After leaving the airport, I thought I would finally feel better.

But I didn’t.

The image of Trinh Minh Vien letting Ton Vu Manh sleep on his lap kept replaying in my mind.

The way he looked at her.

The way he protected her.

The way he froze when he saw me.

Those details hurt more than any explanation he could give.

For the rest of the day, I focused on work.

I visited the factory.

Checked the supplier problems.

Reviewed every document.

I forced myself to stay busy because whenever I stopped, my heart started asking questions I didn’t want to answer.

That night, my phone rang.

It was Trinh Minh Vien.

I looked at the screen for a long time.

Before, I would have answered immediately.

Now, I let it ring.

A minute later, a message appeared.

“Xiaonan, we need to talk.”

I didn’t reply.

Another message came.

“I can explain.”

I smiled bitterly.

Explain.

That word always appeared after someone was caught.

Not before.

The next morning, when I arrived at the factory, I received a call from my company’s finance department.

“Manager Lin, we found something unusual in the supplier documents you requested us to check.”

I frowned.

“What is it?”

“There are several payments connected to Trinh Technology’s project.”

My heart tightened.

“What does that have to do with me?”

The other side hesitated.

“Some of the supplier contracts were changed six months ago.”

“Changed by whom?”

A pause.

Then the answer came.

“Ton Vu Manh.”

I stood still.

Six months.

Exactly when my husband’s business trips started becoming frequent.

I immediately opened the documents they sent me.

At first glance, everything looked normal.

But I had worked in purchasing for years.

I knew where to look.

And after ten minutes, I found the problem.

Several suppliers had increased their prices.

The difference wasn’t huge.

Just enough to avoid attention.

But the payments all went through an intermediary company.

And the owner of that company…

Was related to Ton Vu Manh.

I stared at the screen.

Suddenly, the woman I thought was just trying to get close to my husband became someone else.

Someone with a plan.

That evening, Trinh Minh Vien came to my hotel.

He looked exhausted.

“Xiaonan, please listen to me.”

I opened the door but didn’t invite him in.

“Talk.”

He looked at me.

“I know what you saw on the plane looked bad.”

I laughed softly.

“Looked bad?”

His face became uncomfortable.

“Ton Vu Manh was tired. She had been working all night before the flight.”

“So?”

“I was just taking care of a colleague.”

I looked at him.

“Would you say the same thing if I was the one sleeping on another man’s lap?”

He immediately became silent.

Because he knew the answer.

I stepped back.

“Continue.”

He lowered his voice.

“She has helped me a lot at work.”

I smiled.

“More than your wife?”

His expression changed.

“That’s not fair.”

“No.”

I looked directly at him.

“What’s not fair is that I spent five years trusting you while everyone around me could see something was wrong.”

He rubbed his forehead.

“You are misunderstanding.”

“Then explain the contracts.”

His hand stopped.

The silence lasted only a few seconds.

But it was enough.

“You know about that?”

I looked at him coldly.

“So there is something to know.”

He looked away.

And that was when I finally understood.

The problem was never just Ton Vu Manh.

The problem was that my husband had been keeping secrets from me.

“I never wanted to hurt you,” he said.

“But you did.”

He looked at me.

“I was going to tell you.”

“When?”

“When everything was solved.”

I nodded.

That was always the excuse.

People always wanted to tell the truth after they had already controlled the outcome.

I turned around.

“Xiaonan.”

I stopped.

His voice softened.

“I still love you.”

For a moment, my heart moved.

Because five years of marriage could not disappear overnight.

But then I remembered the plane.

I remembered him saying nothing.

I remembered him protecting another woman while I stood there.

I turned back.

“If you loved me…”

I paused.

“You would have been afraid of losing me before I found out.”

The next day, I returned home early.

I wasn’t planning to fight.

I wasn’t planning to cry.

I only wanted to find the truth.

When I opened the drawer in his study, I found a hidden folder.

Inside were documents.

Photos.

And a message printed on paper.

A message from Ton Vu Manh.

My hands trembled as I read the first line.

“Mr. Trinh, once your divorce is completed, we can finally stop pretending.”

I froze.

Then I read the next sentence.

And everything I believed about my husband collapsed.

Because the woman on the plane wasn’t just his secretary.

She had been waiting for my marriage to end.

And Trinh Minh Vien…

Had already promised her that it would.