He Left Me For Her, I Married His Rival

Chapter 3

At 9:20 the next morning, the clerk stamped our marriage certificate.

Julian and I each received a certified copy.

The clerk had barely finished saying, "Congratulations to you both," when hurried footsteps sounded outside.

Ethan stormed into the lobby and reached for my bag. "Give me the certificate! This farce ends now!"

Julian stepped between us, and the clerk immediately pressed the emergency button.

I took out my certified copy and held it open in front of Ethan.

"Look carefully. I'm married."

Ethan stared at the photograph. "You married a man you've met twice just to get revenge on me?"

"At least he didn't sleep with my sister while she was wearing my ring before we even made it to city hall."

Ethan flushed beneath the judgmental stares around us.

Robert and Diane hurried in behind him.

Diane dropped onto a lobby bench and wailed loudly enough for everyone to hear, "Look at this ungrateful daughter! She's abandoning the parents who raised her for 22 years, all because of some man!"

Calmly, I opened the banking records on my phone.

"Since I turned 18, I've transferred 12.4 million dollars to the Foster family. The villa is in your names, and I paid for Vanessa's studies abroad and her concerts. We can discuss the cost of raising me, but don't pretend this was love. You never gave me any."

Robert flinched at the truth, then pointed at me and snarled, "You're just like that shameless birth mother of yours. Neither of you knows the meaning of gratitude!"

My ears rang.

"My birth mother?"

Robert's mouth snapped shut.

Diane sprang up and pulled Vanessa toward the exit. "Your father is furious and talking nonsense. We're going home!"

I blocked her path. "You gave birth at St. Anne's Medical Center. The record says you had twins. Tell me, which twin was I supposed to be?"

Vanessa went deathly pale. "Clara, of course we're twins."

"Then we'll take a DNA test."

I didn't order security to stop them. Instead, I called my attorney and immediately filed an emergency request to preserve the hospital's birth records from 22 years ago.

Ethan tried to snatch my phone, but responding officers restrained him.

To prove I was "making trouble", Robert voluntarily agreed that all four members of the Foster family would undergo court-ordered DNA tests.

He was still sneering as he signed the consent form. "When the results come back, you'll kneel outside the Foster home and apologize."

That afternoon, my attorney found an irregularity in the hospital's archived files.

The records showed that Diane had delivered twin girls 22 years earlier.

The older daughter, Vanessa, was healthy. The younger girl had been stillborn.

Yet the birth registry showed that both infant girls had survived.

Stranger still, the number on my newborn ID bracelet wasn't assigned to Diane. It belonged to a woman admitted to the private maternity ward that same day.

Her name was Evelyn Sterling.

When I saw the name, Julian took my hand.

My fingertips were ice-cold.

Every memory of being ignored, mistreated, and used as Vanessa's stepping-stone finally made sense.

I had always thought I wasn't obedient or accomplished enough to deserve my parents' love.

In truth, they had known from the beginning that I wasn't their daughter.

Julian spoke softly, "Whatever the results say, you were never unwanted. Someone stole you away from the home you should've had."