The Fake Wife's Spectacular Genius Comeback

For five long years, Chloe Hayes had endured the grueling torture of fertility treatments just to give her husband a child. Her abdomen was still covered in mottled, purple bruises from endless ovulation injections.

However, before she could even share the joy of her long-awaited pregnancy, she found herself in the hospital, watching her husband gently caress another woman's belly.

"Honey, do you think our baby will look like you or me?" Chloe stood frozen behind a frosted glass partition, watching as a woman just a few feet away wrapped her arms around her husband, Julian Sterling's neck, pouting coquettishly as if they were the only two people in the world.

Seeing the woman's face clearly, Chloe's eyes instantly burned red.

It was Isabelle Vance, the daughter of Julian's business partner. She was only twenty years old, a full ten years younger than Julian.

Julian's voice carried a doting affection that Chloe hadn't heard in years. "Like you, of course. That way, the baby will be absolutely adorable."

The two walked right past the corner where Chloe was hiding, completely oblivious to her presence.

Chloe clenched her fists so tightly that her perfectly manicured nails dug deep into her palms, breaking the skin, yet she felt no physical pain. The betrayal hit her chest like a heavy sledgehammer.

For the past half-month, Julian had used the excuse of being on a "business trip." Every night, they would video call, and she would listen to him talk about how much he missed her. In reality, he had been playing house with another woman this entire time.

And she, like a fool, had believed him. To give this liar a child, she had endured countless needles and the endless agony of hormonal imbalances.

"Excuse me, ma'am? We cannot create a prenatal file with the documents you provided."

The voice of the receptionist pulled Chloe's thoughts back to reality. She had come to the hospital alone today to confirm her pregnancy and set up a file.

"Why not?" Chloe's voice trembled slightly.

"Because your husband is already registered in our maternity system with another woman. Are you sure the marriage certificate and your husband's ID information you provided are correct?"

A suffocating wave of humiliation and shock crashed over her. Chloe suddenly felt the world spinning, and a cold sweat instantly soaked her back. She had just witnessed the scene with her own eyes, but having a stranger puncture the truth still made her feel nauseous.

"How is that possible?" She desperately tried to maintain her last shred of dignity, forcing the words out. "My husband and I have been married for five years, and our relationship has always been great. Did your system make a mistake?"

The nurse looked at her with a complex mix of pity and hesitation. "There is no mistake, ma'am. The ID and marriage certificate information you provided for that gentleman are in our system. Half a month ago, he and his legally registered wife came here to set up a file and had their first prenatal checkup."

Legally registered wife?

The words pierced Chloe's brain like jagged shards of ice. Five years of marriage, five years of agonizing sacrifices, all reduced to a grotesque joke in a matter of seconds. An icy chill seeped into her bones. She wasn't just being cheated on; her entire existence as his wife was a complete lie.

Thirty minutes later, Chloe stood outside a members-only club in SoHo.

Julian's Mercedes was parked right out front. She had followed their car all the way here.

The bouncer blocked her path.

"Members only."

"I'm Julian Sterling's wife."

"You're not on the list."

Chloe smiled. She pulled a stack of hundred-dollar bills from her pocket-money she had originally saved to decorate the nursery-and shoved it directly into the bouncer's palm.

"Am I on the list now?"

The door opened.

The hallway smelled like old leather and expensive whiskey. Laughter spilled from a private room at the end of the corridor.

It was one of Julian's closest friends speaking.

"Bro, you are one lucky bastard. You've got the obedient Chloe at home acting as your free housekeeper, and the romantic, exciting Isabelle on the outside. The best of both worlds, truly enviable!"

Isabelle blushed at the teasing and lowered her head, hiding in Julian's embrace.

Julian held her, glancing lazily at his friends. "Alright, knock it off. Belle is shy; don't tease her."

Another friend lowered his voice and interjected, "But seriously, Julian, when are you going to tell Chloe the truth? Tell her the marriage certificate is fake, and Isabelle is the real Mrs. Sterling?"

Julian scoffed, taking a lazy sip of his whiskey. "Why would I tell her? Chloe can't even get pregnant. My mother and the board would never accept a woman who can't produce an heir as the matriarch of the family."

"Then why keep her around?"

"She's stubborn," Julian sneered. "If I hadn't trapped her with a fake marriage certificate to make her cook and clean for me, she would have run off ages ago. But her personality is extreme. If she finds out about Isabelle and the baby, I'm afraid she might go crazy and hurt them. So it's best to keep her in the dark. It's been five years anyway, and the stupid woman hasn't suspected a thing."

In the shadows outside the door, Chloe's blood instantly ran cold.

All her sorrow vanished in that moment, replaced by a freezing, absolute rage capable of burning everything to the ground.

She pulled out her phone, her fingers surprisingly steady, and dialed a number.

"Hello, this is Chloe Hayes. I need to book a procedure as soon as possible."

"What procedure, ma'am?"

"An abortion."

After hanging up the phone, she heard the people in the private room start playing a drinking game again.

Isabelle lost.

Julian's friends immediately jeered, "Since you lost, you have to accept the punishment! A French kiss with one of the men in the room!"

Through the crack in the door, Chloe watched with cold eyes as Isabelle looked up at Julian shyly.

The next second, Julian pulled Isabelle into his arms without hesitation and kissed her hard on the lips. The two were intimately entwined, kissing passionately as if they couldn't bear to part.

Watching their lips lock, Chloe thought her heart would break. But surprisingly, all she felt was a violent, physical wave of nausea. The filter of "love" that had blinded her for so long completely shattered in that instant. She watched them with the cold, detached scrutiny of someone witnessing a pathetic, cheap comedy.

She suddenly remembered the countless times Julian had sworn that she was the only woman he would ever love, that he would never touch anyone else.

Now, his promises seemed so cheap it was almost laughable.

Chloe didn't spare them another glance and turned away resolutely. Her steps were steady and devoid of any panic. Stepping out of the club, she hailed a cab and headed straight for the City Clerk's Office.

After repeatedly confirming with the staff, her last shred of illusion was shattered: she and Julian Sterling had absolutely no legal marital ties.

Five years ago, right before they were supposed to get their marriage license, Julian used a sudden corporate crisis as an excuse, claiming he couldn't get away. He said he could find a "trusted insider" to handle the paperwork for them.

She had trusted him completely, without the slightest bit of suspicion.

She never imagined that the marriage certificate he handed her was nothing but a forged piece of scrap paper.

Five years of marriage-all fake.

His promises and his love for her-all fake.

Memories flooded her mind. After graduating from college, Chloe had applied for a drug R&D position at Sterling Industries. Julian fell in love with her at first sight and launched a frantic pursuit.

As an advocate of non-marriage, she politely declined. But Julian refused to give up and relentlessly badgered her.

On every important holiday, he would gift her a necklace he claimed to have designed himself. When she suffered from agonizing menstrual cramps, the dignified CEO would personally cook brown sugar and ginger tea for her. The bios of all his social media accounts were changed to the initials of her name.

His dominance and tenderness gradually dismantled the hard walls around her heart, but she still wouldn't easily admit her feelings.

Until later, when the two went skiing in the Swiss Alps and encountered an avalanche. In a matter of life and death, he used his own body to shield her. She remained unscathed, but he ended up in the ICU, in a coma for a whole month.

From then on, she was completely devoted to him, and began to love him with all her might, just as he loved her.

Because she struggled to conceive for a long time, her mother-in-law made things incredibly difficult for her. To keep him from being caught in the middle, she resolutely quit her promising R&D job and focused entirely on preparing for pregnancy. Taking handfuls of pills and getting injections every day, even when the injection sites developed red, swollen, and hard lumps, even when the hormones completely disrupted her endocrine system and subjected her to endless torment, she never once thought of giving up.

When she finally got her wish and conceived a child, full of joy and wanting to share this miracle with him, he repaid her with such a massive "surprise."

She returned to the hospital. The doctor looked at her medical chart, then raised her head to look at her: "Ms. Hayes, are you absolutely sure you don't want the child in your womb?"

"I'm certain," her voice was as cold as ice, devoid of any warmth. "Terminate the pregnancy."

Chloe took her consultation slip and went to pay the fees and undergo the pre-op blood tests.

While she was waiting for the results, her phone vibrated. It was a FaceTime call from Julian.

Staring at the word "Husband" flashing on the screen, Chloe's eyes were as cold as if she were looking at a dead man. Her first instinct was to reject it, but reason told her she couldn't alert the enemy just yet. Taking a deep breath, she buried the monstrous hatred deep within her chest, arranged her features into a flawless mask, and pressed accept.

Julian's handsome face filled the screen. His eyes were, as always, brimming with that perfectly manufactured, deep affection.

"Chloe, sweetie? Why are you at the hospital? Are you feeling unwell?"

Seeing the clinical background behind her, his tone was instantly laced with urgent, convincing concern.

Looking at that face on the screen, Chloe's stomach churned with violent disgust. Just half an hour ago, those exact same lips were passionately kissing another woman, and that same mouth was ruthlessly mocking her as a barren fool. Yet now, he was flawlessly playing the role of the perfect, devoted husband.

When she didn't answer immediately, he assumed she was in too much pain to speak. "Chloe, I'm dropping everything and coming home right now. Just wait for me."

Recalling the atrocious things he had said in the VIP room, Chloe had to dig her nails into her palm to stop herself from reaching through the screen and clawing his eyes out.

But she couldn't let him come. If he found out she was pregnant now, he would undoubtedly use every manipulative tactic to stop the abortion just to keep his "useful asset" under control. She had to keep playing the game.

"You don't need to come," she said, forcing a casual, airy tone, perfectly mimicking her usual self. "I'm fine. I'm just here with Sophie. Her stomach has been acting up again. Focus on your work, don't worry about me."

Sophie was Chloe's best friend. Julian had met her several times.

Hearing it was Sophie, the tension in Julian's shoulders visibly evaporated. He let out a breath of relief.

"Ah, I see," he said, his voice returning to its warm, soothing cadence. "Well, don't tire yourself out, love. It hurts me to see you exhausted. Tell you what, I'll wrap up my business trip early and be home by the weekend. Wait for me."

Chloe sneered inwardly, not believing a single punctuation mark of his garbage. But outwardly, she maintained the facade of the trusting, perfect wife. "Okay. I'll be waiting."

"I love you, Chloe."

The call ended. Chloe went to collect her blood test results and walked into the doctor's office.

The doctor reviewed the report, her brow furrowing deeply. "Ms. Hayes, your uterine lining is extremely thin, which is why it was so difficult for you to conceive in the first place. If we proceed with a surgical termination today, it could cause irreversible damage to the lining. You may never be able to have children again. Knowing this... are you absolutely sure you want to proceed with the surgery?"

Chloe's heart violently seized. Her hand instinctively hovered over her flat stomach.

If she didn't want this child, would she permanently lose her right to be a mother?

The doctor watched her with a sympathetic gaze. "Why don't you take some time to think about it? This is a massive, life-altering decision. Perhaps discuss it with your family."

Chloe lowered her eyes. This tiny speck of life was a miracle she had bought with endless days of agony and thousands of needle pricks.

If she gave up her only chance at motherhood just to erase Julian's existence from her life, she would be punishing herself for his sins. She could effortlessly kick that man out of her world without a second thought, but this child... from now on, this child belonged solely to her. It had absolutely nothing to do with him anymore.

Walking out of the hospital, Chloe looked up at the gray, overcast Manhattan sky, a bitter but resolute smile touching her lips.

Suddenly, a sleek black car sped past, splashing a wave of cold rainwater. Startled, Chloe stumbled backward, her high heels slipping dangerously on the wet pavement.

Just as she was about to take a harsh fall, a large, powerful hand shot out, firmly gripping her waist and pulling her back into safety.

Still reeling from the shock, she looked up and crashed into a pair of stormy, deep gray-blue eyes.

The roar of the city traffic rushed back into her ears. The man's chest was broad and solid, radiating a crisp, cold scent of cedarwood-completely devoid of any sleazy intent. Chloe snapped back to reality and quickly stepped out of his embrace. Whether it was from the near-fall or the intensely aggressive aura the man exuded, her heart skipped a beat. "Thank you."

The man was impossibly tall, his facial features sculpted with razor-sharp precision. He was dressed in a bespoke suit that screamed unimaginable old money. With just one glance, anyone could tell this was a man who sat at the very apex of power, accustomed to absolute control.

Seeing she was steady, the man spoke plainly, his voice calm and completely unbothered. "You're welcome."

His voice was a low, magnetic rumble that vibrated pleasantly in the cold air.

Just then, a respectful voice called out from behind him. "Mr. Pierce, the car is ready. We must leave immediately to catch the next flight."

Alexander Pierce gave Chloe a curt, indifferent nod, extending his long legs as he walked straight toward the waiting extended Rolls-Royce.

His assistant opened the door, and he slid in with effortless grace.

As the car merged smoothly into the traffic, the assistant in the passenger seat spoke up. "Mr. Pierce, we still haven't located the descendant of the legendary pharmacologist Dr. Hayes during this trip to New York. Should we continue the search?"

Alexander pinched the bridge of his nose, a flash of heavy solemnity in his eyes. "Keep looking. Grandmother's neurodegenerative condition is rapidly deteriorating. Only the unpublished experimental formula left behind by the Hayes family can save her."

"Yes, sir."