For eight years, I played the perfect Sterling wife-flawless galas, impeccable children, managing an empire. My quiet smile was a performance, a countdown to my escape from a life I never truly owned. Then, Richard brought her home: Chloe, his "authentic" high school sweetheart, ready to play the homewrecker. I watched, amused, as my world shattered on cue, my children turning against me under her sweet influence. But amusement turned to disgust when the "accidents" began – shellfish, drowning, a staged fall – all pointing to me, the jealous wife. Richard' s rage erupted, not at her lies, but at my supposed malice. He slapped me, sent me crashing into glass, then left me bleeding on the floor, confined to my room. My own children, Madison and Liam, saw her staged tears, not my pain, calling me toxic and vindictive. They chose her, their "Aunt Chloe," over their own mother, cheering on my destruction. How could my children, whom I' d dedicated my life to, believe such an obvious charade engineered by a woman less than half my age? Why did I, the master strategist, allow myself to become a bruised, discarded prop in their narrative? Trapped in a freezing wine cellar, moments from death, a familiar voice echoed: "Contract fulfilled, Sarah. Initiating extraction." Only my "death" wasn't the end. It was my rebirth, my strategic return to dismantle the Sterling delusion and reclaim my life, this time on my own devastating terms.
