He Covered for His Fake Innocent Girl, I Sent Both to Prison Chapter 02

He Covered for His Fake Innocent Girl, I Sent Both to Prison Chapter 02

“Give it back! Right now! Bring it back to me this instant, or I’m calling the police! I will make sure the two of you hold your wedding behind bars!”

I was shaking with pure rage, every word sharp as a razor.

Marcus was caught off guard by my fury, but his own temper quickly flared up. “Watch your mouth! I told you, this is all just a performance! I’m only borrowing it! It’s not like I’m keeping it from you forever!”

“I was actually planning on buying you a few similar ones tomorrow as an apology gift. I never expected you to be so—”

Blood rushing to my ears, I couldn’t bear to listen to his voice for another second. I slammed the phone down, walked out the door, and hailed a cab, barking Candy’s address to the driver.

I grabbed Marcus’s luggage on my way out.

During the ride, my phone chimed continuously as a flurry of text messages from Marcus flooded in.

[I lost my temper just now and spoke a bit too harshly. Valerie, I’m sorry.]

[How about this: I’ll give the brooch back to you tomorrow, but you have to come to the wedding and be Candy’s Maid of Honor.]

[After all, everyone knew you and I were supposed to get married. If I suddenly register a marriage with Candy out of nowhere, it’s going to ruin the poor girl’s reputation.]

[If you show up as her Maid of Honor tomorrow, people naturally won’t think Candy ruined our relationship. If anyone asks about us, just help cover for me…]

[Tell them… tell them you cheated and fell in love with someone else, and that you’d wanted to break up with me for a long time. Just don’t drag Candy into this…]

Staring at his texts, I burst into a fit of hollow, hysterical laughter at the sheer absurdity of it all.

But as I laughed, hot tears spilled over, soaking the collar of my coat.

Noticing my state, the cab driver silently handed me a tissue.

I offered a quiet word of thanks, pushed the car door open, grabbed the suitcase, and stormed up the stairs.

Reaching the door of Candy’s apartment, I threw myself into slamming against it with everything I had.

The heavy thuds echoed violently down the hallway.

Scuffling footsteps hurried inside, and the door was thrown open almost instantly.

“Who the hell is it at this hour?!”

Marcus stood there, wearing a pink apron with white flour dusted across his forehead.

My eyes turned crimson instantly.

Marcus and I had been together for ten years.

I had watched him journey all the way from a dirt-poor student to a widely respected university professor.

The deepest, rawest trauma of his life had happened back in his college days. To pay his way through school, he had worked as a line cook at a local diner.

A group of arrogant, wealthy frat boys, jealous of him, cornered him, pinned him to the floor, and dumped a bucket of greasy kitchen scraps and leftovers right over his head.

[A pathetic little cook thinks he can steal our women?]

From that day forward, he absolutely loathed stepping into a kitchen.

Even after we got engaged, when I brought him home to visit my terminally ill mother, I had merely asked him to help me carry a few dishes out of the kitchen.

He had slammed the door in my face with a frozen expression and stormed off.

He had left my dying mother sitting there, heartbroken on my behalf, yet I still forced a smile and spent hours making excuses to defend him.

Since then, I had coddled his fragile ego with extreme care. As someone who had never touched a stove, I burned my hands over and over until they blistered, just to learn how to cook for him.

Who would have thought that his deep-seated trauma had already been cured by another woman?

The moment Marcus recognized me, he froze, an instinctive wave of guilt washing over his face as he awkwardly tugged at his apron.

“Valerie… what are you doing here…”

Candy’s face peeked out from behind him, her petite features tight with anxious innocence as she looked at me.

“Mrs. Logan… no… Ms. Vance, why are you here?”

With tears welling in her eyes, she threw herself in front of Marcus like a human shield. “Ms. Vance, if you want to take your anger out on someone, just beat me to death! The Professor only did this to save me…”

Marcus looked at her, his eyes swimming with protective heartache, before turning his fury on me. “Valerie Vance, how can you be so utterly ruthless?!”

“Candy is being forced by her family to marry the violent scumbag who assaulted her! I am merely stepping up to shield her from disaster. Can’t you show a single shred of understanding?!”

“No!”

My voice trembled with a violent, burning rage. “She’s pitiful? That’s the fault of her parents and the monster who hurt her! She can refuse them! She can call the police and lock those criminals away!”

“What right do any of you have to sacrifice my marriage and my happiness?!”