He Lied, Spent Our Wedding Cash on Fraud

My boyfriend, Ethan Brooks, had a sworn brother—the kind he'd die for. He took our savings to buy that guy a wedding house and gave away my jewelry to help him get by.  I was upset, but Ethan said it was payback for saving his life. Then one day, he took from me a pair of emerald earrings. They were a gift from a suitor—I was about to return them to turn him down. But before I could explain, Ethan had already given them away. I rushed to his buddy's place without a second thought. Surprisingly, a woman opened the door. I craned my neck to check the house number again. At that moment, I ached to be wrong, praying I'd just mixed up the door. My gaze slid into the living room, and I spotted the memorial portrait sitting dead center. It was Ethan's best buddy. His wife, Helen Morgan, just stood there watching me, eyes crinkling in that same sweet smile. She warmly invited me inside. "He was just unlucky. Got hit when he was working as a war correspondent. Died instantly." Helen recounted those old events in a smooth, calm tone. I'd heard all this before, from Ethan's own mouth. But he'd told me the opposite! He swore Jasper survived, came home, married, had kids, and opened a little shop to get by. I forced myself to look around the apartment. This was a luxury penthouse right in the heart of downtown, fitted with extravagant finishes. Every inch of it was carefully planned out, no expense spared. After Ethan came home from the war, he'd developed severe PTSD. He barely brought in any money at all. I'd felt so bad for him. I handed over every cent of my salary to him, even when he poured money into helping other people nonstop. I never complained once. I told myself that the two of them had crawled out of a pile of dead bodies together, so, of course, their bond was unbreakable. I put his needs first in everything I did. I never could have guessed he'd been lying to me this whole time. That's when a little kid's voice cut through the heavy silence. "Mommy, help me open my bottle!" The little kid stumbled unsteadily over to Helen. His high, soft voice shattered the still air like a rock through glass. When I got a good look at the kid's face, it felt like a lightning bolt had slammed straight into my chest. I couldn't process what I was seeing. Helen saw exactly what was going through my head, and a slow, smug smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "He looks just like your boyfriend, doesn't he?" She paused deliberately, then flicked her gaze toward an unassuming corner of the cabinet. A family photo sat there. Even from all the way across the room, I recognized it the second I saw it. "This is my boy, Ethan's and mine." In that instant, my heart skipped a whole beat. He was supposed to be taking care of his wounded best friend! How could he have a child with his sworn brother's wife? Oh! So that's why, all these years, every time I brought up getting married, he'd stammer and hem and haw, making up every excuse in the book to put me off. He already had a whole other family, hidden away from me this whole time. I tried to pull myself together, to not let her see how broken I was right now. But tears welled up silently and spilled down her cheeks onto the floorboards. Helen watched me crumble completely, calm and unaffected. After she saw me fall apart, she even reached out and handed me a tissue. "Why? Why would you two do this to me? You knew full well he was with me! He knew this was happening!" I didn't even spare the kid a second glance. I just roared at the top of my lungs. They'd both known everything from the very start, and they'd still done this to me. Helen just lifted one eyebrow, her whole face oozing nonchalance. "So what if we did? "Miss Cooper, there's no need to make such a big fuss over this. Sure, you don't get the money or the love right now, but you will definitely get the official title in the end. "You've already scored such a huge deal, and you still want more? How greedy can you be?" She spat out every word slowly and deliberately. There wasn't a single shred of guilt anywhere on her face. Her words knocked me so off balance I froze, unable to process what I'd just heard. I got a huge deal, did I? That's hilarious. They'd lied to me for years, stolen every last cent I had, and they actually had the nerve to say I was the one who came out ahead? Every brick, every piece of furniture in this whole fancy house—didn't I pay for every single one of them? Helen was dripping in gold and diamonds, even her nightgown was custom haute couture. Me? I'd scrimped and saved so hard I wouldn't even allow myself to buy one single new dress. The only valuable thing I'd ever owned was that pair of emerald earrings. And right now, they were hanging from Helen's ears. I wrenched my face away and swiped the tears off my cheeks. "Give my earrings back. "You can't afford to wear these."