Our Marriage License Was A Lie Chapter 01

Our Marriage License Was A Lie Chapter 01

I was taping up yet another missing-person flyer for my sister Chloe Vance when my husband stopped me.

“Chloe didn’t disappear five years ago. She’s been living under my roof this whole time. We have twins.”

Everything in me went still. I stared at Julian Pierce.

“What did you just say?”

He kept going.

“Your parents aren’t dead, either. They couldn’t deal with your downward spiral, so they moved abroad.”

The tears came before I made a sound. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out.

When Chloe vanished, my parents blamed me for all of it.

I dropped everything — my career, my future, my entire life — and crisscrossed the country looking for her until I couldn’t even count the trips anymore.

After I thought my parents died last year, I nearly swallowed a bottle of pills. The only thing that stopped me was the chance that I might still find her.

And the whole time, every single person I loved had been lying to my face.

I forced out one last question, my voice barely holding together.

“So why tell me now?”

He tossed a wedding invitation at my feet.

“Our marriage was never real. We never filed the paperwork. The ceremony was just for show — we only did it so you wouldn’t spiral.”

“I’m marrying her tomorrow. So enough with the flyers. You’re embarrassing us.”

Something on my face must have hit him. For half a second, guilt cracked through his expression.

“Chloe gave me my children. She deserves to be my wife — for real this time.”

“But your parents know how hard you looked for her. They’ve seen everything you’ve done.”

“They’re flying back tonight. We can all be together again.”

***

He reached for me then, rubbing slow, gentle circles into my temples.

He’d done this a hundred times before — held me through sleepless nights, talked me down from the edge.

He used to tell me none of it was my fault. That I had to stop punishing myself over Chloe.

Now his touch made my skin crawl.

I shoved him off me.

“Together?” My voice cracked. “Then what the hell have I been for the last five years?”

Julian’s jaw tightened.

“You owe her, Elena. You knew she was fragile. You knew she couldn’t take it.”

“And you still fought her for that spot. You think you get to be the victim here?”

The words went through me like a blade.

My mind dragged me backward, five years gone in an instant.

I’d studied for more than a decade to earn that acceptance letter to a top university. Fought for it with everything I had.

Chloe had coasted through three years of high school without cracking a book. All she had to do was throw a few tantrums.

And my parents demanded I give up my spot so they could buy her way in.

My whole life, I’d given her first pick of everything.

But this time, I didn’t give in.

The day I was supposed to leave for campus, she vanished.

For five years, I believed I was the reason she was gone.

None of it was real. From the very beginning, the whole thing had been a setup.

Something twisted at the corners of my mouth — not quite a smile. I didn’t know when the tears had started.

“Julian, we’re done. I’m not going back.”

His hand came out of nowhere. The slap cracked across my cheek before I’d even finished the sentence.

In all our years together, he had never raised his voice at me — not once.

And now he’d hit me. For her.

“I didn’t think you’d actually do this, Elena. Walk out on your own family. What the hell is wrong with you?”

“You’re coming home with me. If Chloe has another episode because of you, that’s on you.”

I screamed. I clawed at his hands. He didn’t care. He fisted my hair, forced me into his car, and didn’t stop until he was dragging me through the front door of an estate that looked like it belonged on a magazine cover.

Sprawling, manicured grounds stretched out behind it, and I stopped fighting long enough to take it in.

The man who told me every day that we were barely scraping by had been living like this.

The door swung open, and there she was. Chloe. Alive. Standing right in front of me like the last five years had never happened.

Her skin was flawless, porcelain-smooth, and she wore a designer dress that looked like it had been sewn onto her body.

I looked down at myself — sallow skin, dark circles, a secondhand sweater pilling at the sleeves.

Side by side, we didn’t even look like we belonged on the same planet.

A pink diamond the size of a grape sat on her finger. An emerald pendant hung at her throat.

For five years, I’d poured every dollar I had into keeping us afloat. I ate once a day, sometimes not at all.

Three jobs at once. I’d landed in the ER with a stomach bleed, and even then, all I cared about was saving enough for the next search trip.

Chloe looked me up and down. Then she burst out laughing.

“Oh my God. Is that Elena? She looks like someone’s grandma.”

She snapped a photo of me before I could react and sent it straight to our old group chat.

We shared a few mutual friends. The group chat exploded within seconds.

[Wait Chloe finally dropped the act?? Ugh I was still enjoying watching Elena run around like a lunatic putting up those flyers lmao]

[Hold on is that Elena?? The girl who was literally the prettiest girl at Oakridge?? She looks worse than my mom omg what happened to her]

The messages kept coming, one after another.

They all knew. Every single one of them had known Chloe was never really missing.

I was the only idiot left in the dark. Five years of it.

I shut my eyes. Let the air leave my lungs.

“Enough. Delete it.”

I lunged for her phone. Julian’s foot caught me in the ribs and sent me sprawling.

“What is your problem? Are you trying to scare Chloe with this psycho routine?”

“She took one picture. One. And you’re losing it over that?”

Pain tore through my side. I couldn’t breathe.

He must have seen it — the pain I couldn’t hide.

His hand hovered in the air between us, and something behind his eyes faltered.

“I’m sorry, Elena, I was just—”

I slammed both palms into his chest and knocked him back.

“Don’t touch me. Don’t you ever touch me again. I’m done.”

“I never want to see either of you again.”