My wife only sold fish at the market, but just half a month after our divorce, I was stunned to see her buying a 10-billion-VND villa.

Suddenly, seeing the wife and child I once abandoned now living comfortably in a mansion made me realize I had been deceived.

Seven years ago, I didn’t even understand why I fell for her. Back then, she wasn’t beautiful, had no career, and was just a waitress at a seafood restaurant.

That’s why, the day I brought her home to meet my family, they strongly objected. My parents, in particular, told her straight to her face:

“This family will never accept a daughter-in-law without a stable job into this house.”

I had to turn to my uncles, aunts, and older relatives to speak up for me so my parents wouldn’t be so harsh, but they even said:

“There are so many women out there better than her, yet you insist on falling head over heels for this one? Or did she cast some kind of love spell on you?”

In the end, after all the gossip, objections, and prohibitions, we still got married no matter what. But after the wedding, our life together wasn’t happy because our educational levels were worlds apart. She hadn’t studied much, so her way of speaking and behaving always felt… off.

After getting married, I continued working as an HR manager for a Japanese company, earning 35–40 million VND per month. My wife, on the other hand, invested all her savings after the wedding into buying a small stall at a nearby market and started selling shrimp, crabs, and fish shipped from her coastal hometown.

Because she spent all day selling seafood at the market, she was always disheveled and smelled strongly of fish. Especially after our little daughter was born, she looked even more worn out. Seeing her working so hard, struggling every day, I still often avoided helping her on busy weekends out of embarrassment. In the end, she had to hire another fish seller to help her.

Thanks to her market stall, she managed to cover the household expenses herself, so I didn’t have to give her any extra money. But she was always messy and unkempt, so in 7 years of marriage, even though we had one child, we had never taken a single photo together. She also had an ovarian cyst that kept growing, so we never had a second child. I didn’t even bother urging her to get checked, and she, being too busy and unwilling to take time off, never went for treatment.

And what had to happen eventually happened — I fell for a beautiful woman who was always fragrant and knew how to speak sweetly. I decided to divorce after secretly being with her for almost 3 years without my wife knowing.

Sensing clearly that my feelings for her were no longer the same, my wife quickly agreed to sign the divorce papers. She didn’t ask for anything, only the right to raise our child without any financial support. I even smirked, thinking she was foolish. After the divorce, she took our child and left the house. I thought it was only a matter of time before she would come back to ask me for child support:

“If you ever need money to raise our child, just let me know. No matter what, even if we’re no longer husband and wife, there’s still some sense of obligation. And if you need money to treat your ovarian cyst, just tell me.”

I said that, but she didn’t even acknowledge it and just left in a taxi. She kept selling fish at the market.

Yet barely half a month after the divorce, I heard my parents and relatives gossiping that my ex-wife had bought a villa worth 10 billion VND outright. Not believing my ears, I went there myself and saw her bringing our child home from school. Seeing her and our child living in such a big house, I couldn’t believe it. She even lifted her chin at me and said:

“Don’t be so shocked. Yes, I work hard and smell of seafood all day, but thanks to it, I was able to buy a villa so my child and I could settle down quickly.”

Hearing her words left me stunned.

It turned out that all this time, just by selling shrimp and fish at a busy market, she had been making a fortune—earning many times more than I did at my job.

Suddenly, the image of my sweet-smelling mistress in my mind began to fade away.