My Wedding Was His Family’s Biggest Lie Chapter 08

My Wedding Was His Family’s Biggest Lie Chapter 08

He couldn’t answer.

My chest rose and fell, and my fingers slowly curled.

“The problem was that I refused to be lied to anymore.”

“When your mother spent $120,000 on Vanessa’s bridal jewelry set, did she hesitate for even a second?”

“Your sister knew you planned to fly to London after we made the marriage legal. Did she speak up for me

once?”

“When you were sleeping with Vanessa, did you think about me at all?”

Ethan looked at me, pained.

“Claire, I…”

“You said I was easy to handle.”

I cut him off.

“What you meant was that I was stupid. You thought I trusted you completely and loved you so blindly that I’d never notice the cracks.”

“You used my trust as a hiding place.”

Someone swiped an employee badge and walked through the doors behind me.

I stepped aside to let them pass, putting even more distance between Ethan and me.

“Go home.”

“Claire…”

“Director Bennett.”

I corrected him again, my impatience clear this time.

“I have three project reviews this afternoon. I don’t have time to stand here talking to you.”

I turned and walked away.

The glass doors closed in Ethan’s face.

The lobby lights were bright, pinning his shadow beneath his feet.

Employees passed him without a second glance.

Ethan sat in the visitor area for another two hours.

The glass doors never opened for him again.

After he returned to Harborview, Ethan’s life began to fall apart.

The fallout from the wedding came first.

More than three hundred guests had seen the property-transfer deed and the chat screenshots on the venue

screen.

Within two days, the story had spread throughout Harborview’s business community.

Three of Ethan’s business partners had been sitting in the audience.

During the second week, two partners terminated their contracts, citing incompatible company values.

The third was more direct.

“Ethan, this isn’t about business. It’s about you.”

“If you’d deceive the woman sleeping beside you, why would anyone trust you with a long-term contract?”

Then there was Vanessa.

After Ethan canceled the London flight, she called more than twenty times.

She went from sobbing to demanding answers and finally to threatening him.

“Ethan, you promised me!”

“You said you’d settle everything with your family after the wedding and then come with me!”

As Ethan listened to her cry, a question suddenly entered his mind.

Had Vanessa ever really suffered from depression?

The red comments didn’t appear for him.

But the answer had been in front of him all along.

He opened Vanessa’s social media feed.

Her main profile only displayed recent posts, but Ethan still followed her from a separate work profile.

Vanessa had assumed he couldn’t see her posts from that account, so she had never blocked it.

Her updates appeared one after another.

There were selfies from shopping trips with friends, pictures of new designer purses, a carousel from a sushi

restaurant, and photos from a weekend camping trip outside the city.

She was smiling brightly in every picture.

Every caption was cheerful and energetic.

She didn’t look like someone who needed a river view to recover.

Ethan scrolled for half an hour.

The most painful post had been uploaded on the day she signed the property-transfer deed.

A newly issued property deed lay in the center of the photograph. Beneath it was a smiling emoji and a short caption.

[Finally, a home of my own.]

Her friends had filled the comments.

[That’s amazing! Is it fully paid off?]

[An independent woman who earned it herself!]

Ethan called Diane.

“Mom, did Vanessa tell you she had depression, or did you ever see an actual medical diagnosis?”

The silence on the other end lasted too long.

When Diane finally answered, she stumbled over her words.

“She told me herself. She was crying so hard, and I felt terrible for her, so…I didn’t ask for details.”

She hadn’t asked for details.

She had handed Vanessa a $120,000 bridal jewelry set without asking for details.

She had also let Ethan transfer a fully paid-off riverfront condo to Vanessa without asking for details.

“Mom, do you have any idea what kind of daughter-in-law you drove away?”

Diane’s voice rose sharply.

“What good does blaming me do now? You were the one who gave Vanessa the condo. You were the one who tried to trick Claire into marrying you!”

Ethan’s face turned white.

“You’re right.”

He didn’t argue.

“I gave Vanessa the condo, and I lied to Claire.”

The person who had truly driven Claire away wasn’t Vanessa.

It wasn’t only Diane either.

It was him.

Silence fell on the other end.

A few seconds later, Diane muttered, “I don’t want to hear this,” and ended the call.

Ethan sat in the dark living room.

The scarf I had started knitting the month before was still lying on the coffee table.

I hadn’t taken it when I left.

Maybe I had forgotten it.

Or maybe I hadn’t wanted to take anything connected to that home.

Ethan picked it up.

It was blue-gray.

I had chosen the color because he once said he liked it.

The scarf was more than halfway finished. I had planned to give it to him on his birthday.

His birthday was the fifteenth of the following month.

But that scarf would never be finished.