I Believed His Noble Excuse For IVF, Only To Uncover His Secret Affair Chapter 02

I Believed His Noble Excuse For IVF, Only To Uncover His Secret Affair Chapter 02

The lawyer glanced at me, and I laughed once and reached to hang up.

“Wait, Elena.”

The camera swung as Ruby jogged a few steps and turned it on Julian, who was asking the doctor what to watch for after a successful transfer and writing it all down in a notebook.

“Daddy, look over here!”

Julian turned, and when he saw it was me on the other end, he wasn’t annoyed at all. He looked thrilled.

“Babe, your husband is unstoppable. First try! The doctor says the transfer took, and in a few months I’m going to be a father!”

“It’s a shame you’re not here. We’d be celebrating tonight.”

“Oh, and since her mother is so sick, taking care of Ruby through the pregnancy and the birth is going to fall to you.”

Ruby had her arm through his, and she was pleased with herself. “Thanks in advance, Elena.”

Was I supposed to take care of a pregnant Ruby?

And nurse her through the recovery afterward?

I almost laughed out loud.

What exactly did Julian think I was, a saint?

He was having a baby with another woman, and he wanted me to take care of them for free.

My hands were shaking when I ended the call. I saved the recording and forwarded the video to my lawyer.

“With what I already sent you, plus this, is it enough?”

Julian and I had gone from a school romance to a marriage license.

From high school until now, we have been together for ten years.

Before the wedding, I had spent a full month turning our past into a warm little history of us.

And now reality had put its hand across my face.

Looking back, I realized those years hadn’t been nearly as perfect as I’d believed.

Somewhere along the way, Julian had run out of patience and warmth for me.

The man who used to build everything around me started telling me I wasn’t a good enough wife and wasn’t thoughtful enough.

Sometimes the smallest thing set him off and turned into a lecture about my character.

After every fight, all it took was a little coaxing, and I forgave him.

There had been school pressure back then, and there was work pressure after we graduated.

Being an adult was hard on everybody, and as the woman who loved him, I thought I was supposed to make room for it.

Because I loved him, I kept giving in until there was nothing left of me to give.

Two years ago, my old homeroom teacher’s daughter returned from studying abroad.

The two of them hit it off immediately, and Julian got Ruby Coleman hired into his own department as his assistant.

They came and went together every day, exchanged lingering looks at work, and always seemed to find reasons to stay together after hours.

When my parents came to Chicago to see me, they happened to run into the two of them while they were out shopping and laughing.

And when they brought it up casually, Julian’s face went cold, and he accused them of failing to extend him basic trust.

The truth was that my parents had only been making conversation. He was the one with something to hide.

He didn’t come home for dinner that night.

He didn’t answer my texts or pick up my calls.

My parents were full of guilt. “Lena, it isn’t that we don’t trust Julian. We shouldn’t have said anything.”

The next morning, they left for home early without even eating breakfast.

That was the day we had our first real fight.

Once he had calmed down, Julian acted as if he were wronged because he couldn’t understand why I was so emotional about it.

But he had forgotten that from the day he met them, my parents had treated him like a son.

They were more careful with him than they were with their own child.

After that, he always had a reason not to come home with me.

When my parents asked, I covered for him, bought the gifts myself, and told them he’d sent them.

Looking back, it was all me putting myself under.

I had always thought a love that started in school would last forever. I forgot that love wasn’t family. Even love could fade when you stopped taking care of it.

When Julian brought up doing IVF with Ruby on our wedding night, it hit me that my marriage might already be in the ground.

Julian and I were finished.