Chapter 4
592 Words
"Hadley, you have suffered too much with me," he said. "I will spend the rest of my life making it up to you."
"If this baby is a boy, I will make him my heir."
He seized Hadley's hand and pressed a tender kiss to her knuckles.
She curled into his arms, and her smile dripped with honey. "No suffering at all," she said. "Just being with you is enough. I do not need anything else."
"Besides, you made me Mrs. Cole. Being Mrs. Cole makes me the happiest woman alive."
Weston's fingers trailed lightly over her belly. "That is right," he said. "You are my rightful wife. My Mrs. Cole."
Tears blurred my vision as I braced against the wall with my legs trembling.
If she was Weston's wife, then what was I? Was I just some unwanted mistress?
I could not stomach another word. I stumbled like a drunk and fled the hospital.
Weston, I am done with your love, and I am done with you.
True to form, he did not return the next day, but his messages flooded in as always.
They had the same obsessive detail and the same fake worry. "Mary said you skipped breakfast," one read. "Is the food not good enough for you?"
"I will be back tomorrow," said another. "How about that tomato basil soup you pretend to love?"
"Do you want anything special? My assistant can drop it off."
I did not bother reading further. The screen clicked off under my thumb.
Truth or lies? Sincerity or just another act? I could not tell anymore.
None of it mattered now.
At the civil registry, the clerk's words hit like a sledgehammer. "Sorry, ma'am," she said. "This marriage certificate is invalid."
"Our records show you are unmarried."
I had seen it coming, yet my heart still twisted as if a knife were in it.
"What about him?" I asked, and my voice cracked like dry wood. "Is he married?"
There was a pause, and then the clerk spoke. "His file says he is married," she said. "The spouse's name is Hadley."
Just as I had thought.
My hands did not shake as I took the paper and tossed it into the trash.
Funny how the deepest pain left you too empty to cry.
Three years of marriage, what I believed was happiness, had all been a beautiful illusion that shattered like glass.
When I got home, I started packing my things.
I entrusted my baby to a lifelong friend, and that friend took him abroad.
But one final task remained. I needed Weston to sign the papers giving up his parental rights.
He returned earlier than expected, and his expression was dark and unreadable.
Yet he went through the motions, planting his usual automatic kiss on me the moment he stepped inside.
Then he cooked dinner, and he even sweetened my water with just half a spoon of honey.
But I knew him too well. In those mechanical gestures, I saw his agitation.
What had him so on edge?
My guess was that something must have gone wrong with Hadley.
Before I could connect the dots, a heavy drowsiness overtook me.
I fought to stay alert, but my body refused to obey.
Muffled voices reached my ears. "Are you sure this is okay?" one of them asked. "If Madam finds out, won't she blow her top?"
"She will not notice," another voice replied.
"We only took four hundred milliliters. Once the sleeping pills wear off, she will just think she took a nap."
- Writer
