A Game of Love and Vengeance

My name is Edith Joe, and I've been living in M City for five years. My husband, Stanley Madison, is one of the top entrepreneurs in M City. To outsiders, he cherishes me deeply, giving me a marriage and lifestyle others envy. But lately, the rumors swirling around M City started to take a darker turn. Everywhere I went, people whispered that Stanley Madison was inseparable from a young girl, always seen together. I sat on the soft sofa in the private room, my fingertips lightly tracing the cold glass of my cup. My best friend Diana suddenly flung open the door and stormed in, her face burning with anger, clutching a stack of photos. "Edith, look at this!" she said, slamming the photos onto the coffee table, her voice shaking. In the photos, Stanley Madison was holding a delicate-looking young woman, sharing an intimate smile with her in the restaurant—their closeness was glaringly obvious. Her name was Ingrid Xavier; she'd been showing up around Stanley quite often recently. "Stanley Madison actually had the nerve!" Diana Griffith sat down in fury. "Has he forgotten how he chased you back then? And now he's messing around with a young girl!" I picked up the photos and flipped through them one by one, my face completely unreadable. "I know." I put the photos down and spoke in a tone so flat, it sounded like I was talking about someone else. Diana was frozen, clearly not expecting this reaction from me. "You knew? Why are you still this calm?" She stared at me in disbelief. I looked up at her and slowly said, "This isn't his fling—it's a trap I deliberately set for him." Diana Griffith's eyes were full of confusion, waiting for me to say more. My mind involuntarily drifted back to that night three years ago. It was Stanley Madison's birthday; he'd been drinking heavily with clients and was utterly wasted. I helped him back to the bedroom, carefully wiping his face and changing his clothes. Just as I turned to get him a glass of water, he suddenly grabbed my hand. He mumbled a name softly, his voice tender and lingering—so different from how he usually spoke to me. "Caroline, don't go..." Caroline Davidson, his late first love. At that moment, all my tenderness froze in place, and my heart felt drenched in ice water, chilled from head to toe. I always knew Caroline existed, and I knew she held a special place in Stanley Madison's heart. But I thought, after three years of marriage, he would finally see my efforts and let go of that obsession. It turned out I was just fooling myself. I picked up the photo on the table again; Ingrid Xavier's eyes looked especially innocent through the lens. No one knew that Ingrid Xavier was a student I'd been sponsoring for two years. The first time I saw her, I felt something about her brows and eyes reminded me a little of Caroline Davidson. Right then, I started scheming—I purposely arranged for her to join Stanley Madison's company, carefully guiding her step by step to appear before Stanley. I had calculated Stanley's obsession with Caroline and predicted he would fall for Ingrid Xavier, who resembled Caroline. All of this was part of my plan.