Chapter 3
762 Words
I noticed his ring finger when we shook hands just now.
His wedding ring was noticeably a full size too big.
Who would buy a wedding ring that didn't fit their finger?
Unless they didn't want a ring mark to show on their finger.
Just now, I saw it clearly. Under the wedding ring, the faintly exposed skin was bluish black.
That's the color of a tattoo.
Ethan and I knew each other back in our humble early days.
When I was little, my parents were busy with work, so they sent my older brother and me to live with our grandma in the countryside.
Ethan's family was my grandma's neighbor.
Once, Ethan and I chased a rabbit up the mountain and got lost.
We wandered in the mountains for three whole days.
The whole three days, he picked wild fruit for me to eat. At night, he held me because I was scared of the dark, and we slept in a thatch pile.
From that moment on, I firmly believed this man would be my rock for life.
That's why, even when my family opposed our marriage later, I stood by his side without hesitation.
We didn't have a wedding when we got married. No guests.
He pulled me to a tattoo parlor.
"Lily, I don't have money to buy you a ring right now, but we can tattoo our lifelong promise on our bodies."
So we each tattooed a ring-shaped pattern on our ring finger. A symbol of our promise to each other.
"Lily, once I make my fortune, I'll buy you a massive diamond engagement ring!"
He held my hand up in the air and loudly made that promise to me.
The freshly tattooed skin around the ring was still flushed.
Later, even though life got better and better, Ethan seemed to have long forgotten all about that ring business.
I took a taxi back in a daze.
When I went to pick Chloe up from school, I saw the person picking Liam up.
She was a middle-aged woman who looked really familiar. I just couldn't place where I'd seen her before.
"Mom, what are you looking at?"
"Who is that woman picking Liam up?"
"Oh, her? I think she's his nanny. Liam's family is super rich. They have a nanny to take Liam to and from school every day."
The next day, I sent Chloe to school like I normally do.
But I didn't leave right away. Instead, I hid behind a pillar by the school gate.
When the middle-aged woman who dropped Liam off left, I followed behind her.
After dropping off the kid, she went straight to the grocery market.
I walked around to the front of her from the other side.
"Lucy!"
I suddenly called out to her right in front of her, and she froze on the spot.
"Lily... why are you yelling so loudly? You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
"Lucy, it really is you. I almost didn't recognize you in this outfit. When did you get here? Why didn't you come stay with us when you arrived?"
Ethan's father died early, and he and his mother, Lucy, relied on each other.
After we got married, I moved his mother in to live with us.
But after Chloe was born, she said she couldn't get used to living here and went back to her hometown on her own.
Truth be told, she just looked down on Chloe for being a girl and didn't want to help me take care of the baby.
We haven't seen each other for three years now, and she's gotten a lot fuller than she used to be.
Her clothes and style were that of a wealthy lady. Nothing like the village woman she used to be.
If she hadn't responded to me just now, I really would have worried I got the wrong person.
She started avoiding my gaze, stammering and rambling.
"Oh, well, I'm here to visit a friend. I wouldn't want to bother you all."
"How inconvenient it would be for you to stay at someone else's place. You should just come home with me."
I took her hand and started pulling her toward our home.
Her lie was so flimsy. She didn't have any friends here at all.
She panicked instantly, shook off my hand, and ran off.
"Uh, I have something else to do. Gotta go!"
I didn't chase after her. Everything was already clear anyway.
His mother had known everything all along. I was the only one left completely in the dark.
- Writer
