He Exiled Me for Five Years to Make Room for His Mistress Chapter 04

He Exiled Me for Five Years to Make Room for His Mistress Chapter 04

A week later, I got a call from home.

My mother was crying on the phone.

“Claire, your father’s in the hospital!”

I rushed back. My father, who already had a heart condition, was lying in a hospital bed, his face gray and drained.

My mother grabbed my hand.

“Someone sent your father a letter. It said you were the other woman and that you wrecked someone else’s marriage.”

“I didn’t!”

“There were photos!”

My mother wiped her tears.

“There were screenshots of your messages with that Ethan, and things people from your company said.”

I snatched the envelope from her.

The photos inside had been Photoshopped, and the message screenshots were fake.

But they looked terrifyingly real.

“Dad, let me explain…”

My father opened his eyes and looked at me for a long time.

“I believe you.”

Then he closed his eyes.

The heart monitor let out a shrill alarm.

Doctors rushed in to resuscitate him.

I was pushed out of the room.

Outside the door, Ethan stood there.

He was holding a fruit basket.

“I came to see your father,” he said.

A nurse passed by and murmured, “Mr. Shaw is such a good man. He even came to visit his ex-girlfriend’s father.”

I stared at him, then suddenly rushed forward and slapped him hard across the face.

The basket fell to the floor, and fruit rolled everywhere.

“You did this!”

“I didn’t know…”

“You didn’t know?”

I grabbed him by the collar.

“Those photos, those messages—who else could have had them besides you?”

He caught my wrist.

“Claire, calm down!”

“How am I supposed to calm down?”

I screamed.

“If anything happens to my father, I’ll kill you!”

The hospital room door opened.

A doctor stepped out and removed his mask.

“I’m sorry. We did everything we could.”

My world collapsed in that instant.

Three days later, at the funeral, my mother wouldn’t let me through the door.

“Leave,” she said from the other side. “Your father doesn’t want to see you.”

I knelt outside from morning until night.

That afternoon, Ethan and Emily came.

They left a funeral arrangement and paid their respects.

The sympathy card read, “In memory of Mr. Harper. With deepest condolences, Ethan Shaw and Emily Lane.”

When Emily saw me, she said softly, “I’m sorry for your loss.”

I looked at Ethan as if I wanted to kill him.

Ethan’s face was deathly pale.

Emily tugged at his sleeve.

“Let’s go.”

They turned and left.

My mother finally opened the door.

She looked at me with hatred in her eyes.

“Are you satisfied now? Your father is dead. Are you happy?”

Still on my knees, I moved inside and wrapped my arms around her legs.

“Mom…”

“Don’t touch me!”

She shoved me away.

“I don’t have a daughter like you!”

I lay on the floor, my forehead pressed against the cold tile.

A week after Dad died, I got a call from the company.

“Claire, your employment has been terminated.”

The HR representative’s voice was ice-cold.

“The reason is serious violation of professional ethics. During your assignment at the Nevada project site, you allegedly maintained inappropriate relationships with multiple male coworkers.”

I rushed back to the company and stormed into HR.

“Where’s your evidence?”

The HR manager threw a stack of photos at me.

They were work photos of me and male coworkers at the field site, but someone had added vile captions to them.

“This is defamation!”

“Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”

The manager looked at me.

“The company can’t keep someone like you on staff.”

I went to find Ethan.

His assistant stopped me.

“Mr. Shaw is in a meeting.”

I waited until dark.

He finally came out of the conference room. When he saw me, his steps faltered.

“I know what you’re going to say.”

He said, “There’s nothing I can do about the company’s decision.”

“Ethan, you set me up.”

“It wasn’t me.”

He frowned.

“Emily said…”

“You believe whatever Emily says?”

I stepped closer.

“She killed my father, and now she’s trying to destroy me. Are you still going to help her?”

He took a step back.

“Claire, calm down.”

“I am calm.”

I said, “I just want to ask you one thing. Can you sleep at night?”

He didn’t answer.

I turned and left. As I went downstairs, a group of people surrounded me.

There were seven or eight of them, all holding signs.

“Homewrecker!”

“Slut!”

“Get out of this city!”

Someone splashed something over me.

It was red ink.

It drenched me from head to toe.

I stood there, red liquid dripping off my entire body.

Ethan’s car pulled out of the underground garage and stopped by the curb.

He got out and stopped them.

Then he looked at me and sighed.

“Claire, why can’t you handle this with a little dignity? Why do you have to make things this ugly?”

I wiped my face.

Red ink ran down my fingers.

“Dignity?”

I laughed as I asked, “How exactly am I supposed to have dignity?”

He said nothing. He got back into his car and drove away.

I walked back to my rented apartment and found that the lock had been changed.

My luggage had been thrown outside.

The landlord peered out.

“I packed up your things. Hurry up and move out.”

“Why?”

“Someone complained about you. They said you’re morally corrupt and bad for the building’s reputation.”

The landlord waved me off.

“I’m not renting to you anymore.”

I crouched beside my suitcase.

This was the same suitcase I had taken with me to Nevada five years ago, and now I had brought it back again.

Nothing had changed.

Everything had changed.

I sat in a convenience store all night.

The city woke under the morning light.

It was beautiful.

But I no longer wanted to stay there for even one more day.