My Husband Let The Village Punish Me Chapter 06

My Husband Let The Village Punish Me Chapter 06

“You…”

Caleb’s gaze dropped to Lila’s jacket on my body.

“You switched places with her?”

I stayed exactly where I was.

“You tell me.”

Caleb’s eyes reddened as he rushed toward me.

“Do you realize you almost got her killed?”

I tilted my head, my voice calm.

“I almost got her killed?”

“Caleb, who ordered those men to beat her?”

He fell silent.

I took a step toward him.

“You prepared the gag. You chose the scarf. You arranged every part of this.”

“From beginning to end, you were the one who set everything in motion.”

“Didn’t I warn you not to push someone so far that they had nothing left to lose?”

“If you had shown even a shred of decency, Lila would never have ended up like this.”

“You…” Caleb’s lips trembled. “But you tricked me.”

“I deceived you?”

I smiled, but there was no warmth in it. It was colder than tears.

“Who lied to me for three years and treated me like a fool?”

I looked him directly in the eyes and spoke each word clearly.

“I heard everything you said to Nate.”

Caleb took a panicked step back, guilt written all over his face.

He lowered his head, no longer daring to meet my eyes.

It was the first time in our three years of marriage that I had ever seen him lose his nerve in front of me.

Before dawn that morning, I had gone to the bed-and-breakfast where Lila was staying.

When she saw me, she assumed I had come to beg for mercy and remained as arrogant as ever.

“Begging me won’t help you. You’d better pray you make it through today.”

“If you actually die, it’ll give the series an even stronger story. The photos will go viral.”

She had been wrong.

I had not gone there to beg for mercy.

I had gone there to save myself.

I stole the sedatives Caleb had prepared for me and drugged Lila with them before the ritual.

Then I gagged her and wrapped the scarf Caleb had prepared around her face.

When the people from Greyhaven came to the Shaw house to collect me for the Blessing, they took a half-conscious Lila instead.

I put on Lila’s jacket and hat, picked up her camera, and took the photographs she had wanted.

“The Blessing really was a harrowing sight.”

“I made sure Lila got exactly what she wanted.”

My voice remained cold.

“Whether a work of art wins an award depends on the story behind it.”

“A photographer subjected herself to the Blessing for the sake of her art. What a moving story.”

“And if she had died from it, this would have been her final masterpiece. That would have made it even more valuable.”

I threw Lila’s own words back at him, word for word.

Caleb shook from head to toe, staring at me as though he were seeing me for the first time.

“You’re a monster. You’re a monster!”

My eyes were rimmed with red, but not a single tear fell.

“If I’m a monster, what does that make you?”

Caleb trembled, unable to answer.

I turned to face everyone gathered there.

“Everyone in Greyhaven, I want to make something clear today.”

“Three years ago, when I married into the Shaw family, Caleb told me Lila was dead and that he intended to remain celibate for her for three years. I believed him. I thought it meant he was loyal and honorable.”

“In all that time, he never once touched me. The reason I never got pregnant was not that there was anything wrong with me.”

“And what about Lila? She never died. She faked her death and left Greyhaven, while Caleb secretly sent her money every year to buy camera equipment and see the world.”

“She came back this year because she wanted to photograph the Blessing and use the pictures to win an award. Caleb not only agreed but actively helped her. He prepared sedatives and planned to gag me so I couldn’t say the words that would make the beating stop. That way, Lila could keep taking pictures for as long as she wanted.”

I pointed at Caleb, my emotions finally breaking through my composure.

“Now that he knows Lila was the one being beaten instead of me, suddenly he cares. Now he calls me a monster.”

“But Caleb was the one who arranged for those men to beat her. When everyone else was shouting for them to stop, he was the one who kept ordering them to continue.”

“So tell me, who is the real monster here?”

The crowd erupted.

“He refused to sleep with his own wife for three years? How was she supposed to get pregnant? And he still had the nerve to put her through the Blessing?”

“What kind of man sends money to an old girlfriend after he’s married?”

“Isn’t that humiliating his own wife?”

Caleb’s parents stared at each other in shock. They had only just learned the truth themselves.

“You haven’t slept together in three years?” Caleb’s mother demanded, glaring at him.

“What were you thinking? You did all of this for that bitch Lila?”

Caleb immediately shouted back.

“She isn’t a bitch. Don’t call her that!”

“Staying celibate was my choice. It had nothing to do with her!”

Then he looked at me with resentment in his eyes.

“Tessa, why couldn’t you be more understanding? You had already put up with it for three years. This was the last thing I was asking you to endure.”

“I already promised you that after the Blessing, we would finally build a real life together.”

A bitter smile touched my lips.

“Do you honestly think we could have built a life together after the Blessing?”

Caleb froze.

I pointed to the pool of blood on the ground.

“Rachel took only a few extra blows, and she was left with a permanent limp.”

“With the way they were beating her just now, do you really think I would have walked away unharmed?”

Caleb stared at me, stunned.

It was as though the possibility had never even occurred to him.

“I… I only…”

“All you cared about was giving Lila what she wanted,” I finished for him.

“Everything else could be sacrificed for her.”

Caleb could not respond.

That was exactly what he had believed.

After a long silence, he finally forced out a few words.

“I… I’ll make it up to you.”

I looked at him without the slightest trace of pity.

“Made it up to you? You thought finally sleeping with me would count as compensation?”

My voice was very quiet.

“Caleb, I have more self-respect than that.”

“That isn’t what I meant. I really did plan to treat you well afterward,” he said desperately.

I raised a hand to stop him.

“You were willing to risk my life just to indulge her one last time. Then you planned to spend the rest of your life trying to atone for what you had done.”

“You decided that was fair, but did you ever ask whether I was willing to be treated that way?”

Caleb opened his mouth, but not a single word came out.

At that moment, his phone rang again.

He glanced at the screen and answered immediately.

“Caleb, get over here. Lila’s awake!”