The Housewife’s Counterstrike Chapter 06
A grave voice replied from the other end of the line:
*Received, Selena. Under your highest-level authorization, we will initiate full investigation procedures within three hours and suspend all Vance-family vessel privileges on the Voyager line.*
Herman lost it.
He lunged at my phone, his voice cracking into something almost pleading.
“Selena! Don’t! Whatever you want to say, save it for home! I’ll have Clara return every piece of jewelry right now! Any duty that wasn’t paid on the manifest, I’ll pay it in full, tonight!”
I cold-shouldered his hand.
“There’s no need to settle this privately anymore. Herman, the moment you decided to use my identity to shoulder liability while you pleased another woman—you should have known this day would come.”
With that, I walked out of the banquet room under the horrified stares of everyone present.
When I got home, I moved my things straight into the guest bedroom and bolted the door from the inside.
Herman pounded on the door like a man possessed.
“Selena! Open the door! We are husband and wife—you can’t do this to me!”
Through the door, I calmly folded my clothes and answered:
“In six years, we’ve spent less than twelve months together. This is just us going back to normal.”
The pounding stopped for a beat.
After a long silence, Herman lowered his voice.
“I’ve recovered all the jewelry. And I’ve cut ties with Clara for good. Selena—withdraw the complaint. Please.”
“Things another woman has worn make my skin crawl.”
“Then I’ll buy you new ones! What kind of blue diamonds do you want? Just say the word and I’ll have them for you!”
“That won’t be necessary, Herman.”
I unbolted the door and pushed it open.
Herman stood in the shadowed hallway. His eyes were bloodshot, his hair disheveled. Nothing was left of the elegance and composure he used to wear like a second skin.
He tried to step in and grab the duvet cover from my hands. I moved aside.
Irritation flared in his eyes again.
“What more do you want?! Selena, I have already humbled myself to you! Know when to stop!”
I looked at him coldly.
“I want a divorce.”
Herman stared at me, the veins on his forehead standing out.
“So what if you hold the audit rights? Are you really going to take six years of what we had and burn it down until one of us is dead?!”
I couldn’t even be bothered to look at him again. “I don’t intend to say the same thing to you a third time.”
He gave a cold laugh. “Selena, you’re just throwing a fit. Without the Vance family’s protection, once your identity is exposed the other factions will chew you up and spit out your bones.”
I shut the door.
Finding no opening with me, Herman rushed back to the family compound overnight, trying to pull every string in his network to shut the investigation down.
A few days later, Alice quietly arranged to meet me at a discreet little bar.
Her face was tense as she pulled a USB drive from her bag and pushed it across the table to me.
“Selena, I’ve thought about this for two whole days. I have to give this to you.”
“What is it?”
“The full record of the Marseille arms smuggling and hand-off.” Alice dropped her voice, glancing around. “You know, to fool the other factions, half the crew on Herman’s ship are just ordinary sailors. The forged authorization passed through my husband’s hands at the time. He knew something was off, so he privately kept an unaltered scanned copy.”
My stomach turned over. “Did Herman come after your husband?”
Alice’s eyes went red at once. “That bastard! He stripped my husband of his post, and threatened us—if we breathed a word to anyone, my husband would have an ‘accident’ and fall overboard on his next voyage!”
“I’m so sorry, Alice. I dragged you both into this.” I took her hand in mine.
Alice wiped her tears, gripped my hand back, and looked at me with real worry.
“Selena, please be careful. Herman’s roots run deep in the underworld. I’m afraid he’ll actually try to hurt you—”
I closed my fingers around the USB drive. My eyes were steady.
“He doesn’t have what it takes.”
The regulatory commission worked with impressive speed.
By the following afternoon, I had received the final audit report.
Among the smuggled cargo run through Marseille, dozens of pages of major violations came to light:
Beyond the three-million-dollar set of top-grade blue diamond jewelry, there were countless designer bags on which no duty had ever been paid.
Over a hundred firearms.
And down in the hold—dozens of living human beings, bound for the trafficking market.
The signatory on every one of them: Clara.
And in every confirmation box, one line of forged handwriting:
*Selena consents to consolidated receipt by Ms. Clara.*
I stared at that line until my fingers went numb with cold.
He was a monster of a Godfather. But I was an ordinary person, with morals, with a conscience of my own.
He hadn’t just betrayed me. He had let Clara pin her crimes on me as well.
Late that night, Herman came hurrying home with a cake box in his hand.
“Selena,” he said, his voice reaching for warmth, “today is the anniversary of the day we registered our marriage.”
I looked at the strawberry cream cake on the table.
I was severely allergic to strawberries. Even a small accidental bite could swell my airway shut and choke me.
He had forgotten.
Or perhaps he had never actually remembered a single detail about me at all.
Herman set the cake down and opened his arms as if to embrace me. “Come now, baby. Withdraw the complaint. Let’s start again, all right?”
I took a large step back.
“Clara likes strawberries, doesn’t she?”
Herman froze mid-motion.
The next second, he snatched up the expensive cake and hurled it into the trash.
“I just had my assistant grab something at random!” He yanked at his tie in frustration.
“Specifying a flavor is one sentence, Herman.”
“Is it fun for you to pick at these little things?!” he roared.
I flung the audit report—dozens of pages thick—into his face.
The moment Herman saw the red *MAXIMUM SANCTION* stamp on the cover, his face turned the color of paper.
“You… you actually took it all the way to the commission?!”
“Yes.”
“Selena! Do you have any brains at all?! Do you have any idea this will absolutely ruin me?!”
I looked at him steadily. There was no warmth in my eyes.
“You weren’t ruined by me. You were ruined by yourself.”