My Wife's Lover Called Into My Livestream

I give relationship advice online, helping the lovesick and heartbroken work through their problems. One night a young man called into my livestream. A wealthy woman had been keeping him for seven years. Now he wanted to go home and get married, but she'd threatened to kill herself if he left. I gave him the standard advice. "You want out? Go to her husband. Tell him the truth. Give everything back." Three days later a property deed arrived, along with dozens of luxury-car keys and more than a hundred designer bags. Then my phone lit up with a transfer notification. Eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The note read: "Thanks for the advice. Returning everything to its rightful owner." I looked at my wife's name on the deed. That night I went live. "Tonight, I'm telling you a joke about myself." Chapter 1 "Remember the guy who called in yesterday? The one who said a rich woman had been keeping him for seven years, and he wanted out?" I'd followed the address on the deed to an enormous house. My livestream was still running on my phone as I walked inside. God, I was pathetic. I'd found out my wife was cheating, and here I was turning my own humiliation into views. Because views paid Dad's medical bills. I swallowed against the tightness in my throat. "Want to know what happened next?" I looked into the camera. "Turns out I'm the husband." The chat exploded. Paid gifts flooded the screen faster than I could read them. I was about to speak again when the front door opened. "Stop following me! I told you, we're done!" The voice was unmistakable. It was the caller from yesterday. My stomach dropped. Vivian Sterling walked in right behind him. He jerked his hand out of hers. Her expression darkened. "Baby. Don't joke about that." "I'm not joking." His voice was low and sullen. "My mom introduced me to a really nice girl back home. I'm going back to marry her." Vivian came unglued. She dragged her hands through her hair and paced in a tight circle. Then she kicked over the coffee table. "Who is she? What could she possibly give you?" Glass shattered. He flinched, his eyes filling with tears. "You're such a bastard, Vivian." She kissed the tears from his cheeks. When she spoke, her voice was rough. "If you don't want to watch me die, don't leave me. Please." He shoved her away. "Then what am I supposed to do? You won't make this official, and you won't let me go!" He covered his face and sobbed. We'd been married for seven years. In public, Vivian was always cool and controlled. I'd never seen her lose herself like this over anyone. I stood there, stunned, until the selfie stick slipped from my hand and the camera swung wildly on its way down. The chat erupted again. "Was that the other guy's face? Give me a minute. I'll find out who he is." "Are we seriously watching his wife fight with her side piece LIVE?" "Okay, but that woman who flashed across the screen looked so cool and gorgeous!" "Where'd you go? Keep streaming!" The noise finally drew their attention to the upstairs landing, where I stood. The young man's eyes lit up with desperate relief. "You came!" He rushed upstairs and grabbed my arm. "I don't want the house. Or the cars. Any of it." His fingers tightened. "Please, talk to her. Make her let me go. You said if I gave everything back, I could leave. Didn't you?" I couldn't answer. I could barely feel my face. Vivian charged up after him and closed a hand around my throat. "When did you find out about Julian?" Her eyes dropped to the deed I was holding. Her grip tightened. "Did he make you give the house back?" she demanded of him. "Did he?" I couldn't breathe. Julian Cole grabbed at her arm. "No! I sent it to him myself! Stop!" Only then did she let go of me. She caught his hand instead, and her voice softened as if someone had flipped a switch. Chapter 2 "What if I can make it official? What if I make you my husband? Everything you want, Julian. I'll give you all of it." I closed my eyes. There was nothing left inside me but grief. In the silence, Julian slowly let go of the arm he'd been using to steady me. He lowered his head. "Okay. Three more days. If you haven't done it by then, you let me go." After Vivian left with him, I bent to retrieve my phone. More than a hundred thousand people were watching. The chat was full of the same demand. "Show us the diary!" I looked where the phone had fallen. A journal had slipped out beside Julian's pile of luggage — a journal about their relationship. I opened it for the viewers. With every page, I felt the blood drain farther from my face. March 18, 2018 "We've been together for three years. Today she married someone else. "She says he's just part of a business deal between their families. I'm the only one she loves. We spent the night together, crying and clinging to each other." Our wedding night. She'd left me alone until morning. Now I knew where she'd been. April 4, 2019 "She told me she didn't love him. But she got pregnant. She swore through her tears that the only children she would ever have would be mine." In seven years, Vivian had lost six pregnancies without explanation. Whenever I suggested we see a doctor to find out why, something happened to stop me. The first time, a car crash left me in a coma for six months. The second time, I was stabbed by a man I was told was mentally ill. The third time, I got food poisoning. And it kept happening. I went cold.I didn't dare think any further. June 19, 2021 "It was pouring today, and I accidentally hit someone with the car. Thunder scares me. Thank God she was there." The day my mother died. I'd knelt in the rain, crying until I developed a fever and collapsed. Vivian had left me there to spend the night with Julian. May 14, 2025 "My family keeps pushing me to get married. I tried to break up with her for the first time. She gave me ten percent of her company. Said it meant I'd never have to worry about my future." A share-transfer agreement was tucked behind that page. I read it and forgot how to breathe. That May, Dad's company had run out of cash. Bankruptcy was closing in. I'd begged Vivian to help him. Over and over, she told me money was tight. The assets she said she couldn't touch had gone straight to Julian instead. At almost exactly the same time. Dad's company went under. Then Dad ended up in intensive care. My hands shook so badly I could barely end the stream. The moment the screen went dark, I started sobbing. Vivian was waiting when I finally made it home. "Sign the divorce papers." She reclined on the couch, legs crossed. Love bites showed above her open collar. I clenched my hands and forced the words past the lump in my throat. "You cheated on me for seven years. You don't think you owe me an explanation?" She looked up. "Technically, Nolan, you're the one who came between us." I stared at her. "Sign the papers and behave," she continued. "You'll still have your place with me." The bitterness nearly choked me. She wanted to make Julian her husband and keep me as her side piece. I fought back tears. "And if I refuse?" She rose, crossed the room, and seized me by the throat. Her voice was ice. "Your family's bankrupt. Your father's coverage ran out months ago. Keeping him on that ventilator runs six thousand dollars a day out of pocket, and your livestream is the only thing paying for it." She leaned closer. "Sign, or I'll destroy your account." I looked at her and laughed. Tears ran down my face. When Dad first collapsed, I'd thought about asking her for the money. It would have made everything easier. But I loved Vivian. After all those pleas about Dad's company, I hadn't wanted money to become the only thing left between us. So I'd pushed myself to stream around the clock and cover his care on my own. I'd thought I was protecting what we had. She'd been holding it as a chip the whole time. Chapter 3 As my air ran out, I didn't fight her. Maybe it was the emptiness in my eyes. The despair. Whatever she saw, Vivian abruptly let go. I collapsed, coughing. My head struck the corner of the table, and blood trickled down my face. She stepped toward me as if to help. Then Julian called. His sobs carried through the phone. "Vivian, come quick. Something happened—" She left without looking back. I'd barely gotten to my feet when the hospital called about Dad's account. "Mr. Hayes, your father's balance is past due again. We can't keep carrying it. If you could—" I didn't have time to fall apart. I wiped my eyes, pulled myself together, and went live again. A comment appeared almost immediately. "Don't worry. We found your wife's boyfriend and taught him a lesson. We've got your back!" I thought it was just someone trying to make me feel better. I was about to thank them when the front door burst open. Half a dozen strangers in matching red shirts pushed inside. One grabbed my hair. The others took my arms and hauled me toward the door. I struggled in panic. "Who are you? What are you doing?" They dragged me out onto the sidewalk. Vivian stepped out from behind them. "You sent your followers after Julian. Dead rats. Razor blades. He was so frightened he ended up in the hospital." I shook my head automatically. Then I remembered the comment. "Still denying it?" She smiled coldly and signaled to them. "Apparently you need a lesson of your own." They swarmed me, pinned my arms, and held me at the curb. A rented screen truck was already parked there. AI-generated images of me with women played across it on a loop for the whole block to see. None of it was real. The rest of them worked the sidewalk with signs and banners calling me a slut and a serial cheater. Vivian had paid them, and they earned it, telling every neighbor who slowed down about my supposedly filthy private life. People stopped to film. By evening the worst moments of my life were trending. My account lost two million followers in a single day. They kept me out there for dozens of hours. It was well after dark before Vivian finally told them to let me go. I could barely move. "I signed," I said through tears. "I signed your divorce papers. Why couldn't you leave me the one thing I needed to survive?" She came closer, took out a handkerchief, and gently wiped the blood from my face. "You hurt Julian," she said. "That's the one thing I won't tolerate." I looked at her in the dim light and understood that I had never known her at all, and that she frightened me. "Remember this. Tomorrow, you're coming to the hospital to apologize." She walked away. I closed my eyes, shaking with pain and cold. Without the stream, I couldn't keep paying for Dad's care. Bruised and bleeding, I dragged myself toward a bank. Maybe I could get a loan. Just as I reached it, the hospital called again. "Mr. Hayes, please come right away." A pause. "Your father saw the videos. The news. He became very distressed… He disconnected his life support himself." The cold went all the way through me. I sank down on the empty sidewalk and cried like a child who had lost everything. At two in the morning, I stood in a crematorium and watched them take my father away. When they gave him back, he fit inside a small urn. My phone rang. Vivian. "Why aren't you home?" she asked, irritated. "I sent a doctor to look at your injuries. Where did you go?" I said nothing. She seemed to take my silence for anger about what she'd done that day. After a moment, she softened her voice. "Don't worry about the money. I'll take care of you now. I've already covered your father's bill for the month—" Chapter 4 I hung up before she could finish. Pressing my cheek against Dad's urn, I whispered the same words over and over. "I don't need it anymore. Your money. Your love. None of it. "I'm taking you home, Dad. To our home." Numb, I carried his ashes back to the house I'd shared with Vivian for seven years. There was nothing left there for me. I wanted to take Dad back to the town where he and Mom had raised me. Warren and Diane Hayes had bought that house together. He belonged next to her. I tore up all eighty-one love letters I'd written Vivian, from childhood onward. I smashed our wedding portrait. I broke apart the furniture we'd chosen together, tore down the decorations we'd hung, and destroyed every gift she'd ever given me. Then I gathered my essential documents. Apart from Dad's ashes, they were all I took. I was heading out to catch the earliest flight when the hospital called. "Mr. Hayes, we found something of your father's in his room." It was a flash drive. There was only one video on it. I opened it and heard Julian's voice. "You know why you're still alive, Mr. Hayes? Your son streams twenty-four hours a day. That's what it takes to scrape together one day of your treatment. "You saw the news. That income's gone now." He paused. "Want to know what Vivian said? If he agrees to stay on as her side piece, she'll pay the six thousand a day to keep you here. "Is that what you want? For him to swallow all that humiliation just so you can keep breathing?" On the screen, Dad struggled for air. Tears ran down his face. He looked toward the tiny camera hidden among the leaves of a potted plant. Every word cost him. "Nolan. I'm sorry. I've made life so hard for you. "Don't let anyone do this to you, son. Live the life you want. "Don't blame yourself when I'm gone. Remember… I'll always love you." Then he reached up and disconnected his life support, and died there on the screen while I watched. The video ended. My reflection stared back at me, streaked with tears. I shook so hard I could barely hold the phone. I tasted blood in my mouth. Dad had loved me more than anything. What had it done to him to see me treated like that? Grief gave way to a rage so enormous it swallowed everything else. Julian had driven the last person who loved me to his death. I wanted him to pay. I found him and went straight for his throat. "You killed him. Why?" My voice broke into a scream. "Why did you say those things to my father? I'll kill you!" He looked terrified at first. Then he smiled at me. There wasn't a trace of remorse in his eyes. "Sorry. But Vivian still wanted to keep you around. I needed you to give up on her and leave for good. What else was I supposed to do?" Vivian rushed in and shoved me away from him. She immediately turned to check his injuries. I stumbled backward and fell down the stairs. She didn't even look at me. She put her arms around Julian and hurried him to the hospital. Once he was settled, she pulled out her phone, still furious. Her message ordered me to come to the hospital, get on my knees, and apologize. Otherwise she'd stop paying for Dad's care. It didn't go through. Neither did the next one. Only then did she realize I'd blocked her. Her expression stiffened. When her calls wouldn't connect either, she phoned the hospital and told the nurse to pass on a message. "Tell Nolan to get back here and apologize to Julian. Or I'm cutting off his father's payments today." The nurse hesitated. "Ms. Sterling… Your husband didn't tell you? Mr. Hayes died several days ago. He took his own life."