time I saw her again after coming home was at a gala. She was wearing a dress I bought her from the first dividend payment I ever earned. I stood at the center of the room while people lined up to talk business with me. Off in a corner of the crowd, I spotted Elena, nowhere near as radiant as she used to be. I glanced at her briefly and looked away. I didn't expect her to push through the crowd and lean in close to quietly ask, "Can we talk?" I frowned and refused, but she just stood there, not moving. People around us started to notice and stare. I finally agreed to step out onto the balcony to talk to her. The wind out there was cold enough to make her shiver. "Owen, you're finally back. I've been looking for you for so long."