The CEO's Convenient Lie

My annual ski trip to Aspen, a much-anticipated escape with my CEO wife, Sophia, was perfectly planned. Then her voice, tight and unfamiliar, claimed a critical server had fried, grounding her to save our flagship game, 'Odyssey,' demanding my understanding and sacrifice. But a shaky Instagram video from Caleb, our eager intern, instantly shattered her fabricated crisis: Sophia, ridiculous in a VR headset, was actually flailing joyfully in Montana, her "work crisis" a lie to promote his personal outreach project. My sarcastic online comment about her "professional" immersive experience ignited instant chaos in the studio Slack, culminating in Sophia's furious call and a scathing lecture about my "privilege" and "embarrassing" her "initiative-taking" intern from a "poor family." As her parents later openly admired the smug Caleb, who brazenly flaunted my cherished Porsche – a symbol of *my* hard-won success she'd gifted *him* – a profound, chilling realization settled: I had been the oblivious architect of a life built entirely on her deceit, a convenient pawn in her meticulously crafted public image. Every belittling remark, every false praise, every personal sacrifice I made for "our" company now twisted into a bitter, humiliating mockery, fueling a quiet, venomous rage. How could she so easily abandon our shared dreams, manipulate my trust so callously, and replace me with such an unqualified, arrogant charlatan, while demanding *I* clean up *his* mess? With a final, defiant "No" echoing in the tense silence, I severed the call, blocked her number, and decided that the abandoned Thanksgiving turkey could rot for all I cared: it was time to ignite a new chapter, free from her destructive shadow.