After Divorce, No Longer Waiting for Him

Chapter 8

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the button-shaped recorder I'd prepared in advance. It was something I'd designed myself during those years I spent by my daughter's side, using my professional skills, not just for work, but to protect her in case anything ever happened while I wasn't around.

River had spoken so brazenly just now because she assumed I wouldn't be able to record anything, especially not while wearing a qipao, and with no phone in sight. What she didn't know was that the moment she walked in, I'd already made up my mind to expose her. And as always, she didn't disappoint.

I turned up the volume on the recorder, letting her voice ring through the room for everyone to hear.

"…I messed with Tom's drink back then, and I'm not even really sick, I've just been faking it."

The silence that followed was deafening.

Tom's expression shifted instantly, rage darkening his features. He let go of her.

Still caught up in her own smug little world, River didn't even realize what had happened until she hit the floor, gasping in shock. She scrambled up, then lunged at me and tried to grab the recorder.

"Amber, you're playing dirty!"

I let out a cold laugh. "No, River. This is called being prepared. Because you never really know if the person standing in front of you is human… or something else entirely."

The entire room, full of society's most polished elites, watched with barely-concealed amusement, as if the scandal unfolding in front of them was some sort of live drama. And there stood River, reduced to a joke, shaking with fury and frustration, yet completely powerless to stop me.

Tom stood frozen for a moment, still reeling. When he finally looked at me, his eyes were filled with guilt.

"Amber…"

"Tom, please, let me explain!" River cried, dragging herself to her knees and clutching at his pant leg. "I only said those things because I was upset. I just love you so much! You were my first love. You said you'd always take care of me, remember?"

Tom's voice was ice. "River, I've only ever seen you as a sister. The woman I love is Amber. You've betrayed me in the worst possible way."

Gone was the warmth he used to show her. All that remained was seething disappointment and fury. River, blindsided, could only cling to him in desperation.

"Tom, please don't leave me, I'll die without you!"

That was the last straw.

Master Carr, whose birthday we were all supposed to be celebrating, clearly had enough of the theatrics. With a wave of his hand, he had River escorted out of the venue.

"Tom! Tom! Please!" she screamed, but he didn't even flinch. He didn't look back. As far as he was concerned, she no longer existed.

Instead, he turned to me, slowly reaching out as if to pull me into his arms.

But I stepped away.

His touch now made my skin crawl. That warmth I used to crave, it disgusted me.

"I'm sorry, Amber," he said quietly. "I was wrong. I really believed you were the one who set me up. I had no idea River was faking everything… and that you had to shoulder all that pain alone."

I looked him dead in the eyes.

"Tom, the person you owe the biggest apology to isn't me."

And with that, I walked away, leaving him standing there with nothing but regret.

The one he truly owed was our daughter.

But she's already gone.

What should've been a perfectly lovely birthday banquet ended in chaos. And after that night, River and her family became the ultimate punchline of the upper-class social scene.