Co Thanh Xuyen leaned back in his chair and looked at me with a smile that was almost indulgent.
“Don’t glare at me like you want to eat me alive.”
He tapped the table with one finger.
“You humiliated Kieu Kieu for an entire night. Tonight, you can experience the same thing.”
The people behind him laughed again.
Ly Kieu Kieu covered her mouth, pretending to be embarrassed.
“Thanh Xuyen, maybe that’s enough. After all, Sister Niem is your wife.”
Wife.
She said the word as if she were reminding me that I possessed an empty title she had already hollowed out.
I wiped the wine from my cheek with a napkin.
Then I looked at the manager.
“How much is the bill?”
He checked the tablet.
“With the private hall, imported wine, and the dishes ordered by Mr. Co, the total is 186,400.”
Kieu Kieu laughed.
“Can you even make that much money in a year?”
I ignored her.
“Bring me the invoice.”
Thanh Xuyen frowned.
“What are you pretending for?”
“I’m checking what I’m supposedly paying for.”
“You can’t pay.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
Something in my tone made the manager hand me the bill.
I scanned it slowly.
Thirty-two bottles of wine.
Rare seafood.
Premium caviar.
Imported truffles.
Several dishes that had never even reached the table.
I lifted my eyes.
“So all of this was ordered under my name?”
Thanh Xuyen smiled.
“It’s your birthday banquet.”
“And you intentionally froze the card afterward?”
“Exactly.”
His friends laughed again.
I nodded.
“Good.”
Thanh Xuyen’s smile faded slightly.
“Good?”
“Yes.”
I folded the invoice.
“Manager, please call your finance director.”
Everyone went quiet.
Kieu Kieu tilted her head.
“What are you doing now?”
The manager looked impatient.
“Miss Tham, if you are trying to delay payment—”
“I’m not.”
I opened my phone.
“Tell your finance director that Tham Niem from Horizon Dining Holdings is waiting.”
The manager froze.
For the first time that night, Thanh Xuyen stopped smiling.
“What did you say?”
I looked at him.
“You heard me.”
The manager’s expression changed completely.
He stepped away and made a call.
Less than three minutes later, a middle-aged man in a dark suit rushed into the private hall.
He saw me.
Then immediately bowed.
“Miss Tham.”
Nobody laughed anymore.
Thanh Xuyen slowly stood.
“Do you know her?”
The man looked confused.
“Of course.”
Then he turned to me.
“We didn’t know you were dining here tonight. If headquarters had informed us—”
“There was no need.”
I placed the invoice in front of him.
“Is this restaurant still under Horizon’s direct management?”
“Yes.”
“Then freeze this transaction.”
He nodded without hesitation.
Thanh Xuyen’s face hardened.
“Wait. What does Horizon have to do with her?”
The finance director finally seemed to understand that something was wrong.
He looked at me.
I smiled.
“Apparently my husband never asked what my family does.”
For three years, Thanh Xuyen introduced me as a woman from an ordinary family.
I never corrected him.
When we met, I had been taking a year away from the family business after my mother died.
I dressed simply.
I drove an old car.
I lived in a small apartment because I couldn’t stand returning to the mansion where every room reminded me of her.
Thanh Xuyen mistook grief for poverty.
And when we married, he mistook my silence for dependence.
The finance director turned toward him.
“Horizon Dining Holdings belongs to the Tham family.”
Kieu Kieu’s face went blank.
One of Thanh Xuyen’s friends whispered:
“The Tham family?”
Another immediately pulled out his phone.
It took less than ten seconds.
His expression changed.
“Horizon owns this restaurant.”
I corrected him calmly.
“Horizon owns forty-three restaurants in the country.”
Silence.
“And six hotels.”
Thanh Xuyen stared at me.
“You never told me.”
I almost laughed.
“You never asked.”
His jaw tightened.
“So that card…”
“Wasn’t yours.”
That finally broke his expression.
The card he had given me after marriage carried his name on the supplementary account, so he had always acted as if the money came from him.
In reality, the primary account belonged to a private family trust my father created before our wedding.
Thanh Xuyen had merely been added for convenience.
The finance director looked at me carefully.
“Miss Tham, should we reactivate the card?”
“No.”
I smiled.
“Cancel every supplementary card attached to my trust.”
Kieu Kieu’s face instantly changed.
Because everyone in the room understood what that meant.
Her luxury shopping.
Her restaurants.
Her hotel bills.
The handbags she showed online.
All of it had been paid with the same account.
Thanh Xuyen stepped forward.
“Tham Niem.”
“Not finished.”
I turned to the finance director.
“Pull the spending history for the last twelve months.”
Kieu Kieu shot to her feet.
“You have no right!”
I looked at her.
“My money.”
Three words.
She sat down again.
The finance director worked quickly.
Then his expression became increasingly strange.
“Miss Tham…”
“How much?”
He hesitated.
“Approximately 4.8 million.”
The room went dead silent.
Even I hadn’t expected that much.
Thanh Xuyen looked at Kieu Kieu.
“What did you buy?”
Her lips trembled.
“Business expenses.”
“Four point eight million?”
“I entertained clients for you!”
I laughed softly.
“Then let’s see the clients.”
The finance director turned the tablet.
Luxury boutiques.
Private resorts.
Jewelry.
Beauty clinics.
A sports car deposit.
And one transaction that made Thanh Xuyen’s face lose all color.
A down payment on an apartment.
The purchaser:
Ly Kieu Kieu.
The emergency contact:
Co Thanh Xuyen.
I looked at my husband.
“Interesting.”
He immediately said:
“I can explain.”
I almost admired the irony.
Ten minutes earlier, he had invited half his social circle to watch me suffer.
Now he wanted privacy.
Kieu Kieu grabbed his arm.
“You promised the apartment was mine!”
Thanh Xuyen turned on her.
“Be quiet.”
“No! You said once she learned her place, you’d transfer it to me!”
The entire room heard her.
His friends began avoiding his eyes.
I slowly stood.
“Thank you.”
Thanh Xuyen looked at me.
“For what?”
“For saving me the trouble of collecting evidence.”
His expression changed.
I opened my handbag and took out a thin envelope.
Placed it on the table.
He stared at it.
“What is that?”
“Something I prepared this afternoon.”
He opened it.
His face went pale.
Divorce papers.
Kieu Kieu stopped breathing.
“You were already planning to divorce me?” Thanh Xuyen asked.
“No.”
I looked around the room.
“I was planning to speak with you privately.”
My gaze fell on the broken wine bottle.
“You changed my mind about the setting.”
His voice lowered.
“You’re divorcing me over a card?”
“No.”
I pointed toward Kieu Kieu.
“I’m divorcing you because you used my money to maintain another woman.”
Then at the people watching us.
“Because you invited your friends to humiliate your wife.”
Then finally at him.
“And because tonight you proved that when you think I have nothing, this is how you treat me.”
He grabbed the divorce papers.
“I won’t sign.”
I smiled.
“You don’t have to tonight.”
My phone rang.
My brother.
I answered.
“Yes?”
His voice came through clearly.
“Niem, the board finished the review.”
Thanh Xuyen stiffened.
“What board?”
I didn’t answer him.
My brother continued:
“We found the connection between Kieu Kieu’s expenses and Co Group’s procurement accounts.”
I became still.
“What connection?”
Thanh Xuyen’s face changed.
Kieu Kieu stepped backward.
My brother’s next words erased every trace of arrogance from both of them.
“The 4.8 million she spent wasn’t the real problem.”
I stared at my husband.
“Then what is?”
“The same shell companies that received her reimbursements have been taking money from Co Group.”
A pause.
“At least eighty million.”
Thanh Xuyen’s hand tightened around the table.
“That’s impossible.”
My brother heard him.
Then said calmly:
“Tell your husband the auditors will arrive at his company tomorrow morning.”
Kieu Kieu suddenly grabbed her handbag.
“I have to go.”
Thanh Xuyen caught her wrist.
“Why are you running?”
“I’m not!”
He stared at her.
And for the first time that night, the man who had brought his mistress into a restaurant to watch his wife be humiliated finally looked afraid.
I picked up my coat.
As I reached the door, the finance director called after me.
“Miss Tham, what should we do about tonight’s bill?”
I looked back at the table full of untouched food.
Then at Thanh Xuyen.
“Charge it to the person who ordered it.”
His face darkened.
I smiled.
“After all, he wanted so badly to teach me what it feels like when your card stops working.”
Then my brother sent me one final message.
A photograph.
Kieu Kieu entering a private bank three days earlier.
Beside her was a man I recognized immediately.
Not Thanh Xuyen.
His father.
And suddenly I understood that the secretary had not been spending millions simply because my husband spoiled her.
Someone inside the Co family had been using her to move money.
And my husband had just humiliated the only person who could have saved him before the auditors arrived.
