THE DIVORCE GAMBIT From Dumped Wife to CEO's Forever novel Chapter 395

In short, the bigger this scandal blows up, the better.

Let everyone in town watch and gossip. That’s the only way to truly humiliate Caitlin—make her a laughingstock among the city’s elite, drag her reputation through the mud, and force her out of the Gonzales family for good.

Ann nodded eagerly. “I’ll call my friends now and invite them to the party.”

Ann was always the social butterfly. All her friends were daughters of old money families.

“Go ahead,” Amanda said, nodding. Then she seemed to remember something and called out, “Wait, Ann.”

“What is it, Mom?” Ann paused at the door and glanced back.

Amanda’s voice lowered, “Do any of your friends know that you’re the one behind the online handle ‘Victoria’?”

“Yeah,” Ann replied, “but only one person.”

“Who?” Amanda pressed.

“Mabel. She figured out right away that the photo was of me.”

Amanda’s eyes narrowed, calculating. “From now on, you need to make sure everyone knows you are Victoria. And you need to make sure everyone knows what a shameless thief Caitlin is.”

That was the only way to make the birthday party truly explosive, to leave Caitlin with nowhere to hide.

Ann caught her mother’s meaning instantly. “Got it, Mom.”

She turned to go to her room.

“Wait, Ann,” Amanda called again.

Ann stopped, a bit impatient. “What now, Mom?”

Amanda’s eyes glinted with scheming. “One more thing.”

“What is it?”

“Spread the word about Caitlin signing that ridiculous bet with Leo Barrett. Let everyone know how out of her depth she is!”

If they were going to drive Caitlin out of the city’s high society, they had to make as much noise as possible. The bigger, the better.

Ann nodded. “No problem.”

—“You call yourself N? Don’t you know N is a famous chess prodigy?”

—“Ha! Couldn’t get clout from chess, so now you’re leeching off Victoria?”

—“Disgusting!”

—“This is hysterical. I even heard this country girl signed some bet with the Gonzales Holdings board, claiming she could take the company global and launch a star product in just six months!”

—“There’s so much to laugh at, I don’t even know where to start.”

...

Caitlin’s comment section was a circus, with nearly every message throwing insults her way.

But Caitlin didn’t care at all. She went about life as usual, leaving early and coming home late, spending her days buried in the lab.

Meanwhile, in Leo Barrett’s office, several board members were deep in discussion with him when Andrea Webster suddenly remembered something.

“Chairman Barrett,” she said, turning to Leo, “Eaton from R&D mentioned that Freya has been practically living in the lab lately. Do you think she might actually pull off developing a star product?”