Seven Years Late, I Exposed His Secret Home

Chapter 4

I restored the data on my new phone.

I used several cloud backups for my chat logs, afraid of losing them and never finding them again.

Looking back now, it only feels ridiculous.

My seven years were a joke. If he really died in the snowy mountains, that would have been better. At least I would still have a perfect lover to remember.

I sent this message to Maxwell. As usual, there was no reply.

I arranged to meet him again and said that my mother-in-law had left something for him.

I finally received his first and also last official reply.

Maxwell Sanders: Okay.

*****

At my mother-in-law's grave.

Maxwell brought a bouquet of roses this time and knelt at the grave, head bowed.

He said, "I'm sorry. You've worked hard all these years. If I had known earlier that Mom was sick, I would never have left her to you."

I sneered and laughed. "I told you. Why didn't you take her away?"

His eyes were complicated. "I didn't expect you to take such good care of Mom and persist for so long. Actually, you didn't have a legal obligation to support her. You pushed yourself too hard."

My heart tightened and I felt breathless.

He blamed me for preventing the reunion of their mother and son. All my suffering was self-inflicted. Because I was too kind, too responsible.

He then took out a bank card. "Just assume I'm really dead. From now on, live alone, or find someone suitable who treats you well, and live properly. Where are Mom's things?"

I took a deep breath, accepted the card, and took out my mother-in-law's worn-out notebook.

"Maxwell is coming home," I read it.

Sometimes she would suddenly look up while writing and ask me who 'Maxwell' was.

Maxwell looked full of grief and guilt, his eyes turning red as he read to the end.

At that moment, his phone rang. He took a deep breath and adjusted his emotions. "Okay, I'll come out right away."

He looked at me.

I spoke first, "Can you hug me one last time? I miss you every day."

His eyes flashed with surprise and pity.

He reached out and hugged me. "I'm sorry, Willow."

I suddenly broke down and cried. "Why are you treating me like this? You said you would love me forever!"

In a burst of emotion, I scratched and hit him, even biting his neck until it bled.

His phone rang again. He gently patted me to calm me down and pushed me away.

I choked out an apology and took out tissues to wipe the blood from his neck.

"I'm the one who is sorry. Forget me. We... shouldn't see each other again."

"Okay," I said.

Watching his back disappear, I put the bloodstained tissues into a sealed bag.

That night, I took sleeping pills and fell asleep.

I don't know how long passed before I woke up burning, realizing the house was already in flames.

Disappearing without a sound...

Piper never intended to let me go.

Reflected in the firelight in my pupils, there was only one thought: I cannot die.

*****

At the celebration banquet of the Sanders Group.

I was wrapped in bandages all over my body, holding the portraits of Maxwell Sanders and my mother-in-law, and walked straight into the banquet hall.

"Mason Jennings, formerly known as Maxwell Sanders, my legal husband, seven years ago faked his death, abandoned his pregnant wife and elderly mother with Alzheimer's and married and had children with another woman...

"...in collusion with his current wife, Piper Jennings, she staged a car accident that killed my child, and threatened, assaulted, and attempted to murder me by arson."