He Tricked Me With Fake Papers, So I Sued for a Million Chapter 08

He Tricked Me With Fake Papers, So I Sued for a Million Chapter 08

“Adrian, did you forget about the video your mother posted online? My lawyer saved a copy. She accused me of abandoning my husband, walking out on the family, and refusing to care for her. Do you think those lies don’t count as defamation?”

Adrian’s head snapped up. “Mom was upset because you refused to take care of her. She only said those things in anger.”

I stood, my expression blank.

“You should be grateful we were never legally married. Otherwise, you’d be facing a division of marital assets, not just reimbursing me for the more than one hundred sixty-five thousand dollars I paid out of pocket.”

Adrian rose with me and reached for my wrist. “Lauren, don’t do this. I lost sight of what mattered because I wanted to escape all those responsibilities. I know I was wrong now. I mean it this time. I’ll settle down, and we’ll take care of everything together.”

I stepped aside before he could touch me.

“Don’t you see how ridiculous you sound? A few days ago, I was begging you to come home and help carry the burden. Do you remember how you treated me?”

“This ends here. My lawyers will handle everything else with you. Don’t contact me again.”

With that, I walked straight past him without giving him another glance.

—

The man who had once cared for me so completely and loved me with everything he had was gone.

Now it was time for me to begin again.

When I returned to the firm, Tessa rushed over immediately.

“Well? What happened?”

I looked at her and could not help smiling.

“He begged me to come back.”

“What?”

She slapped both hands on my desk. “Does he have no shame at all? He actually had the nerve to ask you to go back? He must have lost his mind.”

“Wait. You didn’t feel sorry for him, did you?”

I pushed her off my desk.

“Could you stop bothering me while I’m trying to work, boss?”

She folded her arms and waited for my answer with a woeful expression.

I shook my head helplessly.

“Of course I didn’t. I still have a lawsuit to pursue, remember?”

Only then did Tessa look satisfied. “That’s more like it.”

Watching her walk away, I finally felt a small measure of peace.

—

My parents had always pressured me to get married. They said that if I waited too long, everyone in their small town would laugh at me.

When I met Adrian, they became even more eager for me to settle down. Tessa was the only person who consistently put my interests first. She warned me to look carefully at the man I was trusting my future to and told me Adrian was not someone I could rely on.

I had refused to listen. I had even cut off contact with her for five years.

Yet whenever I came back, she still treated me exactly as she always had.

She found me a position at her firm and helped me rent a two-bedroom apartment.

Her legal team took over the entire case against Adrian. All I had to do was lean on her and let them handle it.

Two weeks later, Adrian’s attorney contacted Tessa and proposed an out-of-court settlement.

Tessa told me Adrian was willing to reimburse everything I had paid and offer an additional thirty thousand dollars in compensation.

In exchange, he wanted me to drop the lawsuit and issue a public statement claiming that Adrian’s mother’s video had been a misunderstanding.

Tessa scoffed. “They’re clever. They think thirty thousand dollars is enough to buy your silence.”

After considering it for a while, she carefully explained my options.

—

“You have strong grounds to recover the money you paid. But because there was never a legal marriage, damages based specifically on marital fraud and emotional harm are harder to pursue under family law.”

She paused.

“If you don’t want this dragging on, thirty thousand dollars is still a meaningful settlement. But it’s your decision. If you want to keep fighting, I’ll take this as far as you want.”

I did not answer immediately. I thought about it all night.

The next morning, I called Tessa.

“I’ll settle, but I want to change the terms.”

“He has to reimburse the full one hundred seventy-six thousand four hundred dollars I paid, plus forty thousand dollars in damages.”

“And Adrian’s mother must delete every video and post a public apology.”

“Would you pass that on for me?”

Tessa laughed, immediately understanding what I wanted.

“Absolutely. I’ll handle it.”

Negotiations lasted nearly three days. Adrian’s side claimed he could not produce that much cash at once.

Tessa slapped the bank records onto the table.

“You spent more than three hundred thousand dollars on your

—

mistress, Vanessa Cole, over the past two years. Every transfer and purchase is right here, and now you’re claiming you have no money?”

Under the mounting pressure, Adrian finally gave in.

He agreed to repay the one hundred seventy-six thousand four hundred dollars in three installments. Adrian’s mother also deleted every false video and posted a public apology.