The music stopped before the final note.

For several seconds, nobody moved.

Co Dinh Xuyen’s hand was still resting on To Van Tinh’s waist when Lam Tri Y stepped onto the dance floor.

Three hundred pairs of eyes turned toward them.

Dinh Xuyen recovered first.

“Tri Y.”

His voice carried a warning disguised as gentleness.

“What are you doing here?”

Lam Tri Y smiled.

It was the same elegant smile she had worn beside him at countless charity dinners, shareholder meetings, and family celebrations.

But tonight, there was something different in her eyes.

“I came to congratulate you.”

She glanced at the trophy on the nearby table.

“Most Influential Businessman of the Year.”

A faint murmur passed through the guests.

Dinh Xuyen frowned.

“We can talk at home.”

“Home?”

Tri Y repeated the word as though she had forgotten what it meant.

Then she turned toward To Van Tinh.

“Director To, you dance beautifully.”

Van Tinh’s face stiffened.

“Mrs. Co, I think you’ve misunderstood. Chairman Co only invited me because—”

“Because you’re pregnant?”

Silence crashed across the ballroom.

Van Tinh went pale.

Dinh Xuyen’s expression changed instantly.

“Lam Tri Y!”

His voice was sharp now.

She looked at him calmly.

“What?”

“You’re drunk.”

“No.”

She placed her untouched champagne glass on a waiter’s tray.

“I’ve actually never been more sober.”

Several phones had already appeared beneath tables and behind handbags.

Everyone understood that something extraordinary was happening.

Tri Y reached into her clutch and removed her phone.

“Director To, should I congratulate you as well?”

Van Tinh’s lips trembled.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Twelve weeks.”

Those two words were enough.

Dinh Xuyen’s jaw tightened.

Van Tinh instinctively covered her abdomen.

That tiny movement confirmed more than any confession could.

Gasps spread through the room.

Mrs. Tran stared at Tri Y in horror.

Someone whispered, “Twelve weeks?”

Another voice answered, “She only joined Dinh Xuyen Group three months ago.”

Tri Y heard everything.

She simply kept smiling.

Dinh Xuyen stepped toward her.

“Enough.”

He lowered his voice.

“Whatever you think you know, we’ll discuss it privately.”

For seven years, that tone had worked.

It was the tone he used when deciding where they lived.

Which events she attended.

Which friends were suitable.

When she should smile.

When she should remain silent.

Tri Y once mistook control for protection.

Tonight, she finally understood the difference.

“No.”

The single word made Dinh Xuyen stop.

Tri Y lifted her eyes.

“You humiliated me publicly, so why should I protect you privately?”

His face darkened.

“You’d better think carefully before you continue.”

“I already have.”

She tapped her phone.

The giant screen behind the stage suddenly flickered.

The award ceremony logo disappeared.

A photograph replaced it.

Dinh Xuyen’s black Bentley.

11:07 p.m.

The underground parking garage of an apartment building.

Then another photograph.

Dinh Xuyen entering an elevator with his arm around Van Tinh’s waist.

Then another.

The apartment.

The curtains.

Two figures embracing behind the glass.

The ballroom exploded into whispers.

Van Tinh staggered backward.

“Turn it off!”

Tri Y didn’t even look at her.

Dinh Xuyen rushed toward the control table.

But before he reached it, the screen went black.

Tri Y had already ended the presentation.

“I don’t need seventeen photographs,” she said quietly.

“One is enough.”

Dinh Xuyen turned toward her.

For the first time that evening, the celebrated businessman no longer looked powerful.

He looked exposed.

“You investigated me?”

Tri Y almost laughed.

“That is what concerns you?”

His nostrils flared.

Then Van Tinh suddenly began crying.

“Mrs. Co, please don’t blame Chairman Co.”

Every head turned toward her.

She pressed a hand to her stomach.

“It was my fault.”

Dinh Xuyen immediately moved beside her.

“Van Tinh.”

She shook her head tearfully.

“No, let me speak.”

Her voice cracked beautifully.

Almost too beautifully.

“I love him. I never wanted to destroy your family. I tried to leave, but when I discovered the baby…”

She stopped and covered her mouth.

Several guests exchanged uncomfortable looks.

Tri Y watched her performance without interruption.

Then she asked one question.

“Do you want him?”

Van Tinh froze.

Dinh Xuyen stared at his wife.

“What kind of question is that?”

Tri Y ignored him.

She looked directly at the younger woman.

“Do you want Co Dinh Xuyen?”

Van Tinh’s tears stopped for half a second.

Then she whispered:

“I love him.”

Tri Y nodded.

“Good.”

She reached into her clutch again.

This time she removed a folded document.

“I’m giving him to you.”

Dinh Xuyen’s expression hardened.

Tri Y unfolded the papers and placed them against his chest.

Divorce agreement.

Four words seemed to drain the warmth from his face.

He stared at them.

Then at her.

“You’re divorcing me?”

“Yes.”

He gave a short, disbelieving laugh.

“Because of this?”

Tri Y’s gaze became colder.

“No.”

She stepped closer.

“I’m divorcing you because you thought I would never dare.”

The words struck harder than shouting could have.

Dinh Xuyen grabbed the agreement.

“You think you can walk away from the Co family whenever you want?”

“I already have.”

“You have no idea what you’re doing.”

“Actually, I do.”

His voice dropped.

“Without me, what exactly do you have?”

That question silenced the nearest guests.

Everyone in Tan Hai knew Lam Tri Y as Mrs. Co.

The elegant wife.

The woman standing half a step behind the chairman.

Few remembered who she had been before marrying him.

Dinh Xuyen apparently didn’t either.

Tri Y looked toward the stage.

“Mr. Zhou.”

An elderly man sitting at the first table slowly stood.

Dinh Xuyen’s face changed.

Zhou Ming.

Founder of Tianhe Capital.

One of the most powerful private investors in the region.

And, more importantly, one of Dinh Xuyen Group’s largest institutional shareholders.

Zhou buttoned his jacket and walked toward Tri Y.

When he reached her, he did something nobody expected.

He bowed.

“Chairwoman Lam.”

The ballroom went completely silent.

Dinh Xuyen stared at him.

“What did you call her?”

Zhou looked at him almost pityingly.

“Chairwoman Lam.”

Tri Y said nothing.

Zhou continued.

“Seven years ago, Miss Lam transferred management rights of Yuncheng Holdings into a private trust after her marriage.”

Dinh Xuyen’s fingers tightened around the divorce papers.

Yuncheng Holdings.

Even Van Tinh recognized the name.

It controlled investment funds, logistics companies, technology firms, and commercial property across three provinces.

Its ownership structure had remained deliberately obscure for years.

Zhou turned toward the guests.

“The trust’s sole beneficiary is Lam Tri Y.”

A glass fell somewhere in the ballroom.

Dinh Xuyen stared at his wife as if seeing a stranger.

“That’s impossible.”

Tri Y finally smiled.

“Is it?”

“You told me your father left you almost nothing.”

“I told you I didn’t need your money.”

“That isn’t the same thing.”

“No.”

She tilted her head.

“It isn’t.”

His face gradually lost color.

Then Zhou delivered the sentence that shattered what remained of Dinh Xuyen’s confidence.

“Yuncheng Holdings currently controls 31.8 percent of Dinh Xuyen Group through affiliated funds.”

Van Tinh’s mouth opened.

Dinh Xuyen didn’t speak.

He couldn’t.

Tri Y had spent seven years standing beside him while society called her fortunate.

People said she had married upward.

They praised Dinh Xuyen for giving her a luxurious life.

And all that time, a significant portion of the empire beneath his feet had quietly belonged to her.

Tri Y took the trophy from his hand.

She examined the engraved words.

MOST INFLUENTIAL BUSINESSMAN OF THE YEAR.

Then she returned it.

“Keep it.”

Her voice was almost gentle.

“You may need something to remember tonight by.”

She turned away.

“Lam Tri Y!”

Dinh Xuyen finally lost control.

She stopped.

His voice echoed through the ballroom.

“If you walk out that door, don’t come back.”

Tri Y slowly looked over her shoulder.

The bright red lipstick made her smile look almost dangerous.

“That was the plan.”

Then Zhou Ming approached her and whispered something.

Only six words.

But they changed her expression completely.

“The board meeting has been moved forward.”

Tri Y frowned.

“To when?”

“Tomorrow morning.”

He hesitated.

“And there’s another problem.”

He handed her a sealed envelope.

Tri Y opened it.

Inside was a copy of a share-transfer agreement.

Her eyes moved across the page.

Then stopped.

The signature belonged to Co Dinh Xuyen.

The recipient was To Van Tinh.

Five percent of Dinh Xuyen Group.

Transferred three weeks earlier.

But that wasn’t what made Tri Y’s blood turn cold.

Attached to the agreement was a confidential board document.

It contained a proposal scheduled for tomorrow.

A proposal to dilute Yuncheng Holdings’ voting rights and remove several directors loyal to her trust.

This affair wasn’t merely an affair.

Someone had been preparing for war.

Tri Y raised her eyes toward Van Tinh.

The frightened mistress was no longer crying.

For one brief second, their eyes met.

And Van Tinh smiled.

Not innocently.

Not nervously.

Triumphantly.

Tri Y finally understood.

She had entered the ballroom believing she was exposing her husband’s betrayal.

Instead, she had just revealed the opening move of something far more dangerous.

And tomorrow morning, one of them would lose control of the entire empire.
:::