Once An Overlooked Housewife, Now A Queen Of Fortune

It was the thirtieth anniversary of Morel Industries.

And yet, as the legal wife of the CEO, Raine could only stand among the crowd like an outsider, watching her husband waltz across the floor with his mistress.

She fought to suppress her anger, forcing herself to stay composed. She was here tonight to solve problems, not create them.

Felix, however, seemed to be enjoying every second as he spun Bianca around, his hand locked around hers. His suit framed the broad lines of his back, a display of raw, animal power. His large palm gripped Bianca's slender waist possessively, as if she belonged to him. His chiseled, marble-like face-normally cold and severe-softened when he looked at his dance partner.

Raine could almost hear the collective sighs from the women nearby-at that moment, it was as if half the panties in the ballroom had spontaneously combusted.

Then Felix bent down and whispered something into Bianca's ear, making her laugh out loud.

Raine's fist tightened again. When she got nervous, she had a habit of digging her nails into her own palm.

Next to Bianca's radiance, Raine was nothing more than a ghost in Felix's world-forever out of reach.

They had been married for three years. Every night, she woke up at three in the morning to iron his shirts for the next day. Felix's obsession with perfection bordered on pathological-if he spotted even the faintest crease, his cold, cutting criticism would send her spiraling. So she ironed them again and again, for two straight hours, until the fabric was crisp enough to satisfy him.

The warm milk before bed, the perfectly ordered closet, the evenly trimmed garden fence-she had taught herself to live like a shadow, never to disturb him, because he hated any trace of a "second presence" in the house. For three years, her existence had been like air-ignored, invisible-yet she still longed for those fleeting moments of happiness when he came home.

But just yesterday morning, while she was grocery shopping, she saved an old man who had stumbled into the street. He had smiled at her and said, "You should see more of the world-it's a beautiful place."

That moment had felt like waking from a long sleep.

She finally understood-she couldn't spend the rest of her life chained to a man who had never loved her.

So when Bianca provoked her earlier today, Raine decided to come anyway-knowing Felix would explode, knowing he would yell.

Her thoughts were broken by a group of women gossiping nearby.

"I'm shocked-I mean, we all knew our CEO was married. But he never brings her to these things," one of them said, her eager eyes glued to Felix and Bianca still dancing. "And now he's letting another woman waltz with him for the opening number."

"That's normal," another woman scoffed. "Everyone knows his marriage was forced by his grandmother. Besides, his wife's supposedly hideous."

"If you were him, you'd lock her up too, wouldn't you?" a third woman added, rolling