The Fool Who Turned Betrayal into Millions

I bought my girlfriend a designer handbag for Valentine’s Day. When I switched everything from her old bag into the new one, I found a box of condoms inside. But after my girlfriend and I decided to live childfree, I’d already had a vasectomy. So who were those condoms meant for? I smiled, put them back where I found them, and started gathering evidence of her affair. In the end, I caught her having sex in a parking garage with her “rich boyfriend”—a man who rented a Porsche on credit and paid for it in installments. I quietly filmed them. Then I ordered every adult toy I’d once been too embarrassed to even add to my cart. If this bitch wanted to cheat on me, she could pay interest. After making enough money in the stock market to become financially independent, I quit my job and focused entirely on investing. Once I had enough saved, I planned to settle down and marry my longtime girlfriend. Neither of us liked children, so after we decided to remain childfree, I went ahead and had a vasectomy. There was no way we’d ever need condoms. I stood frozen, staring at the entire box of birth control. One thought kept echoing through my mind. Why did I suddenly feel like I was wearing a green hat? Was she cheating on me? A week before Valentine’s Day, I had enthusiastically researched gifts for Claire. After comparing countless options, I bought her a luxury handbag she’d wanted for ages but had never been willing to purchase. While she was taking a shower, I decided to move everything from her old bag into the new one. That was when I found the box. The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that I’d been cheated on. But years of investing had taught me how to stay calm. Without revealing anything, I placed everything into the new bag. I wanted to see how Claire reacted before deciding what to do next. “Daniel!” Claire shouted from the shower. “Can you bring me a hair towel?” “Coming.” Despite the storm in my mind, I didn’t let a single trace of suspicion show. But the moment Claire saw the new bag on the couch, she rushed over. “Who told you to touch my bag?” Something was wrong. Very wrong. Normally, whenever I gave Claire a luxury bag or makeup, she would throw herself into my arms, kiss me, and cling to me while acting cute. But today, when she saw the handbag she’d wanted for so long sitting on the couch, her first reaction was to demand to know why I had touched her things. I quickly dropped to my knees and apologized, pretending to stay calm. “I just wanted to surprise you.” I held Claire and coaxed her for a long time, but the alarm bells in my head only grew louder. Maybe because she saw no unusual reaction from me, Claire gradually relaxed. She turned her attention to her “prize,” running her fingers over the leather before leaning over to kiss me like she always did. “You’re the best, babe.” The thought that I might have been pouring my heart out, buying her gifts, and treating her like a queen while she was cheating on me made my blood boil. But before I could respond to her affection, she announced that she had a business meeting that night. She put on her makeup, grabbed the new bag, and prepared to leave. Seeing that I looked unhappy, Claire assumed it was because she’d been going out so often lately. “Daniel, don’t take this the wrong way, but you’re a grown man. You can’t spend every day clinging to your girlfriend. Ever since you quit your job, you’ve been lying around the house so much your arms and legs are probably going to stop working.” Maybe because of the new handbag, her lecture didn’t last long. She slipped into a miniskirt, picked up the new bag, and left. I had quit my job after becoming financially independent through the stock market, but I’d never told her. That was probably why her attitude toward me had been so hot and cold over the past month. Maybe that was where everything had begun.Claire worked in sales, so she genuinely had to entertain a lot of clients. Coming home drunk had become routine. I couldn’t directly investigate who she’d been seeing, so I decided to use the dumbest method possible. I staked out her workplace. I waited outside the restaurant for three hours, but Claire behaved perfectly normally. She followed her department manager around, greeting clients and making small talk. Watching her rush around, I began to question myself for the first time. Was I being too suspicious? Was I wrongly accusing the woman I’d loved for years? But the box in her bag and her reaction were undeniably strange. With no other options, I had to use the one connection I least wanted to involve. My cousin Ryan worked at the same company as Claire. They were in different departments and barely interacted. And I really didn’t want to tell a relative that I suspected my girlfriend was cheating and needed help catching her. As I looked at Ryan sitting across from me, another thought crept into my mind. What if he was the one cheating with her? That was the kind of twist that happened in trashy romance novels. At that point, I suspected everyone. Still, I had no choice but to try. Ryan and I weren’t especially close. He stared at me in shock when he heard what I wanted, but eventually agreed to help me investigate. Waiting for his call felt like waiting for a verdict. Claire stayed out drinking until dawn. I waited for her to come home and for Ryan to contact me. His call came late at night. I stared at the screen for a few seconds before answering. “Daniel, about what you asked me to look into…” Ryan lowered his voice. “Claire’s been getting close to the vice president of sales, Adam Hayes. Apparently, he claims he owns two condos downtown and drives a Porsche.” My fingers tightened around the phone until my knuckles turned white. “Adam Hayes?” “Yeah. He took her home in his car after the company retreat last month. Someone saw them.” Ryan sent me Adam’s information. Adam Hayes. Male. Claire’s department’s vice president of sales. Unmarried, but constantly bragging about his wealthy family. Ryan had also checked Claire’s recent pay stubs and discovered that her spending had increased in a way that made no sense. Everything lined up. I opened my brokerage account. The seven-digit balance glowed in the darkness. For the past six months, I’d been heavily invested in renewable energy stocks. The account had already climbed past twenty million dollars. I’d planned to propose once it reached thirty million. Now, that thought felt like a joke. Furious, I called Claire again and again. She finally answered, completely drunk. But there were two people on the other end of the line. The man was almost certainly Adam. He was sleeping with someone else’s girlfriend and still found time to insult me. “If you ask me, Claire, your boyfriend probably maxed out every credit card he owns just to afford that bag.” Claire was barely coherent, but she still mumbled in agreement. “Yeah. He’s a grown man who stays home playing video games and lives off my paycheck. The fact that I haven’t brought him home to meet my parents is already me showing him respect.” The two of them laughed and kissed. The phone filled with wet, obscene sounds. The longer I listened, the more my heart hurt—and the angrier I became. I lived off Claire’s paycheck? What an unbelievable liar. I might not have been working, but I paid every household expense. Claire spent every dollar she earned. I was the one who transferred money into her account and sent her spending money every month. So she had seen me quit my job and assumed I could no longer make money. She wanted to squeeze as much as possible out of me before kicking me aside. Even drunk, Claire remembered to ask Adam when he planned to marry her. The man, caught up in the moment, immediately promised her. Then he added, “Don’t worry, Claire. As long as my father approves, I’ll take you home as my wife.” I almost laughed from the other end of the phone. Adam really thought he was the hero of some billionaire romance novel. And Claire was already dreaming of marrying into a wealthy family.I hired someone to investigate Adam Hayes. The results were unexpected. His Porsche was rented. The condos weren’t in his name. Other than having a decent position at work and a convincing appearance, he was nothing but a complete fraud. He was technically unmarried, but his family was painfully ordinary—barely getting by. Just like Claire, he spent every dollar he earned. He had no savings and was constantly lying, freeloading, and tricking people into paying for him. Claire had been completely bewitched by a man like that. And in the eyes of those two adulterers, I was nothing more than a pathetic idiot who deserved to be cheated on. I had no intention of letting them enjoy themselves. But before I could make a move, they started targeting me. Adam had his eye on a downtown property my father had left me. The neighborhood was scheduled for redevelopment, making the property potentially worth millions. Claire, meanwhile, was trying to find a way to drain my savings. I had never told anyone about my investments, so even now, Claire thought I only had two or three hundred thousand dollars saved. They weren’t very careful about their schemes. They discussed everything either in Claire’s office or in her car. Unfortunately for them, I’d installed listening devices in both places, along with a hidden dashcam in her car. They still hadn’t noticed. A couple of idiots with terrible plans thought they were criminal masterminds. “You should marry him first,” Adam told Claire. “Then find a way to transfer the property into your name.” Claire didn’t seem happy with that idea. “I don’t want to marry that loser. When I said I didn’t want kids, he practically ran to get a vasectomy. And now he doesn’t even have money. I’m not settling down with some broke nobody.” Claire wrapped her arms around Adam’s neck and acted sweet, urging him to marry her as soon as possible. She was tired of waiting to live openly as a wealthy man’s wife. Adam pinched her nose. “You really don’t know anything, do you? That loser’s property is in a redevelopment zone. If the city buys it out, we could split millions.” Claire’s anger instantly turned into delight. She took the condoms from her bag and suggested they get intimate in the car. They quickly fell into each other’s arms. Adam stopped her when she began opening the package. “Don’t bother. If we’re getting married anyway, we might as well have a baby.” Claire slapped his hand away. “Are you insane? First you tell me to marry Daniel. He’s had a vasectomy. How am I supposed to get pregnant?” Adam didn’t even blink as he continued touching her. “Who cares? Vasectomies can be reversed. Then we’ll tell him the baby is his. He’ll be stuck raising our kid for a few years.” Claire sighed in admiration. “You’re so smart.” She curled against him, and the two of them began moaning without restraint. This didn’t happen only once. From what I discovered, they often used “business meetings” as an excuse to have sex in hotels or cars. In front of me, Claire glared and insulted me at every opportunity. In front of Adam, she called him “baby” and “daddy” like she had no shame. Afterward, they would lie together in their disheveled clothes. Claire eventually looked worried. “What if Daniel refuses to reverse his vasectomy? If he finds out what we’re doing, won’t he try to kill me?” Adam, full and satisfied, sneered. “Your boyfriend is a useless coward. He’s been getting cheated on for this long without noticing.” “Best case, he’s just an honest man. Worst case, he’s a pathetic idiot. What are you afraid of?” “I’m going to sleep with his girlfriend, take his property, and make him raise my son.” When Claire came home, she was unusually affectionate. She wrapped herself around me and urged me to have the procedure reversed. “Babe, we’re getting married soon. I’ve thought about it carefully, and we really need a child. You should have the surgery reversed.” Looking at her excessive enthusiasm, I thought: You don’t want to have my child. You want to have another man’s child and make me raise it. What should I do? Obviously, I would let her have the baby and then break up with her. But since I’d already decided to end things, there was no reason to hold back. I quietly opened a one-hour delivery app and added every toy and accessory I’d once been too embarrassed to buy. Tonight, I was going to try them all on her. I intended to get my money’s worth.