The Secret Husband She Traded Away

Back when love felt pure and simple, Chloe was dumped by her first love. Seeing her hit rock bottom, I fell for her without a second thought. I stood by her, helping her crawl out of that heartbreak. Step by step, I stayed with her from her days as a nobody to the height of her success. She became a high-flying CEO, and I gladly stayed in the background to support her. Even when she said we had to keep our marriage a secret so it wouldn't hurt her business, I never complained. Until her first love came back from abroad, and they flaunted their romance openly. Time after time, she handed him the career achievements I had bled for just to build his reputation. And I was expected to take the fall for his endless screw-ups. In the end, I simply refused to play along. She threatened me with divorce. What she didn't know was that a month ago, we had already signed the papers. On our third anniversary, Chloe brought her ex, Lucas, to the private clinic. "Everyone, hold on for a second. I have an important announcement." "This is Lucas, a top plastic surgeon who just returned from abroad. It took a lot of effort to bring him on board, and he will be our new head of plastic surgery. Let's give him a warm welcome." She led the applause, her eyes dripping with affection. The staff looked confused, whispering among themselves. "Lucas? Who's that? Never heard of him." "Yeah, stepping straight into the department head role? Is he Chloe's..." Exchanging meaningful looks, they wore smirk-filled expressions. The intern standing next to me nudged my elbow and lowered his voice. "Dr. Hayes, everyone knows how much you've done for this place. Your stats and your skills speak for themselves. By all rights, that position should be yours. What's going on?" I just shook my head coldly. Once the welcome ended, a few female nurses shifted into gossip mode, whispering near the corner. "Figures. Hard work doesn't beat bedroom work. Did you see the way Chloe looked at him? Her eyes were practically glued to Dr. Vance." "They're definitely not just friends. You could cut the sexual tension with a knife." Their chatter felt like a knife digging straight into my chest, making every breath ache. Chloe and I had been married for three years. Yet she never made our relationship public. Her excuse was always that workplace romances ruined professional boundaries. And a month ago, she had already moved out of our home. That was the exact time Lucas returned. At first, when I caught them coming and going together, she still threw out excuses. "Gavin, you disgust me. Not everyone has your filthy, twisted mind." "We grew up together. What's the big deal if we crash in the same place?" Eventually, she stopped bothering to pretend. She flaunted their time together all over Snapchat. The pictures were bold enough to make anyone blush. Piece by piece, I finally learned the truth: Lucas was the one that got away, the first love she could never get over. Only then did I realize that when Lucas walked away years ago, she used me. Maybe to nurse her broken heart, or maybe just to spite him. And I had foolishly loved her for all those years. I stayed by her side from having nothing to having everything. I handed her the credit and happily worked myself to the bone for her. Even staying her secret husband, I never uttered a word of complaint. Turns out, the joke was on me the whole time. Chloe's sharp, impatient voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "Gavin, what are you zoning out for? Lucas just got back. Look out for him, and do whatever he tells you to do!" Before I could answer, she walked gracefully into Lucas's office. She shut the door behind her and pulled down the blinds. The staff gasped in hushed excitement. "I knew it! They're totally sleeping together!" A colleague who had always been close to me gave me a sympathetic look. "Gavin, you see that? If you'd crawled into the boss's bed, that title probably would've been yours. Now look at you—you're just his sidekick." Who said I hadn't crawled into her bed? More than once, actually. Too bad she never loved me. If this were before, I would've kicked the door down and beaten the hell out of that bastard. Now, though? I didn't care. Because Chloe and I were already divorced. The waiting period would be up in just a few days.After finishing my last surgery of the day, I rubbed my aching back and headed out. Passing by Chloe's office, the lights were off. Lucas's office was empty, too. No doubt they were off fooling around somewhere together. Swallowing the lingering bitterness, I drove back to the house. The house was completely dark. Staring at the empty rooms, I let out a tired sigh. All these years, I don't think Chloe had ever cooked a single meal for me. Starving, I boiled a bowl of instant noodles. Right after I finished, my phone rang. It was an old buddy of mine. "Gavin, are you really going to keep throwing your life away under Chloe?" "With your talent, you should be running the department, or even running an entire clinic. But you're still stuck as an ordinary surgeon. Who does that Lucas think he is? A nobody who couldn't even make it overseas, and now he's walking all over you." "Your hands deserve a real hospital. If you come over to my place, you call the shots on all the surgical work. I'll handle the paperwork and the politics. You just focus on the operating room." "Whatever you want, just name it." Back when I was helping Chloe build her business from scratch, that was when I loved her the most. I gave everything to lay her foundation. If she hadn't rekindled things with Lucas, I probably would've stayed an ordinary doctor for her my whole life. Now, she didn't deserve it. Besides, we were already done. Going through this mess opened my eyes. When someone doesn't love you, every move is a calculation. Even if you bleed yourself dry, they'll never care. While I still had my best years ahead of me, it was time to fight for my own future. And honestly, his offer was too good to pass up. I hated office politics, but I genuinely loved medicine. "All right. Once I wrap up my business here, I'll head over." "Awesome. I'll be waiting for you." My friend hung up, clearly thrilled. "Where are you going?" Chloe's voice cut through the air. She kicked off her heels and glared at me. I glanced at her calmly. "To a scam farm overseas." She let out a contemptuous scoff. "Always playing the victim. Why would anyone scam you? Use your head for once. Don't get yourself conned and drag down my company!" The disgust on her face made my eyes sting. The next second, her phone vibrated. In an instant, the sharp sneer melted into an all-out smile. Her voice turned sugary sweet. "Hey babe... Stop it. Once I finish up here, I'm heading right back. Wait for me, okay?" No prizes for guessing who that was. I didn't want to listen to her cheap flirting. I rinsed my bowl and went back to the bedroom. Chloe barged in behind me, slamming a thick file against my chest. "I went through hell to secure this case. You study it carefully and make sure the surgery is flawless. Failure is not an option!"Puzzled, I flipped open the folder. Looking at the medical charts, my eyebrows knotted together. The procedure was brutally complex; one tiny slip and the patient could bleed out on the table. Of course, I knew what Chloe was after. The higher the stakes, the bigger the media buzz, and the more famous her private practice would become. Which meant more wealthy clients lining up. She never stopped to ask if I could actually pull it off. Or what a failure would do to my career. Seeing my silence, she snatched the file back in annoyance. "What? You don't want to? Or are you telling me you're not good enough?" "Gavin, don't get greedy. Do you know how many hospitals were fighting over this case? I had to bend over backward to convince the patient to come to us." "If you weren't my husband, do you think I'd hand this to you? If you can't even handle this, you don't deserve to be my husband!" Husband? Looking at her sneering, entitled face, my heart went completely cold. Even now, she had no clue our marriage was already over. The day I handed her the divorce papers, she was busy flirting with Lucas. She scribbled her signature without even reading the header. Just how desperate was she? Just how little did she care about me? If Lucas scratched his finger, she'd panic like the world was ending, ready to book a specialist just to slap on a Band-Aid. Me? I was just a tool for her ladder of wealth and status. She didn't give a damn if I lived or died. This time was no different. "Gavin, say something! Stop playing dumb!" She shoved my shoulder, jabbing a manicured finger into my face. "Don't bite the hand that feeds you. Plenty of surgeons in this clinic would beg on their knees for this case, and I held it for you through the back door." "You either step up and do it, or pack your crap and get out. But if you walk, don't you dare think about coming back! Think long and hard!" I sneered inside. A high-risk case like this was a career suicide trap—nobody else dared to touch it! She was gambling my entire future. Before I could answer, she paused, looking around the room. "Where's our wedding photo?" I slid the file onto the desk without showing any emotion. "The frame broke and fell. Sent it out to be repaired." She rolled her eyes in sheer disgust. "Look at you—can't even handle a damn picture frame!" "Everything you do takes forever. How hard is it to fix a frame? You're completely useless!" "A guy like you is nothing without me. Just keep your head in the charts and don't embarrass my clinic!" With that, she slammed the door and walked out. See? When someone hates you, every breath you take is a mistake. Before this, I was insecure. She was the high-powered CEO, and I thought I had to work myself to death just to be worthy of her. Now, I realized what a joke that was. Lucas had sloppy hands and mediocre technique, leagues behind me. Yet she worshipped the ground he walked on. At the end of the day, my only crime was that she didn't love me. Since she insisted on shoving this high-profile case into my hands, I'd gladly take it. After all, when I switched over to the new hospital, this success would be my ultimate calling card and bargaining chip. More importantly, it was an innocent human life on the table. The surgery was terrifyingly difficult, but I had never backed down from a challenge. It wasn't impossible. I locked myself in the simulation lab, running the surgical plan over and over. Again and again. Every time something failed, I reset and started fresh. For an entire week, I barely slept. I drilled the motions until they were burned into my muscle memory. Because only by being that fast, that precise, and that ruthless could I keep the patient safe. During that entire week, Chloe never sent a single message asking if I was alive. The day of the surgery, I was scrubbed in for twelve grueling hours. The moment the final stitch was tied, my vision went dark, and I collapsed from sheer exhaustion. When I woke up, two days had passed. My close colleague sat by my bed, his expression tangled with pity. A bad feeling hit me instantly. "What happened? Did the patient crash?" "Yes and no." Seeing him hesitate made my chest tighten. "Just tell me. What happened?" "The surgery was a massive success." I let out a breath of relief. Nothing mattered more than that. "But... they gave all the credit to Lucas. Chloe put out an official press release claiming he was the lead surgeon." "So..." Which meant I put my entire medical career on the line just to hand the glory to the man sleeping with my wife. How dare she? How could she do this to me? My head spun, and my vision went black again from pure rage.The sharp pain above my lip jolted me awake; someone had pinched my face so hard it was swollen. I didn't care about the pain. I grabbed my phone and called Chloe, demanding an explanation. The moment the call connected, muffled, indecent moans came through the speaker. I didn't need a genius to guess what they were doing. Shameless trash. Messing around in broad daylight right in the office. Rage burning through my veins, I hung up. My colleague patted my shoulder sympathetically. "Gavin, take it easy, man. Don't ruin your health over this." "Ever since Lucas came, she's been revolving her whole world around him. Whatever he touches, everyone else has to move out of the way. You just got the short end of the stick. When a guy is the boss's pet, you just have to swallow the loss." Why the hell should I swallow it? I was going to look them in the eye and ask how they had the audacity to pull this shit. I yanked the IV needle out of my arm and marched straight toward the executive wing. When I reached Chloe's door, the sounds inside had stopped. Suppressing the fire in my gut, I knocked sharply. Chloe's soft, playful voice drifted out. "Lucas, just walk in. You never have to knock for me. You're always the exception." She really had him on a pedestal. The second she saw me, her expression turned colder than ice. "What are you doing here?" I didn't waste time on pleasantries. "I performed that surgery. Why is Lucas's name on the release?" "Do you have any idea how much work I put into that? How much risk I took? He didn't lift a finger. What right do you have to hand my credit to him without asking me?" Not a trace of guilt crossed her face. Instead, she crossed her legs and leaned back, looking down at me as she spun her lies. "Lucas is your department head. An ordinary staff surgeon like you couldn't possibly handle an operation of that caliber. Of course it was Lucas." "As for your actual case, because of your negligence, the patient suffered severe facial complications. According to the contract, the settlement is massive. Sign this liability agreement and put an end to it." She tossed a pre-printed document onto the desk. I stared at her, stunned. "Chloe, have you lost your mind? Not only did you steal my work, but you're making me the scapegoat for a malpractice claim?" "You know damn well who did what. Why are you doing this to me? Doesn't your conscience bother you at all?" She cut me off with an irritated smirk. "The truth is whatever I say it is." "Taking the blame for Lucas is a privilege. If you want to keep working here, don't push your luck." "It's just some money. Your savings plus that condo you bought are more than enough to cover the damages." Staring at her indifferent face, my eyes burned red. "Chloe, I bought that condo for my parents! They worked themselves to the bone their whole lives. If I sell it, where the hell are they supposed to live? On the street?" "Then blame yourself for being incompetent. Who told you to botch the surgery?" I couldn't fathom how the sweet, bright woman I once loved had mutated into this. A shameless, conniving monster. Or maybe this was who she had been all along. Just as I opened my mouth to shoot her down, the door swung open.