His Cruel Game, Her Perfect Escape

On the first anniversary of our reconciliation, I thought my tech mogul husband and I had finally turned a corner. Then I discovered our entire marriage was a spectator sport. It was a cruel, year-long revenge game orchestrated by him and his lover, and I was the punchline.

For their amusement, I was poisoned with food contaminated with dog feces, publicly humiliated with a twenty-million-dollar auction scam, and beaten until my ribs broke by his family's private security. I endured it all, playing the part of the clueless, loving wife while they laughed about it in a group chat called "The Jillian Andrews Comedy Hour."

But their grand finale was a step too far. I overheard him calmly planning to leave me to die in a remote cabin during a blizzard, a "tragic accident" that would finally set him free to be with his mistress.

He thought he was writing the final chapter of my life.

He didn't know I was about to use his murder plot as my own perfect escape. I faked my death, vanished into thin air, and left him to explain to the world how his beloved wife disappeared off the face of the earth.

Chapter 1

Jillian Andrews POV:

It was the first anniversary of our reconciliation, the day I found out my entire marriage was a spectator sport and my husband was selling tickets to the bloodbath.

I had spent the afternoon preparing for a surprise, a quiet, romantic dinner just for the two of us. I bought the expensive candles, the ones that smelled like sandalwood and rain. I even attempted to cook his favorite dish, Coq au Vin, a recipe that had defeated me twice before.

The scent of simmering wine and herbs filled our sterile, white-on-white penthouse apartment, a space that always felt more like Alex' s showroom than our home. I smoothed down my dress, a simple silk slip the color of a summer sky, and checked my reflection.

My hair was pulled back, my face was flushed with anticipation. For the first time in a long, long time, I felt a flutter of hope, a fragile belief that maybe we had finally turned a corner. That the man I had reconciled with, the tech mogul Alex Bradley, was truly the man who had begged me to come back, tears in his impossibly blue eyes.

He was late.

Of course, he was late. Alex Bradley ran on his own time, a clock set to the rhythm of multi-billion-dollar deals and global market shifts. I told myself it was fine. It gave me more time to get everything perfect.

I was refilling his wine glass when his laptop, left carelessly on the marble kitchen island, pinged. A notification lit up the dark screen. It was a group chat. The name was "The Jillian Andrews Comedy Hour."

My hand froze, the bottle of Cabernet hovering over the glass. My heart didn't sink. It didn't drop. It simply stopped, a cold, hard stone in my chest.

My fingers trembled as I reached out and tapped the screen. The laptop wasn't password-protected. Alex never believed in secrets, at least not from himself.

The chat was a waterfall of messages, a torrent of cruelty disguised as wit. The participants were Alex, his lover Charlotte Burgess, and their circle of vapid, wealthy friends.

Charlotte: Is she still waiting? God, the patience on that one. It' s almost admirable.

A friend, Marco: Picture it: Little Jillian, standing over her burnt chicken, face full of hope. Alex, you have to get a picture for us!

Alex: On my way now. Had to pick up Charlotte' s anniversary present first. Don't worry, I' ll play my part. She' ll get her romantic evening.

A string of laughing emojis followed his message.

But it was the message that followed that sucked the air from my lungs.

Charlotte: And for the main event? Did you get the necklace? The Bradley Star?

Alex: Of course. Eleanor is giving it to you tonight at your party. It's time everyone knew who the real Mrs. Bradley is.

The Bradley Star. The sapphire necklace that had been passed down through generations of Bradley wives. The one Alex' s grandmother, the formidable matriarch Eleanor Bradley, had refused to give me, even on our first wedding day. She had deemed me unworthy. And now, she was giving it to Charlotte. At a party. Tonight.

This wasn't just about a necklace. It was a coronation. And my romantic dinner, our anniversary, was nothing but the pre-show entertainment.

A disembodied voice in the chat, someone I didn't recognize, typed, It' s been a whole year of this, hasn' t it? I have to hand it to you, Alex. The long con. Bringing her back just to tear her down piece by piece for what she did to Charlotte at that gallery opening... it' s diabolical. I love it.

The words blurred. A year. A whole year.

My mind reeled back, a dizzying spiral through the past twelve months. His tearful apologies, his promises of change, his relentless pursuit after our separation. He had worn me down with what I thought was remorse. What I thought was love.

It was all a game. A cruel, elaborate piece of performance art designed to humiliate me for Charlotte's amusement. Revenge for a minor social scandal I had inadvertently caused years ago, a slip of the tongue that had briefly embarrassed Charlotte. This was my punishment.

I was their jester. My pain was their punchline.

My blood ran cold. The warmth from the oven, the scent of the wine, the soft silk of my dress-it all became a grotesque parody. I looked around the pristine apartment, at the life I thought I was rebuilding, and saw it for what it was: a stage. And I was the fool, dancing on command.

A new kind of feeling, something harder and sharper than grief, began to crystallize in my gut. It was a cold, quiet rage.

They wanted a show? They wanted a grand finale?

Fine. I would give them one.

My fingers, no longer trembling, moved with a strange, new purpose. I picked up my own phone, my hands steady. I opened a secure browser and typed in a name I had seen once on a dark corner of the internet, a name whispered about by people who needed to vanish. "The Delphi Agency: We Make Ghosts."

A simple contact form appeared on the screen.

I made the call. A calm, professional voice answered on the first ring.

"Delphi. How can we help you disappear?"

"I need to stage a death," I said, my voice eerily calm. "A convincing one."

There was a pause on the other end, then, "We can arrange that. It will be expensive."

"Money is not an issue," I lied. But I knew where to get it. I knew all of Alex's financial weak spots, the accounts he thought I was too stupid to understand.

After the call, I walked over to the large calendar hanging in our kitchen. It was a beautiful, custom-made piece, a gift from me to him, with my own artwork decorating each month. My fingers traced the dates, counting. The plan would take time. Precision.

I circled a date three months from now in a blood-red pen.

Just then, the sound of a key in the lock echoed through the apartment. My heart leaped into my throat, but I forced it back down. I shoved his laptop closed, my face a carefully constructed mask of placid affection.

Alex walked in, a bouquet of my favorite white roses in one hand and a bottle of champagne in the other. He smiled, his perfect, charismatic smile that had charmed magazine covers and boardrooms alike.

"Happy anniversary, my love," he said, his voice a low, warm hum that used to make my knees weak. He wrapped his free arm around my waist, pulling me into him. "Sorry I'm late. I was held up."

I leaned into his embrace, letting myself feel the false warmth of his body one last time. It felt like hugging a statue. Cold, hard, and empty.

"You smell incredible," he murmured into my hair. "Everything looks perfect."

His acting was flawless. Not a flicker of deception in his eyes. He looked at me with such adoration, such tenderness. A year ago, I would have melted. Tonight, I saw the strings. I saw the puppeteer.

I had been so stupid. So willing to believe in his redemption, to believe that his grand gestures and desperate pleas were born of love. He had pursued me for six months after our first split, a relentless campaign of flowers, letters, and public declarations. I thought it was the epic romance I had always dreamed of.

It was just the opening act of a tragedy, and I was the only one who didn't have the script.

I pulled back, forcing a smile. "I was just getting everything ready."

His eyes drifted to the calendar on the wall. He pointed to the red circle. "What's this? Another special day I should know about?" he asked, his tone light and playful.

I looked at the date, then back at him, my smile widening just a fraction. "It's a surprise," I said, my voice sweet as poison. "For you."

A genuine flicker of curiosity crossed his face. He loved surprises, as long as he was the one in control of them. "Oh? I can't wait."

He leaned down and kissed me, a soft, lingering kiss that tasted of lies. He stroked my cheek, his thumb brushing away a tear I hadn't realized had escaped.

"What's this?" he asked, his brow furrowed with fake concern.

"Just... happy," I whispered, the word a bitter pill on my tongue. "I'm just so happy, Alex."

He smiled, that devastatingly handsome, utterly empty smile. "Me too, Jillian. Me too."

As he popped the cork on the champagne, the celebratory sound echoing in the silent apartment, I felt a profound, chilling certainty. The man I loved was already a ghost. And soon, I would be one too.