My Husband Told Me to Move to the Attic So His First Love Could Have Our Bedroom—He Forgot the House Was Mine, and So Was the Company Where He Worked

PART 4

The next morning, I arrived at the office early.

The top floor of Hartstone Properties looked down over the city.

It was the place Ethan had dreamed of entering as a member of the Hart family.

He had once thought that as long as he married me and endured for a few years, everything I had would eventually become his.

Unfortunately for him, he had miscalculated one thing.

I could love the wrong person, but I was not stupid enough to hand my entire life to a greedy man.

While my coffee was still steaming, Nathan walked in and placed a folder on the desk.

“Sophia Reed has been detained.”

I was not surprised. I only raised my eyes.

“Faster than I expected.”

“She tried to leave the country. The ticket was bought, and she had fake documents prepared. But her creditors were more impatient than we were. She was stopped as soon as she reached the airport.”

Nathan opened the file.

In the photo, Sophia sat in an interview room with her head lowered. Her hair was messy, her bare face pale, and even her designer shirt could not hide her panic.

“She didn’t only scam Ethan. There were several previous cases where she used romantic relationships to take money. This time, they’re being investigated together. She won’t get away lightly.”

I flipped through a few pages. My gaze stopped on the list of transferred funds.

“What about Ethan’s money?”

“Not intact. Part was transferred out, part was used to pay debts, and part was spent. More importantly, Ethan signed as guarantor for several of her loans. Now they are coming after him.”

I closed the file.

“Then let’s see who he begs for help.”

The police station entrance was harshly bright under the noon sun.

The moment I got out of the car, I saw Ethan sitting on the steps.

The suit he had tried to keep respectable yesterday was now wrinkled and dusty. His face was thin, eyes red, lips cracked dry.

Gloria sat beside him, clutching a police officer’s arm and screaming.

“You have to make her pay me back. My jewelry, my money, everything was stolen by that girl. I am the victim.”

I walked over.

Ethan heard my heels and lifted his head.

The moment he saw me, he scrambled up, cheap hope spreading across his face.

“Madison, I knew you would come. You can’t abandon me, right?”

He rushed forward, but Nathan stood in front of me.

Ethan no longer had any self-respect left. His voice broke.

“I was tricked by Sophia. She seduced me. Madison, help me this once. Just this once. I’ll come back to you. I’ll listen to you. I won’t let Mom make things hard for you anymore.”

I looked at him for a long time.

It was strange.

In the past, if he lowered his voice even slightly, my heart would soften.

Now, watching him beg in front of me, I only felt disgust.

“Ethan Blake, even now, you still think the problem is whether I save you or not?”

He froze.

I bent slightly and spoke each word slowly.

“Sophia scammed you because you pretended to be rich. And the reason you could pretend to be rich was because you drained me, my company, and my house. You used stolen things to buy love, and in the end, someone stole them back from you. Isn’t that fair?”

Ethan’s face turned gray.

Gloria finally released the officer and crawled over to tug at my coat.

“Madison, I beg you. I was foolish before. I was blinded by that woman. Save Ethan. He is your husband. You two were married once.”

I gently brushed her hand away.

“Mrs. Blake, when you told me to move out of my bedroom, did you remember I was your daughter-in-law?”

She froze.

“When you said Sophia was more sensible than me, more worthy of your son than me, did you remember I paid every dollar of living expenses in that house?”

Her lips trembled.

I looked down at her, my voice completely cold.

“You once said your son would live perfectly well without me. Then let him live perfectly well now.”

Gloria collapsed onto the ground, her sobs stuck in her throat.

Ethan stared at me.

“Madison, do you want me dead?”

I took out the paper I had prepared and dropped it in front of him.

“No. I don’t need you dead. I only need you to pay the proper price.”

He lowered his head.

When he saw the court summons, his eyes widened.

“Hartstone Properties is suing you for embezzling one hundred eighty thousand dollars. Did you think that money was household allowance? No. It is evidence of a crime.”

Ethan seemed to lose all strength. His whole body fell onto the stone steps.

At that moment, two officers walked out.

“Ethan Blake, please come with us to assist in the investigation of suspected misappropriation of assets.”

The cold handcuffs closed around his wrists.

The sound was small, but enough to make Gloria scream as if her heart had been torn out.

Ethan struggled, eyes blood-red.

“Madison, withdraw the case. I beg you. Withdraw it.”

I stood still.

Some apologies only appear when the guilty have nowhere left to run.

That kind of apology does not deserve forgiveness.

It only deserves to be recorded in a case file.

Just as Ethan was being escorted toward the car, Sophia was also brought through the side entrance.

The two saw each other.

Ethan went almost insane.

“Sophia Reed, give me back my money. You ruined me.”

Sophia stopped and looked him up and down, then laughed coldly.

“Ruined you? Ethan Blake, have you looked in a mirror? If not for that townhouse, not for the things you bragged were yours, I wouldn’t have wasted my time on you.”

She tilted her head, her tone contemptuous to the bone.

“You thought you were the hunter. From beginning to end, you were the easiest prey.”

Ethan stood frozen.

His twisted, desperate scream was swallowed by the slam of the police car door.

The car drove away.

Gloria sat by the roadside, watching until it disappeared. Then she suddenly raised her hand and slapped herself.

One slap after another.

“I was stupid. I raised a curse. I raised a curse.”

I did not pity her.

I only turned and walked down the steps.

The wind outside was light, but it was enough to make me feel that the weight of the last few years had finally fallen from my shoulders.

Nathan walked beside me, his voice low.

“Madison, it’s over.”

I looked at the road ahead and answered calmly.

“Yes. It’s over.”

Ethan Blake was later sentenced to five years.

Because the amount he misappropriated was large, and because Nathan had quietly pushed out every piece of evidence at exactly the right time, Ethan had almost no way back.

His sentence was not only several years in prison. The court also ordered him to repay the two hundred sixty thousand dollars in unpaid rent within the required period.

By then, he was truly penniless.

Not to mention two hundred sixty thousand dollars, he did not even have enough money to buy a pack of cigarettes.

All of his accounts were frozen. Assets under his name were seized. His reputation was crushed in front of every person who once flattered him.

The man who once pounded his chest and said I was only a shadow clinging to the Blake family eventually became a debtor under court enforcement, unable even to lift his head in front of the world.

As for Gloria, the woman who once pointed at my face and called me a parasite finally tasted what it meant to be stepped on by life.

Without her son supporting her, the small house she had kept in her hometown was also taken by creditors.

The silk dresses, designer bags, and jewelry she used to show off to the society ladies were all gone.

She moved into a cheap basement room smaller than a closet and washed dishes in a diner for a few dollars a day.

The next time I saw her, I had just arrived at the entrance of Hartstone Properties for a real estate conference.

Nathan was with me.

He had just opened the car door when a figure rushed out from the corner of the wall.

The person was so thin that dirty clothes hung loosely from her shoulders. Her gray hair was tangled, and she carried a torn plastic bag with a few cold, misshapen rolls inside.

Security immediately blocked her.

“Madison. Madison, please look at me once.”

Gloria’s voice was hoarse and shaking. There was no trace left of the noble Mrs. Blake from before.

I took off my sunglasses and looked her over.

“Mrs. Blake, what do you need from me?”

The words Mrs. Blake made her face turn white.

The next second, she dropped to her knees on the pavement outside the company gate and knocked her forehead down again and again, as if doing so could erase everything from the past.

“Madison, I was wrong. I really know I was wrong. Help me once. Ethan is suffering in prison, and I can barely survive outside.”

I looked at the blood spreading on her forehead.

There was not a ripple of pity in my heart.

When she told me to move into the attic so Sophia could have the second floor, did she ever think I was human?

When she wore the suit I bought, carried the bag I gifted her, then turned around and called me a freeloader, did she ever feel ashamed?

Now she knelt before me and called me daughter.

But what she needed had never been family.

She only needed money.

“You want to talk about old feelings?” I stepped closer, my voice very light, but every word was cold. “Then do you remember when you said I was useless, and since I didn’t work, I should go live in the attic?”

Gloria cried until her face was blurred.

“I was confused. Sophia fooled me. I didn’t mean to treat you like that. Madison, have a little mercy. Give me a few hundred dollars, anything.”

I smiled faintly.

“A few hundred dollars? Back then, when you spent my money, which amount was not tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands? Now that you need a few hundred to survive, you finally know how to lower your head?”

She lifted her face to look at me, her eyes full of fear and despair.

I did not avoid her gaze.

I only continued slowly.

“The townhouse at 18 Harborview Drive has been donated for renovation into an art gallery and community library. From now on, it will open to the public, and all ticket proceeds will go to a scholarship fund for low-income students.”

Gloria went completely still, as if someone had slapped her in the face.

I looked down at her, each word clear.

“As for you, your current job washing dishes suits you well. Earning your food with your own hands may be hard, but it is still cleaner than living as a parasite.”

A distorted scream broke from her throat, but security had already pulled her away.

Her hunched figure was dragged under the sunlight, like a piece of trash finally swept from the doorway by life.

I got into the car.

Nathan handed me a wet wipe.

“Don’t let her ruin your mood.”

I accepted it, slowly wiped each finger, and asked as if mentioning a stranger, “How is Ethan doing inside?”

Nathan’s mouth lifted slightly. A familiar coldness passed through the eyes of a lawyer who had seen too many people dig their own graves.

“Not well. Someone like him still carries that arrogant habit inside. It’s easy to anger people. I heard he tried to cling to a certain person in there to avoid work and was taught a lesson he won’t forget.”

I nodded and did not ask more.

Some retribution does not need to be witnessed personally.

Knowing it is happening day by day is enough.

The car passed Harborview Drive.

I turned my head and looked at the five-story townhouse that had once imprisoned me in a rotten marriage.

The exterior walls had been repainted. The old color was completely covered.

The glass room on the second floor was being cleared of all previous furniture.

Everything that had once held arguments, humiliation, and betrayal would be cleaned out without leaving a trace.

At that moment, my phone vibrated.

An old acquaintance from the ladies’ circle sent me a video.

In the video, several society women gathered at a private club, drinking tea while mentioning Gloria with open mockery.

“You haven’t seen Mrs. Blake now. Before, she wore heavy makeup and bragged every day about her son becoming vice president. Now she lowers her head washing dishes in a kitchen, hands swollen like bread.”

Another woman laughed coldly.

“Her son got promoted straight into prison. His mother fell from lady of the house to dishwasher. Life really does not lack entertainment.”

Then someone mentioned me.

“Madison Hart was always clear-headed. Escaping that kind of family is a blessing.”

I turned off the video and leaned back against the seat.

The suffocating feeling stuck in my chest for years finally dissolved a little more.

Falling from the clouds into the mud—that feeling could be left for Gloria to slowly taste for the rest of her life.

Nathan held my hand.

“French tonight? Consider it a celebration.”

I looked at him, the corner of my lips lifting.

“Fine. But I want the most expensive restaurant.”

He laughed.

“As long as you like it, it can be even more expensive.”

The day the townhouse at 18 Harborview Drive officially reopened, the sky was unusually clear.

The house that once suffocated me had become a bright art space.

Cream-white walls. Wide glass doors. Sunlight poured through the hallway and fell across new bookshelves and paintings hung neatly on the walls.

There was no longer Gloria’s heavy perfume, no longer Ethan’s cold voice telling me to endure, and no longer Sophia drifting through the rooms like a thorn lodged in my marriage.

This place was finally clean.

Nathan wore a dark navy suit that day, with a tie I had chosen.

Standing beside me, he tilted his head and asked quietly, “Ms. Hart donated an entire townhouse and is giving the ticket proceeds to poor students. Don’t you feel reluctant?”

I watched people enter the gallery and answered calmly.

“What is there to be reluctant about? A place that once held only garbage can now help other people see light. That is already a profit.”

He smiled and lightly wrapped an arm around my waist.

“Very much your style. Losing one townhouse is nothing. After all, Ms. Hart still has quite a few office buildings under her name.”

I leaned my head on his shoulder, my gaze stopping on the painting hanging in the center of the main hall.

In the painting, a young woman pushed open a rusty iron door. Behind the door was a light so bright it almost swallowed the darkness.

I looked at the painting for a long time and said softly, “Nathan, thank you.”

He looked down at me.

“For what?”

“For watching me lie to myself for three years and never forcing me awake. You only stood there, waiting for me to walk out on my own.”

Nathan’s eyes softened.

“I told you before. I would wait for you. Even when you insisted on marrying Ethan, I only thought that if you lived well, I could be your legal advisor for life.”

I laughed, but my eyes stung slightly.

“I was truly blind back then. I ignored a brilliant attorney like you and went to run a poverty-relief project on a Phoenix man.”

Nathan lowered his head and kissed my forehead lightly.

“It’s fine. That poverty-relief project has ended. Now, does Ms. Hart want to hire a new employee?”

I raised an eyebrow at him.

“That depends on Attorney Cole’s abilities. My standards are very high.”

He did not answer right away.

Instead, he took a small velvet box from his pocket.

Inside was a diamond ring shining under the sunlight.

Nathan did not kneel, nor did he use flowery words.

He looked straight into my eyes, his voice steady like he was reading the most important contract of his life.

“Madison Hart, I am applying to transfer from your legal advisor to your lifelong partner.”

He paused, then continued.

“All my assets, shares, time, loyalty, and myself are handed over to you from today forward. This contract is valid for life and cannot be unilaterally terminated. Will you sign?”

I looked at the ring, then at the man who had silently stood behind me through my worst days.

I held out my hand.

“Sign? Of course I’ll sign. Refusing would be foolish.”

He carefully slid the ring onto my finger.

At that moment, my phone vibrated.

A message from the prison appeared on the screen.

Ethan Blake wanted to see me, saying he only wished to apologize in person.

I looked at the few lines, smiled coldly, and deleted the message without hesitation.

Nathan asked, “What is it?”

I took his hand.

“Nothing. Spam.”

When we walked out of the gallery, I saw Gloria sitting curled up by the curb across the street.

In her hand was half a dusty roll. Her eyes were fixed on the bright townhouse before her.

Security politely asked her to leave.

She immediately lowered her head and stepped back, hunched and pitiful.

But I felt no pity.

For the rest of her life, she would live with poverty, regret, and the contempt of the people she once looked down on.

That was not my cruelty.

That was cause and effect finally finding the right door.

I linked my arm with Nathan’s and walked forward.

“Let’s go. Today I want a truly lavish meal.”

“What do you want to eat?” he asked.

I tilted my head and smiled.

“The French restaurant under your name. I heard the owner is in a very good mood today. Surely he’ll make it free for me?”

Nathan laughed, clear and bright under the sunny sky.

“No problem. Every request from Ms. Hart is an order.”

I lifted my head and looked at the clear blue sky.

For the first time, my heart felt so light.

Ethan once thought he could destroy me.

Gloria once thought she could step on me and enjoy wealth for the rest of her life.

But in the end, the people crushed were them.

As for me, from beginning to end, I never needed to rely on anyone to stand back up.

I was always my own strongest support.

From now on, the wind would be clean, the moon bright, and the road wide open.

The people who once dirtied my life had finally been left behind.

Forever unworthy of stepping into my world again.