Chapter 3
900 Words
Suddenly, another possibility crossed Charlotte's mind.
Perhaps the person sending her those messages had no idea that Raymond and Sarah would be hugging outside the orphanage.
Maybe this was all just some kind of prank.
As though the other party could read her mind, a new text message popped up.
"Charlotte, check that big photo album you three share. Look at the back of Sarah's photo. It says: 'Raymond loves Sarah—loves her so, so much.'"
Charlotte could barely breathe. Forcing herself up, she stumbled out of the hospital room.
The corridor outside was completely empty.
She struggled toward the elevator, only to spot two familiar figures around the next corner.
Instinctively, she hid in the shadows and watched everything unfold not far away.
Sarah clutched the front of Raymond's shirt as she broke down sobbing.
"It's all my fault. If I'd just let you go sooner, we wouldn't have had to hide the truth from Charlotte..."
"Don't say that. Neither of us wanted the baby to get hurt."
Raymond held her in his arms, coaxing her softly with practiced ease.
His handsome face was filled with heartache and guilt.
Sarah shook her head painfully. "Raymond, Charlotte is our family. We can't keep doing this. We can't stay entangled like this."
As soon as her words fell, the man tightened his embrace around her.
"No, Sarah, I can't live without you."
"And as for Charlotte, as long as we keep our mouths shut, she'll never find out."
Standing in the shadows, Charlotte clenched her fists tightly at her sides, her lips pressed into a thin line.
One was her husband, and the other was her best friend.
If she hadn't witnessed it with her own eyes again and again, how could she ever have believed that they had betrayed her?
She gritted her teeth, turned away, and headed for the elevator.
Charlotte took a taxi home alone.
She went straight to the study and pulled out that big photo album they had kept like a treasure from the desk drawer.
The three of them had put it together during their first year of high school, and it was filled with photos from their childhood all the way to adulthood.
Afterward, whenever any of them took a good picture, they would add it to the album.
Charlotte took the album out and placed it on the desk. Her fingers brushed over a scratch on the cover—one that Raymond had accidentally made years ago while trying to snatch the album away during a playful argument. But now, it felt like a cold wound slicing through the calm facade she had desperately maintained.
She searched for a long time before finally finding the photo with writing on the back.
That handwriting undeniably belonged to Raymond.
The photo had been taken during Sarah's summer vacation in her second year of high school. In the picture, her eyes curved into crescents as she smiled brightly.
Charlotte's fingers suddenly tightened around the edge of the album, her knuckles turning pale. Tears fell onto the photo, blurring the image.
So from that moment onward, she had always been the outsider kept in the dark.
Her phone buzzed. Another message came from that number: "Don't cry. This will pass."
With tears clouding her eyes, Charlotte lowered her head and typed a reply: "I want to know the rest."
The person on the other end replied quickly and told her everything that would happen over the next ten years.
"After you have your daughter, you'll discover that Sarah is pregnant too. She'll tell you the father died in the line of duty and that she's a single mom. But the truth is, that baby is Raymond's."
"On your daughter's fifth birthday, Raymond told you Sarah's son had leukemia. He said the only way the boy would survive was if they used your daughter's stored cord blood. They finally came clean because they had no choice."
"Raymond admitted that when you confessed to him back in high school, he only said yes because he didn't want to hurt you. He told you Sarah was the only one he ever loved. You were so shattered by the news that you miscarried and almost died right then and there."
"While you were unconscious in the hospital, Raymond went ahead and used your daughter's stored cord blood to save his and Sarah's son anyway."
"They both got on their knees and begged you to forgive them, but you couldn't even hear it. You completely lost it. You screamed and lashed out like you'd gone insane."
"After that, you fell into a deep depression. You tried to end your life multiple times, and the only reason you're still here is because of your daughter."
"Six months later, you divorced Raymond and moved far away with your daughter."
"Three years after that, Raymond died on duty. You ran into Sarah at the cemetery. She kept begging for forgiveness, but you never gave it to her."
"She ended up taking her own life in front of Raymond's grave. The police sent their son to an orphanage."
"You'd go and check on that kid every once in a while, but you never said a single word to him."
"Charlotte, the truth is, from the second you found out what they were doing, you never had another happy day for the rest of your life."
- Writer
