Chapter 1
The night my husband was away on a business trip, I received a membership deduction alert from a pharmacy chain: 11:00 PM, one box of emergency contraceptives, $138.
I shot up in bed, thunderstruck, and checked Nathan's entire itinerary for the trip.
Finally, on a travel app, I saw the registered guests for a luxury family suite: "Nathan Leeds, Rachel Sutton."
I had my assistant pull up all of Rachel’s information within a minute.
Among her three pinned i********: posts, visible only to strangers, one displayed a marriage certificate with Nathan, another showed a family photo with their newborn child, and the latest was a fresh tourist snapshot of the three riding across the grasslands, captioned: "My husband finally has time for me and our baby. When this trip ends, we’ll be moving into his 2,000-square-meter mansion in northern Belrun!"
I threw my phone to the floor in a fit of rage, leaving it shattered.
"Nathan, I built you up from a penniless boy to the business mogul you are today. Since you dared to betray me, I'll be the one to drag you down!"
Rachel's profile picture was a family portrait from their child's 100-day celebration. In the photo, Nathan grinned brightly, cradling the child who was the spitting image of him, while Rachel, her hair swept into a bun and wearing a light blue dress, rested her head gently against his shoulder.
My heart clenched. My finger paused over the "Follow" button for a few seconds before I sent the request. She accepted immediately.
I sent a text: Do you know Nathan has a family? She replied instantly: Yes. I'm his family.
I had only wanted to confirm whether Rachel was being tricked. If she had been deceived, I would have paid to send them abroad; I would have covered the child's upbringing to ensure their security.
But her brazen reply revealed my own stupidity. I was the only fool kept in the dark.
Frantically, I grabbed our marriage certificate from the drawer, scrutinizing it repeatedly—our marriage predated theirs by two whole years.
I gently pointed out: Nathan and I have been married for eight years, so that marriage certificate of yours must be phony, right? For the sake of you and your child, you should verify it. If it's genuine, I can sue Nathan for bigamy.
With every second she spent typing and deleting, my heart felt caught in a ghostly grip, leaving me breathless. I dug my nails into my thighs, leaving deep crescent marks.
Finally, her reply came: Pfft. Lady, aren't you just the sugar mama who used to keep Nathan? He gave you a fake license and you actually believed you were the lawful wife? Bigamy? Do you really think you can win? Nathan and I were betrothed at eighteen; he was just too busy to register it back then. Now we have the certificate, the child's paperwork is sorted, and the dream home in Belrun is ready. Does it kill you to see our family together?
Every word was like a bucket of ice water poured over me, chilling me to the marrow.
I flashed back to the street where I first found Nathan at midnight...
*****
His white shirt hung in tatters, his body covered in livid gashes, yet no one showed him mercy.
Instead, a crowd held him down under their feet, gesturing at rows of urine bottles lined up before him...
