After He Chose His Toxic Ex, I Sent Him To Prison

Right before the National Sculpture Contest, my tenth piece was smashed to pieces by Julian's toxic "first love," Chloe. She sneered in front of the crowd, "Does a gold-digger who slept her way up even deserve to be a finalist?" The clients I was negotiating with frowned. Chloe smirked, growing even bolder. "Sculpting isn't her real talent, anyway..." I stepped up and slapped her across the face. Julian’s retaliation came that very night. He unleashed an online mob on me and threatened my clients: "Do business with Riley, and your company goes bankrupt." He let Chloe drag my name through the mud on Twitter and Instagram, accusing me of seducing men—she even dug up my deceased father to insult him online. A few days later, Julian came to confront me: "She didn't make the contest finals and was devastated. Did you really have to provoke her?" Chloe stood beside him, chin held high: "Divorce her right now, or I’ll kill myself!" Julian immediately nodded: "We’re already divorced." Like always, he pulled out a fake settlement agreement to pacify her. I sneered, took the papers, and tore them in half. "Why fake it? Let's sign the real deal." "You think you can let Julian go? A woman like you snuck into his bed while his real girlfriend was away, faked a pregnancy, and trapped him into marriage. You really have the guts to walk away?" Chloe’s mocking words made the onlookers gasp. Everyone looked like they had just struck gold with the juiciest drama. I was already completely numb to it. I just glanced at Julian. I thought that knowing the truth, he would at least shoot Chloe an annoyed look. Instead, he tucked his chin into his chest, playing the coward. I chuckled. "So, now that I'm divorcing your man, are you satisfied?" "That's enough!" One sentence from me, and Julian flew into a rage again. I honestly wondered if I had a button installed on him that triggered him every time I opened my mouth. "Why are you making a scene right now? If Chloe’s condition gets worse because of your temper, can you take responsibility?" "And if your precious Chloe finds out you’ve been fooling her with fake divorce papers, can she handle that?" I deliberately raised my voice. Before Julian could speak, I looked right at Chloe. "Did you know your man is the one who refuses to let me go? He’s pathetic. He can’t bear to leave me." "Slap!" Julian put all his weight into it. My cheek burned like fire. Julian looked stunned by his own action. He opened his mouth to explain, but Chloe cut him off. "So you’ve been lying to me this whole time? Because of this bitch, you lied to me?!" Watching Chloe act like the eternal victim, I couldn't help but laugh. I was Julian’s legally wedded wife, yet this psycho stalker acted like she was the one wronged. Just because she claimed to have a mental illness, she could do whatever she wanted? Right in front of me, Julian wrapped Chloe in a tight embrace. "It’s okay, Chloe. I love you. You’re the only one I’ve ever loved. I’ll divorce her right now. Today." Chloe’s expression softened slightly. "Really?" Julian nodded solemnly. Then he scowled at me. "Are you happy now? We’re heading to the courthouse." If this had been the past, hearing those words would have shattered me. When I first learned Julian had a childhood friend who struggled with mental health, I actually felt sorry for her. Until our first dinner with his friends after we got married, when I finally saw what her "illness" really meant. Even though it was the first time Chloe and I had ever met, her hostility toward me was venomous. "Ahhh! Julian, make her leave! Get that woman away from me!" Back then, Chloe jumped up like someone had stepped on her tail, screaming hysterically. After that, Julian never brought me to their gatherings again. I fought with him about it constantly. "Why should I be the one excluded?" At first, he would explain gently, but soon he grew impatient: "Chloe has been sick for years. It’s not just you. Do you have to be so dramatic?" Back then, I already felt he treated Chloe better than me, and we gave each other the silent treatment for a long time. In the end, Julian swore an oath to me, and I reluctantly forgave him. Later, he broke every promise he made.For Chloe's sake, he gave me hell over and over. When Chloe pushed him to divorce me, he even came up with the idea of a fake divorce. To be honest, I had wanted out of this marriage a long time ago. My dad was the one who refused to let me leave. His terminal cancer weighed heavily on my heart. I just wanted his final days on earth to be peaceful, so I compromised again and again. Today, I was done compromising. My dad had passed away three days ago, and Julian hadn't even bothered to show up. "Let's go! What are you standing there for? Getting cold feet?" Chloe glared at me viciously. Snapping back to reality, I watched Julian holding her intimately. "Sign the papers first. Then we'll go to the courthouse." Seeing my deadpan face, Julian’s expression darkened. He pulled me aside and hissed: "Are you serious? You know I'm only doing this to keep Chloe calm!" "Chloe, did you hear that? He still wants a fake divorce!" I shoved Julian back with all my strength. Screw that. I'm not playing along anymore. Julian, I don't owe you a damn thing. "You..." Julian shook with fury. "Don't you regret this." Without even glancing at the agreement, he signed his name on the line. We went straight to the courthouse to file. Stepping out of the courthouse, before Julian could utter a word, I put on a frosty smile: "Now we just wait for the final decree. Don't go backing out halfway because you can't bear to let me go." I said it purely to trigger Chloe. Sure enough, the second the words left my lips, she burst into tears. "Julian, do you still care about her that much?!" "No, I don't! You're the only one I care about." Desperate to console Chloe, Julian didn't even have time to argue with me. I turned and walked away, feeling lighter than air. Stepping back into the house where Julian and I had lived for years, a pang of heartache still hit me. This place was supposed to be our baby. Speaking of babies, I really had Chloe to thank. If it hadn't been for her psychotic antics, our first child wouldn't have been ripped away when it was barely an embryo. I still remembered our first year of marriage. I loved kids. When I found out I was pregnant, I was over the moon. Julian was thrilled, too. During that period, he took care of everything for me. I felt like the luckiest woman alive. Then suddenly, sharp abdominal cramps tore through me. I called Julian frantically, begging him to rush home and take me to the ER. Julian promised he was on his way, but he never came. By the time I lost the baby, he was nowhere in sight. I called my doctor, only to find out that my miscarriage symptoms were caused by abortion pills slipped into my food. When Julian finally showed up, I slapped him across the face. "Was it you?! Why?!" Julian dropped to his knees, begging. "I'm sorry, babe, I had no choice! Chloe found out you were pregnant and slit her wrists! She was going to kill herself! I was desperate... We can have more kids later, okay? We'll have another one, I swear!" That was the first time we truly broke. I never imagined Julian could sink so low. He went to my dad and told him I wanted a divorce. My dad’s condition was already fragile. The shock sent him straight into the ICU. Julian knelt before me and swore: "I swear, this is the last time." Later, when my dad stabilized and was moved to a regular room, I hid the truth about the baby to protect his health. I just reassured him: "Dad, Julian and I are fine. Don't worry." From that day on, I completely stopped caring about whatever went on between Julian and Chloe.Julian was very pleased with my new submission. "That's more like it. Chloe and I are just childhood friends. If I loved her, I would have married her long ago. Stop overthinking things." Overthinking? What was the point of thinking at all? Everything was already ruined. I told myself to endure just a little longer. For my dad’s sake, I had to hold on. If our baby were still here, maybe I wouldn't have been so resolute about leaving. Julian bought the house, so I had no intention of clinging to it. I packed my bags and moved into my apartment. I didn't expect Julian to show up at my door that very night. When I opened the door and saw him, I tried to slam it shut. Julian forced his way in with his shoulder. "Are you out of your mind? Why does your divorce agreement include asset division?!" Hearing that, I laughed. "Why? We're getting a divorce. Why shouldn't our assets be divided?" "You actually want to divorce me?!" "You actually thought I didn't?" I looked at him mockingly. In this relationship, I had always been the one bending over backward. He thought taking me to the courthouse would scare me into submission. Now that he had read the fine print, panic finally set in. In the split second our eyes met, I saw pure terror in Julian’s gaze. "Julian, I'm only taking what's legally mine. I didn't drag your dirty laundry into court. You shouldn't come crawling back here—it looks pathetic, you know?" "Fine... fine!" Julian gritted his teeth. "Aren't you afraid I'll go straight to your father right now?" He stood tall, a smug sneer spreading across his face. "Go ahead." In fact, I wished he would go find my dad. A piece of trash like him didn't deserve to breathe anyway. My response left Julian dumbfounded. "Are you so blinded by jealousy that you don't even care about your own dad anymore?!" To this day, he still refused to believe my dad was dead. On the day my dad died, Chloe leaked private photos of me all over Twitter. She posted: "This is the homewrecker who stole my man and rigged the competition against me." Clueless netizens swarmed my accounts, branding me a side chick who deserved to rot in hell. My dad overheard other patients gossiping about it in the hospital, and that was how he found out about the internet witch-hunt. He had a sudden heart attack from the shock. By the time I rushed to the hospital, it was too late. My dad held my hand with his last ounce of strength and said, "Sweetheart, get a divorce... Dad knows how much you've suffered." He believed in me. He knew his daughter would never do something so vile, but I never got the chance to prove it to the world before he closed his eyes. Even after he died, trolls posted online saying he deserved it. It was sickeningly ironic. Julian, my own husband, was still using my father to threaten me. Yet total strangers on the internet knew my dad had passed away. Wasn't that hilarious? He never gave a damn about me—or my dad. After handling the funeral arrangements, I reported Chloe’s account. I submitted all the original design drafts and evidence to the competition committee. Eventually, the official committee released a public statement: [Riley Adams earned her finalist spot entirely on merit. Anyone questioning this is welcome to review the records at our headquarters.] Right after, I posted my marriage certificate with Julian: [Excuse me, which man did I supposedly steal from you? Is it this one?]Even though the public didn't know all the messy details, the internet turned on Chloe in an instant, flooding her comment sections. Backed into a corner, Chloe had to delete every single video mentioning me. Back when I called Julian to come to my dad's funeral, he had simply laughed coldly: "Fabricating your dad's death just to keep me from taking care of Chloe? You're heartless." Then he turned off his phone. I handled my father's burial completely alone. Standing at the cemetery that day, I swore to myself: I would divorce Julian, and I would make Chloe pay in blood. For the past month, I had been quietly gathering dirt on Chloe. My dad died of an illness, and legally I couldn't pin his murder on her directly, but without her, he would still be here. The butterfly effect was real. Chloe had to pay. After kicking Julian out of my apartment, I moved to the next step. Over the following month, Chloe harassed me non-stop. She showed up wherever I went, making public scenes, screeching that I was a home-wrecker. Whenever she got exposed, she pulled the "I have a mental illness" card. She even sent me daily photos and videos of her and Julian together—even explicit clips of them in bed. I swallowed it all. The day of the Grand Sculpture finals arrived—and it happened to be the day our divorce decree was finalized at the courthouse. Julian dragged his feet, refusing to show up. He called me: "Chloe doesn't want you in this contest. If you go on stage, she'll kill herself!" "Then let her die." What the hell did that have to do with me? Always with the "I'm gonna die" crap. Hearing my icy reply, Julian sounded deeply hurt: "Are you even human? Where is your basic empathy?!" "Julian, I’ll ask you one thing: are we finalizing this divorce today, or not?" "No!" Julian was stubborn. I let out a low chuckle. "Fine. Then I'm walking straight onto that stage right now." "Wait!" Julian blocked my path. "What will it take for you to drop out of the contest?!" "Sign the final decree at the courthouse, and I'll drop out." I looked him dead in the eye, utterly confident. He froze. After a long silence, he choked out, "You... you really want to get rid of me that badly?" "Yes." "Fine. I'll give you what you want!" Julian agreed out of pure spite. I, however, meant every single word. Holding the official divorce decree in my hands, a smile spread across my face for the first time in ages. Julian glared at me, his face thunderous. "Now that we're divorced, you stay away from that competition." "Julian, oh Julian... are you sure? Does me missing the contest really make you that happy?" I smiled warmly. My calm smile unnerved him even more. "What are you smirking at?" "Julian, do you honestly believe Chloe is sick? Do you really think she loves you?" "What the hell are you talking about?!" Seeing him panic, I raised an eyebrow. "Check your SnapChat." While Julian looked down at his screen, I turned on my heel and walked straight to my car. This time, Julian didn't stop me. I made it to the auditorium just in time. The moment Chloe saw me walk in, she jumped up from her seat. "What are you doing here?! How dare you show your face?! Riley, I'm the one who belongs in this competition! Why are you here? You just want to see me die, don't you?!" Before anyone could react, she pulled a utility blade from her bag and pressed it against her throat. The hall instantly erupted into panic. I stood there, completely unbothered. "I am participating in this contest today. If you've got the guts, go ahead and cut." The people around us immediately began pointing fingers at me. "How can you be so callous?! That's a human life!" Seeing the crowd rally behind her, Chloe could barely hide the smug gleam in her eyes. Right then, Julian shoved the double doors open.