Wife's 5-Year Scam

Victoria Cooper cheated on me with my student. I caught them in my office, locked in a kiss they couldn't seem to break away from. I took photos and posted them online, making sure the whole world knew. When I asked for a divorce, Victoria dropped to her knees in front of me, sobbing. "Alexander, I made a mistake. The lights were off in the office. I thought it was you. "Please, forgive me?" To prove it had been a case of mistaken identity, she put Tyler Ford on a plane and cut off all contact with him for good. After she came back to me, she was nothing but obedient. Out in the world, she was the sharp, no-nonsense CEO everyone knew as Ms. Cooper; at home, she poured her whole heart out to me. I thought the crack between us had actually healed. Then, five years later, I stumbled into the deleted-messages folder on her phone. One thousand three hundred and sixty unread texts, every single one from Tyler. [Victoria, I miss you so much. Can I come back and see you?] She'd never replied to a single one. But she'd saved every message, filed away by date, in that folder no one was ever supposed to find. My blood ran cold. I set the phone down in front of her. My voice didn't sound like my own anymore. "Do you need me to step aside? So you two star-crossed lovers can finally have your happy ending?" Chapter 1 Victoria Cooper's eyes lifted from the texts. She rubbed her temples, her voice heavy with exhaustion. "Alexander, what are you making a fuss about now? I've done everything you asked. I moved back in, and I haven't spoken to Tyler in years. What more do you want from me?" The way she said it, you'd think I was the one who'd done something wrong. I forced a strained smile. "If you still have feelings for him, let's get a divorce right now." I tried to keep my voice steady, but it came out hoarse anyway. The moment the words left my mouth, Victoria snatched up the phone and hurled it to the floor. The crash of it shattering rang out, and the room went dead silent. "You want a divorce over a few text messages? I never once replied to him, not in all these years! "Do you have any idea how exhausted I am, Alexander? I'm sick of tiptoeing around your insecurities every single day. "This was supposed to be over. What more do you want from me?" She was trying to prove her innocence with sheer force. But to me, all that fury looked like nothing more than someone caught red-handed and too embarrassed to admit it. The bedroom door flew open. My five-year-old son, Miles Marshall, came running out barefoot. He snatched a toy car off the floor and hurled it straight at me. "Don't hurt Mommy! Bad man!" The toy car hit me square in the forehead. Warm blood trickled down from the cut. I wiped at my forehead and looked at the boy who, since the day he was born, had never once called me Dad. A wave of exhaustion washed over me. "Miles, go back to your room. This is between your mom and me." But he planted himself in front of Victoria, refusing to budge, and looked at me like I was his worst enemy. I swallowed down the hurt and anger boiling up in me. Before I could say another word, the doorbell rang. Victoria's whole body went rigid. She hurried to the door, her steps a little too quick, and pulled it open. It was Tyler Ford. I hadn't expected him to have the nerve to show his face in front of me. When our eyes met, Tyler looked embarrassed. He ducked his head. "Professor." Just looking at him brought back memories of what had happened between him and Victoria in my office five years ago. I forced down the nausea rising in my throat and turned to look at Victoria. Her eyes hadn't left Tyler since the moment he showed up. Something in my chest twisted, a bitter kind of ache. That was when Miles, who never warmed up to anyone, reached out on his own and tugged at Tyler's sleeve. "Are you here to see Mommy?" Doctors had said early on that Miles had severe autism. He didn't like being touched or approached by people. He'd never once called me Dad, not even to my face, and he only ever clung to Victoria. I'd been disappointed more than once. But every time, I told myself the same thing: he was just sick. He just didn't know how to express himself. But watching the scene in front of me now, I felt my whole body sway. Tyler smiled and pulled a few pieces of candy from his pocket, pressing them into Miles's hand. I reached out on instinct to stop him, my voice hard and cold. "His teeth are bad. He can't have candy." I tried to pull my son back toward me, but he ducked behind Tyler and stuck his tongue out at me instead. Victoria stepped sideways, blocking my view. She scooped Miles up into her arms and looked at me, her expression a tangle of things I couldn't quite read. "Alexander, it's been five years. Your anger should have cooled off by now. Be honest with yourself. Think about how good I've been to you all this time. "Tyler went through a lot of suffering abroad. It's time he came home." I let out a cold laugh and clenched my fists. "Victoria, when you got down on your knees and begged me five years ago, you swore you'd never have anything to do with him again. And now you're telling me he suffered, that you feel sorry for him, and you want him back?" I looked at Tyler, my stomach churning, and pointed at the door. "Get out. Don't dirty my floor." Chapter 2 Tyler's face went pale. He started stammering apologies. "I'm sorry, Professor, I..." His eyes reddened, like he was the one who'd been wronged. He shot Victoria a timid glance, then bolted. Victoria tried to stop him, but he was too fast. She spun back toward me and slapped me hard across the face. My ears rang, and everything in front of me blurred. "Alexander, is your heart really that small? Whatever Tyler's done, he's still your student!" By the time I came back to my senses, Victoria had slammed the front door shut. A gust of cold air swept through, cutting straight through my chest. My cheek throbbed in waves, a bright red handprint blooming across half my face. I pressed a bag of ice to my swollen cheek, still too stunned to think straight. The house was quiet. Miles's toys and drawings were scattered across the floor. One of them was a family portrait, but the figure meant to be me had been crudely cut out. I stood there with my head bowed, my vision blurring with tears. When I finally looked up, my eyes landed on my wedding photo with Victoria. Maybe, if I'd never saved Tyler Ford in the first place, none of this would have happened. The first time I met Tyler, he'd been out delivering food in the pouring rain, and his scooter clipped my car's side mirror. He couldn't have been more than twenty at the time, thin and sickly-looking, wearing clothes faded from repeated washing. I later found out he went to the same university where I taught. His grades were solid, and I made an exception and took him on as my student. The moment Victoria met Tyler, something in her softened. She told me, "Alexander, out of all your students, Tyler's family has it the hardest. He doesn't have any parents. I want to help support him. Think of it as doing a good deed." He didn't have the money for school, so I paid for it. He needed connections, so I made them for him. I thought of him in everything I did, and handed over nearly everything I knew. I never imagined the student I'd poured so much into would turn around and betray me. That day happened to be my second wedding anniversary with Victoria. A phone call sent me back to my office at the university. The power was out that day, so the office was dark. The door was left half open, and the sound of tangled breathing coming from inside stopped me in my tracks. I switched on my phone's flashlight. What I saw was something I'll never be able to forget for the rest of my life. Victoria and Tyler, locked in a kiss neither of them seemed willing to break. The moment I appeared, both their heads snapped up. The power came back on at that exact moment. Victoria scrambled to fix her clothes, babbling incoherently. "Alexander, listen to me..." Tyler dropped straight to his knees and grabbed at the hem of my pants. "I'm sorry, Professor. Don't blame Victoria. This is all my fault. It's me..." The whole world felt absurd. I stood frozen, my ears ringing so loud it felt like my skull would split open. I didn't take in a single word of whatever came after that. I raised my phone and took well over a hundred photos of the two of them. I didn't wait to hear Victoria's explanation. I posted every photo online. Tyler was expelled and became a target everyone wanted to tear apart. Victoria's company stock crashed, and she came close to bankruptcy more than once. She begged me. "Alexander, it really wasn't what you think. The lights were off, and I wanted to surprise you, but you weren't picking up your phone. "I thought it was you. Please, forgive me? "I'm... I'm pregnant. It's your baby. You can't let our child grow up without a father." She put Tyler on a plane and cut all contact with him for good. One was the student I'd poured everything into, a young man who should have had a bright future ahead of him. The other was the wife I'd spent years building a life with, a marriage that had always felt solid. So why did it have to end up like this? Because I couldn't let go. Because I couldn't accept it. I softened. I compromised. I gave Victoria a second chance. Looking back now, I only felt like a fool, a clown who'd been laughed at behind his back the whole time. Victoria had never once let go of Tyler. I sat slumped against the couch from nightfall until dawn. It wasn't until the sunlight finally hit me that anything started to feel real again. I called my divorce lawyer. "Is that divorce agreement from five years ago still valid? Add one more clause for me. I want custody of my son." Chapter 3 After that day, Victoria didn't come home for a long time. I stopped calling to check on where she was the way I used to, and instead threw myself into my work. On the day the semester started, I went back to campus. Students passing by kept giving me strange looks. "Professor, you should go check out the lab building..." One of the students I got along with well looked visibly uncomfortable and pointed toward the building. As I made my way toward the building, I saw Tyler standing at the front entrance. He was holding up a banner, shouting into a megaphone. "Five years ago, I was framed. "My advisor, Alexander Marshall, an honorary professor at this school, committed academic fraud and stole my research. He doctored photos maliciously to smear my name. I don't care how much you all respect him, I don't care whether you believe me, but I have to say this today!" Tyler's eyes landed on me, burning with hatred. He rolled up his sleeve, showing off a crisscross of bruises and scars, some old, some fresh. "I've spent the last five years being spat on by everyone I meet. I have no connections, I got expelled, I couldn't even get my diploma. "Because of Alexander Marshall, no one would give me the time of day. "Abroad, I was undocumented, no papers, nothing. I worked construction for five years. To keep from starving or freezing to death, I even got myself thrown into prison on purpose. "I ended up like this because of Alexander Marshall! He's not fit to call himself a professor!" Countless eyes turned toward me, some in disbelief, some already burning with anger. Whispers spread through the crowd. I clenched my fists and forced myself to stay calm. "What proof do you have?" Something I hadn't done was something I hadn't done. I didn't believe Tyler could actually produce any real evidence. But before Tyler could answer, someone else stepped out from behind him. Victoria moved to shield him. Every one of my students, everyone who knew me, knew Victoria was my wife. "I can testify to that. I have proof, right here, that you committed academic fraud and stole Tyler's research." I tilted my head back, my eyes widening. She was holding up a flash drive. Looking at the woman in front of me, I felt dizzy, like I was looking at a total stranger. "Victoria, you'd frame me for his sake?" Victoria's expression didn't so much as flicker. She dropped the flash drive back into her bag and, without meeting my eyes, said evenly, "I'm just telling the truth." No one cared whether what was on that drive was even real. The simple fact that she was my wife was proof enough for them. I was suspended over the whole thing. Every research project I was running got put on hold. Online, the rumors spiraled further out of control. And because of me, their disgraced honorary professor, the school's enrollment numbers started to drop. I ran myself ragged trying to clear my name. No one believed a word of it. Tyler cleared his own name by pinning it entirely on me. "I'm sorry, Professor. Please don't be angry. Victoria only came up with this idea because she felt sorry for me. You won't forgive me anyway, and honestly, I'm sick of living the way I used to. I'm sorry." Tyler apologized to me with a face full of regret, but what he actually said was almost laughable. Victoria didn't seem to think she'd done anything wrong. Instead, she told me, "You should go stay somewhere else for a few days. Miles is still home, and I don't want this affecting him. "Alexander, it's just this once. I know it isn't fair to you. But if you'd just been a little kinder to Tyler, I never would have had to use this against you." So they'd had this planned from the very beginning. To clear Tyler's name, she hadn't hesitated to resort to something this disgusting. I forced a smile with no real strength behind it, and didn't have the energy to argue with her anymore. Just the sight of the two of them made me sick. Chapter 4 Somehow, someone had leaked the address of the place I was staying. People kept shoving threatening letters under my door, splashing paint across it, leaving dead cats on my doorstep. Because of it, I tried to avoid leaving the house at all. But people still showed up to fight Tyler's battles for him, hanging banners right outside my door. "How does the academic world end up with scum like you in it? Stealing your own student's research?" "Pity anyone unlucky enough to be your student. Honestly, at this point, we'd support it even if Tyler and Victoria really were together. Better him than someone like you." They'd usually camp out there for an entire day, the shouting and cursing going on without a break, day or night. I lost track of how long I spent living like that, holed up and numb to everything. Then Victoria called. "Alexander, get to the hospital. Something happened to Miles." Her voice was hoarse, like she'd just been crying. I didn't think twice about anything else. He was, after all, my only child. The moment I stepped outside, people were there waiting for me. Rotten eggs and vegetable scraps rained down on me, and every so often someone charged at me with their fists raised. I finally made it to the hospital, looking like a wreck. Victoria and Tyler were both there. Tyler had a doctor by the hand, begging over and over. "Doctor, please, save him, he's still so young..." The doctor glanced around at all of us. "Which one of you is the father? He was in a car accident, and the blood bank is running low. We need to draw blood now." I caught my breath, rolled up my sleeve, and rasped, "I am. Take mine." Tyler kept glancing my way, but I didn't have the energy to spare him a thought. The blood draw was over quickly. Just as I thought everything was fine, a nurse rushed over, frowning, and handed the doctor a lab report. The doctor read it, his brow furrowing in open frustration. "This is a matter of life and death, and you people are playing games? "Your wife is type B, and you're type O. There's no way the two of you could have a child with type AB blood." My mind went blank. I stared at the words on the report, unable to move. That was when Tyler shoved past me. "I'm his real father. He's my son!" The doctor gave him a strange look, but he didn't say another word, just led Tyler off to draw his blood. I stood there frozen, cold all the way to the bone. Victoria forced herself to speak. "Alexander, I'll explain everything later. Right now, our son comes first." I forced a smile and tossed the report at her. "He's your son. Yours and his." I finally understood why Miles, autistic since birth, had always taken to Tyler so easily. Tyler had been his real father all along. I'd spent five years raising another man's child for five years. I turned and walked away, one step at a time. When I called my lawyer, he told me everything was ready to go. Five years ago, I could leave Victoria with nothing. Five years later, I still could. I said calmly, "I don't want custody anymore. Release everything. The photos, the chat logs, all of it."