CEO's Divorce Battle

My name's Rue Leonard. When I hit thirty, I thought I had the perfect life that everyone else envied. My husband, Brad Quinn, is someone I've known since I was a child. Our families lived in the same old neighborhood. He's two years older than me and always looked out for me when we were kids. Whenever someone tried to snatch candy from my hand, he'd jump right in and fight them off. Even if his face got bruised, he'd still make sure to stuff the candy back into my hand. Back then, the old folks in the alley always said, "Brad is gonna be a good man who really cares for his wife." I never thought those words would actually come true for so many years. After high school, neither Brad nor I got into college. His parents wanted him to work at a factory, and my parents told me to find a steady job and get married early. But Brad wasn't having it. He grabbed my hand and said, "Rue, let's not get stuck in this alley our whole lives. Let's go out, take a chance, and start our own company." Back then, we only had a few thousand bucks saved up—not even enough to rent a decent office. So we rented a tiny 10-square-meter room in the city village, spent our days chasing clients and markets, and at night just laid mats on the floor to sleep. Once, to close a deal, we waited downstairs at the client's company for three whole days. The winter wind was freezing; Brad Quinn took off his down jacket and wrapped it around me while he wore only a thin sweater. I asked him if he was cold, and he just smiled, saying, "Not cold—I'm a man." In the end, our persistence moved the client, and they signed the contract. That night, we cooked a bowl of instant noodles in the little room, added two eggs, and Brad Quinn gave me both, saying I was the one suffering with him. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I felt like all the hardship and fatigue had been worth it. Later on, the company slowly picked up, moving from a tiny ten-square-meter room to an office building, and our staff grew from just the two of us to dozens. Brad Quinn became the boss, but he still treated me just as well as before. He never stayed out late socializing and always came back with my favorite desserts. When I got my period, he would personally make me brown sugar ginger tea and massage my belly. Everyone at the company admired me, saying Mr. Quinn was a real catch—a husband who married such a great wife and still treated me so well. I always thought we'd just go through life together like that. Until that afternoon, when a woman I'd never seen before knocked on my door. When I opened it, she was standing there with her hands resting on her slightly rounded belly, eyes full of challenge. "You're Rue Leonard, right?" She spoke first, her voice not loud but sharp and unsettling. I nodded, a bad feeling creeping up: "May I ask who you are?" "I'm Mona Zimmerman." She paused, deliberately pushed her belly out, "I'm three months pregnant with Brad Quinn's baby." My head buzzed like something just exploded inside it. I stared at her belly, then remembered how Brad Quinn had been saying the company was super busy lately, often working late—sometimes not even coming home. I never doubted him before; I always thought he was genuinely working hard for the company. "What did you just say?" My voice trembled a bit—I couldn't believe what I just heard. Mona sneered and walked into the room, then plopped down on the sofa like she owned the place: "Rue, I know it wasn't easy starting a business with Brad." "But feelings aren't something you can keep alive just by working hard. Brad loves me now, not you." She grabbed the glass of water on the table, took a sip, and continued, "I'm carrying his child. There's no way I'll let the baby be born without a name." "So, I hope you can be smart and go ahead and divorce Brad." "Who do you think you are, telling me to get a divorce?" I finally came back to my senses, and my anger outweighed the shock. "This is my home. Who do you think you are, coming here to tell me to divorce him?" Mona's smile stayed put, but this time it was tinged with a bit of mockery: "Rue, don't be so naive." "Do you really think Brad still loves you like he used to? He's been sick of you for a long time." "And after all these years with him, you couldn't even give him a child. Do you really think you deserve him?" "So what if I can't have kids?" I was shaking with anger. "It's not just my problem, and anyway, Brad never looked down on me because of this before!" "That was then, this is now." Mona put down her glass, stood up, and walked right over to me. "I can give Brad a child, give him a real family. Can you? Rue, face it. It's time for you to step aside." I stared at her smug face, feeling like my heart was being cut with a knife.