I woke up to the sound of my phone pinging loudly. I could barely sleep last night, as events from the brunch invaded my rest. It had been a discussion on how to expand my company, and they made me sit through it without allowing any input; mocking my efforts. Especially Verena.

My phone was going off with fifty pings per second, and when I checked what the notifications were all about, my heart crashed.

A gossip blog had plastered a picture of me from my early prosperous days on their tabloid. The trendy headline read: Billionaire Enzo Marries the Girl Who Bankrupted Her Company.

I scrolled through the comments section, and each cruel word was like a nail driven into my chest. Everyone was calling me a gold-digger, and my company was being mocked.

I stood up to look for Enzo. This was surely Verena’s doing, and he had to make her take it down.

I stormed into the dining room where Enzo was calmly eating breakfast with Verena. Somehow, seeing them eat together so calmly while the media was chewing me apart grated on my nerves.

“Good morning, sir,” I said, bowing my head. “Have you seen the latest headlines?”

He didn’t flinch. “It’s just news. Get used to it. As a billionaire’s wife and having been introduced to the media, the spotlight is always going to be on you. It will all die down,” he said flippantly.

“You should protect me,” I pleaded. “You have to intervene. The post, the reactions, are very brutal.”

He patted his mouth with a napkin. “I didn’t marry you to protect you. You married me to survive. That is what was insinuated in that post, and that’s the truth.” His tone was harsh.

I blinked back the tears that itched my lids.

“Meet me in the boardroom by nine,” he said to Verena, who nodded. Then he left.

“So, what do you gain by doing this?” I queried, hurt lacing my voice. I was being slaughtered by the media, and all the years I’d spent building Fontane from scratch were being mocked.

She slowly cut into her pork rind. “To remind you again where your place is.”

Her gaze flicked to mine as she popped a rind into her mouth. “You’re still his wife, yes. But in this house, you’re at the bottom of the power chain.”

“Oh, so this is about what happened yesterday?” I scoffed. “It’s pathetic, really. You act all high and mighty, but you’re threatened by the idea of me.”

She slammed her palm on the table and abruptly stood up. “Do you know how hard I worked to be worthy of that man? Now you want to come in and ruin everything I’ve planned!”

A burst of air escaped my lips. “See? You’re threatened.”

“I spent years beside him, building his image from the ground up—”

“Then why did he leave you, then?” I snapped, pissed off like a snake. “If you’re so indispensable, why are you his ex-fiancée? He didn’t stay because of your toxic mentality. You think you’re entitled to him, but you’re not.”

A vicious slap interrupted me.

“You don’t get to speak like that to me, you slave. You’re nobody in this house. Remember that,” she spat.

Tears gathered in my eyes, but I shoved them down. “Then why are you so freaking insecure? That you went as far as slandering me to the media?”

“He left me because of you…” Her eyes were a blazing fire.

Christ, girl, I thought. We weren’t even communicating then.

“I loved him hard, but he couldn’t reciprocate—”

“Probably because you were forcing yourself on him,” I snapped.

Her features morphed into bitterness. “No. You broke him years ago, and I inherited the ruins. You made him into the way he is now—cold, cruel, and condescending. And now, when I finally have a second chance to be with him, you’re back in his life.”

The guilt I felt inside made my next words come out as a squeak. “I’m only here because of my mother. She’s in the hospital and I can’t afford her bills. Enzo is all yours. I’m not trying to be with him or anything.”

She stepped closer to me, a cold mask settling over her face. “When your mother dies, let’s see if he still needs a fake wife.”

I didn’t know when I flared up. “Attack me all you like, but I draw the line at my mother.” I shot her a look that could cut through steel.

“Any lady who marries a man for whom she has no feelings is a gold-digger. Suddenly, you realized that Enzo is now a billionaire, and you worked your way into his life,” she continued, yapping, undaunted by the glare I shot her. “But I was with him during his growth process, and I will not allow you to reap where you did not sow.”

This conversation was giving me emotional fatigue. All I wanted to do right now was go lie down and nurse the inner turmoil I had from the media slander.

I turned around to walk away, but no; this woman wasn’t done. She roughly pulled me back and spun me around.

“You do not dare walk out on me when I haven’t dismissed you. I will not tolerate such disrespect.”

I so badly wanted to plant my five fingers on the side of her face. But I didn’t want any issues with Enzo. I pushed her back.

“Let me make this very clear to you: I am Enzo’s legal wife, and he was the one who proposed and prepared the contract.”

She blurted out a cruel laugh. “Who doesn’t know you’re just a toy of business here? An acquisition to expand the dynasty. After that, he’ll drop your sorry ass; and there’ll be nothing you can do about it.”

Her words tore into me like a sharp blade, and I felt devastated. However, I wasn’t going to let her walk away unscathed.

“Well, at least you feel threatened by me. You know you have no chance with him; and that’s why you go out of your way to make me miserable.” A cruel smile slithered onto my face.

“You say he’s using me, but what about you? What exactly are you doing in his life? You really think Enzo lets anybody into his life for no reason?”

She scoffed, and I turned to walk away.

She shoved me down to the floor.

“I will make your days miserable in this house. Trust me on that.”