The Day My Father-In-Law Was Cremated, My Wife Cheated—Then I Revealed I Was a Rich Heir

The only dying wish of my mentor was to see Maya one last time before he died. But when I saw her and her old flame out enjoying themselves, not caring at all about her father’s life or death at home. My first reaction wasn’t to storm over and demand an explanation, or to make a scene and drag her back. Instead, I thought: I want a divorce. So when Maya called to explain, I was still drowning in pain and couldn’t pull myself out of it, and I didn’t care what she was saying. “Ethan, listen to me. It wasn’t on purpose that I didn’t come back. I was busy with work. Besides, now that Dad is dead, isn’t it enough for someone at home to handle things? Why do I have to be there?” “Do you really want to fight all the way to divorce over a dead man?” My heart trembled unconsciously, and it hurt. “Maya! Do you even have a heart? That’s your own father. How could you say something like that?” “You know that’s my own father, not yours. What exactly are you making a scene about?” She had said she would come back; she had said she wanted to send Dad off on his last journey. But what happened? “I waited for you in the cemetery for a day and a night.” There was silence on the other end for a long time, then I heard the sound of someone getting dressed. “Are you crazy? You stood there holding an urn for that long?” In truth, the reason I could wait that long wasn’t only because of Maya’s words, but also because of my mentor. He never got to see his daughter one last time before he died. I wanted his own daughter to send him off personally when he was buried. “Wait there. I’m coming now.” She even muttered before hanging up, “Seriously, burying a dead man is such a hassle.” I heard that and my heart went cold. I couldn’t understand how someone could treat her own father like that. My mentor had loved her so much! I waited in the cemetery for more than two hours, but still didn’t see Maya show up. In the end, I had no choice but to settle things for my mentor myself and take a cab home. After I got home, I collapsed weakly onto the sofa. I hadn’t eaten or slept for a day and a night, and by then I was exhausted. Just then my phone dinged again. It was another update from Maya’s old flame. The caption said: My baby worked hard; these past few days you’ve been staying up all night helping me revise the proposal. Maya even replied under it without any restraint: Not hard at all, it’s what I should do! But that post only lasted a few minutes in my feed before disappearing. I didn’t bother with it anymore, took a random shower, and went to bed. Just as I had fallen asleep for a little while, the bedroom door was shoved open hard, and the loud bang startled me. Before I could react, my blanket had already fallen to the floor. What I saw was Maya’s angry face. “Ethan, are you sick in the head? You called me to the cemetery and then left first.” “Do you know how terrifying it is for a girl in a place like that? Were you doing it on purpose to screw me over?” “I spent hours looking for you there, and only came back this late.” “The second I got home, I saw you lying in bed asleep! Why didn’t you at least make something to eat and wait for me?” I looked at her furious expression. She had said so much, and everything was blaming me, not a single word about my mentor. It was as if the person who died had nothing to do with her. I said sarcastically, “Are you a starving ghost? What, Mark couldn’t even fill you up? Looks like he’s not much either.” “What do you mean by that, Ethan?”I sprang up from the bed and stood in front of her. “What do I mean? Don’t you know?” “I told you, Mark and I are just friends. Why do you have to twist everything I do?” “And my dad’s death wasn’t caused by me. I know your father was kind to me, but life and death are just part of life. You should let it go. Why blame my dad’s death on me?” Maya pointed at me and cursed me out. As she lifted her sleeve in front of me, I clearly smelled men’s cologne coming off her. That smell kept reminding me that just moments ago, Maya had probably been tossing around on a bed with another man, looking all worked up. I shoved her hand away and said through clenched teeth, “I still haven’t seen any ordinary friend kiss like that.” “Do you have to keep making a big deal out of this today? I think you’re not angry because I didn’t come back to bury Dad, you’re jealous.” “Ethan, you’re almost thirty. Can you stop being so childish?” “Learn from Mark and grow up a little!” “This is ridiculous. What am I supposed to learn from a mistress? Learn from him not knowing how to behave and seducing someone else’s wife, or learn from you sleeping with another man while your own father is being buried!” Slap! Maya slapped me across the face. The air suddenly went dead quiet. I touched the burning pain on my cheek and didn’t want to argue with her anymore. I said softly, “Since your dad is gone, let’s get divorced too.” Maya froze for a long time, disbelief written all over her eyes. In the end, she softened her tone. “Dad just left. Stop making trouble.” I coughed hard, and before I could speak, a pair of cold hands touched my forehead. “Why is it this hot?” She looked a little worried, and without caring whether I wanted it or not, she put my hand on her shoulder and dragged me out. “I’ll take you to the hospital first.” I wanted to refuse, but my head was too heavy and I couldn’t push her away at all. I could only let her drag me into the passenger seat. While Maya was driving, I reached over to the side of the seat to adjust the angle. The moment I lowered my hand, my fingertips suddenly touched something cold. I picked it up and saw it was a watch. Mark’s. I had seen it in one of his posts before. Maya glanced over, and after noticing my expression, she explained, “He probably left it by accident the last time he took a ride with me.” I said nothing and set the watch aside. People rarely lose private belongings like that. There were only two possibilities: either Mark did it on purpose, or they had done something unspeakable in the car and he had taken it off and forgotten to put it back on. Whether it was the first or the second, I didn’t want to dig into it. Just as I closed my eyes and tried to rest again, Maya’s phone rang. Her phone was connected to the car’s Bluetooth, and the two huge words on the screen—“Bro Mark”—were impossible to ignore. “Baby, that loser at your place isn’t keeping you on a short leash, is he? Got time tonight? Let’s go out and have some fun.” Maya immediately cut the Bluetooth and glanced at me casually. “I’m next to him.” “Uh? He’s still glued to you at this hour? Seriously, can you please have a little freedom? You married him, you didn’t sell yourself!” Actually, I really wanted to remind Maya that the person on the other end was talking really loud, so even if she cut the Bluetooth, I could still hear every word clearly. “I’ve got something going on here, I probably...” “Oh come on, Mark is here too, we’re all waiting for you. Worst case, just bring your guy along. I’ve already sent you the location, hurry up and come over!” After that, the other end hung up. Maya opened the location her friend had sent, and I knew she wanted to go. The moment she heard Mark’s name, every decision she made wavered. “Go ahead. Drop me off at the next intersection.” I didn’t want to be around her so-called friends. None of her friends respected me. If I went, all I’d get was mockery and sarcasm. My head was spinning so badly now that I didn’t have the energy to deal with any of it. “What are you throwing a fit about now? My friend asked me to come over, I can’t just refuse. Besides, they all said you could come too. Isn’t that enough respect for you?” “I’m not throwing a fit. They’re your friends, not mine. If you want to go, go by yourself.” “No, you have to come!” “Maya, Dad just died. Do you really think it’s appropriate to be living it up like this?” Maya’s face instantly changed. “You’re bringing up a dead man again. He’s dead, so let him stay buried in the ground. What does the underworld have to do with the world of the living?”“I’m telling you, all my friends know you’re with me right now. You have to come even if you don’t want to! Otherwise it’ll be too embarrassing for me!” Once her temper flared, she wouldn’t listen to anything I said, and she just turned the car around and took me there. By the time we got to the gathering, half an hour had passed. Maya greeted Mark very warmly as soon as she saw him. Even though they saw each other every day, I had no idea what she was pretending for in front of me. They acted like old friends who hadn’t seen each other in years. Soon, Mark’s eyes landed on me. “So this is Ethan, huh? Big and tall, but turns out you’re pretty petty. I knew Maya before you even knew where you were!” “If I really had something with her, we’d already be married. Why would I wait until now?” That didn’t sound like an explanation. It sounded more like he was staking his claim. After that, he ignored me and pulled Maya over to the table. Only after Maya sat down did I realize there wasn’t a seat for me. “Oops, sorry. We didn’t know you were coming, so we didn’t prepare an extra seat.” Didn’t prepare a seat for me? Who knew who had asked Maya to bring me along. I was almost embarrassed for them to hear such a weak excuse. “Why don’t you just take a cab home? Anyway, you’re not interested in our little get-together.” I stood there without moving, and the atmosphere grew awkward for a moment. Seeing that, Lily immediately stood up. “Bro, you don’t look so good. Why don’t you just take my seat for now?” I looked at Lily and suddenly remembered the night we got our marriage license, when she and Maya were chatting in the study. Lily had asked Maya what she saw in me. I had no house, no car, and was worse than Mark in almost every way. How had Maya answered back then? She said, It’s all because that old man in my family stirred things up when Mark and I were fighting. I got mad and just married him! “Honestly, once we got the license, I regretted it. But the old man kept refusing to let me divorce him, so I had no choice but to drag it out.” When I saw her, all those memories came flooding back. I took a breath and said quietly, “I don’t want to settle. Let’s get a divorce, Maya.” Everyone present looked shocked. Back when I was pursuing Maya, it had been a huge, dramatic thing, and they had all seen it. They had all assumed Maya would be the one to dump me first. They never expected I would be the one to bring it up, and in front of so many people at that. Maya shot up from her chair. “Ethan, give you a little color and you’ll start showing off, huh! What kind of crazy talk is this?” As Maya shouted, Lily and the others kept trying to smooth things over. Mark, though, didn’t react much. Instead, he calmly pulled Maya behind him. “Mr. Reed, as a man, making your woman lose face in public isn’t very classy, is it?” “As far as I know, Maya’s dad not only helped you find your footing, he also saved your life. He just passed and you’re already biting the hand that fed you. That’s really not something a gentleman would do.” After Mark said that, Maya’s face looked even worse. “Ethan, have I been too nice to you lately? Is that why you keep talking about divorce every single day without stopping?” “Do you think you can bully me just because my dad died and I have no one to rely on?” “Have you forgotten how you knelt and begged me when I said I wanted a divorce while my dad was still alive?” I ignored her and didn’t want to explain. I turned around and left. The old me loved her so much that I had no self-respect. Not anymore. After I left the clubhouse, I bought some fever medicine at a pharmacy and took a cab straight home. After taking the medicine, I started packing my clothes. Before I married Maya, I had my own small apartment, but in her friends’ eyes, that didn’t even count as a real home. After I finished packing, the sky outside had already turned pale. I contacted a lawyer and asked him to draft a divorce agreement. Right after I hung up, Maya happened to come home. Looking at the piles of boxes on the floor, her tone softened. “I shouldn’t have taken a sick you to the gathering last night. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” “If Dad were still here and saw us fighting like this, he’d definitely be upset too.” “Besides, I can’t take all the blame for getting angry. Bringing up divorce in front of my friends, you didn’t give me any face at all.” Maya wrapped her arm around mine and started acting coy. In the three years since we got married, this was the first time she’d ever acted like this toward me. “Can you go apologize to Mark, please?” I frowned at her. Last night, when I reached the door, Mark suddenly ran over and blocked me, insisting I go back inside and apologize to Maya. I didn’t want to, and he got shoved to the ground by me. Just then Maya rushed out from inside and shouted at me again. I felt awful then. I had a fever and could barely stand, and even if I had reached out to push Mark, I wouldn’t have had much strength at all. There was no way I could have knocked him to the ground. He only did it because he saw Maya running out and was putting on a show for her. I couldn’t be bothered to explain, so I left. Maya didn’t follow. She was probably comforting him there. “Please?” Maya’s words cut off my thoughts. So she was softening up to me because of Mark. But why should I?