Seven Years and a Lifetime of Lies Chapter 03

Seven Years and a Lifetime of Lies Chapter 03

“Stella, I’m so sorry. If I had gone with you to visit Grandma Eleanor that day, you never would have gotten into that accident.”

“But I promise you—this is the very first and last mistake I’ll ever make.”

“I will never let you face danger alone again.”

Faced with his guilt, I still chose to keep the miscarriage from him. I told myself he hadn’t meant any harm, that he’d truly been caught up with work.

Now, all of that felt like a cruel joke. Hank had lied to me. His so-called work emergency was taking Cindy to an amusement park to fulfill her childhood dream. He had deliberately screened and ignored every one of my calls.

Tears poured down my face harder than ever. I let out ragged, gasping sobs of agony and shook my head. Then my voice turned eerily calm.

“I don’t want anything from you anymore, Hank. I’m done with your half-hearted, unfaithful self entirely.”

“I’m done with that job, too.”

With that, I leaned on Lily’s arm and stumbled toward the exit. Hank followed close behind, keeping his distance.

He only stepped forward when Lily walked me all the way to my front door. He unlocked it silently, then asked Lily to leave so he could speak with me alone.

Lily gave me a concerned, questioning look to check what I wanted her to do. I shot her a thankful glance and told her it was fine for her to head back to the office for now. Whatever was between Hank and me, we had to sort it out ourselves.

After Lily left, we both sat down on the couch in heavy silence. After a long pause, he got up, walked into the study, and brought out thirty boxes of different sizes. He let out a sigh.

“I’d planned to sneak all of this together and pull off a birthday surprise for you tomorrow. ”

“Since we’re already this upset with each other, I figured I’d bring everything out early to patch things up between us.”

He opened the box marked Age One first. Inside was a ceramic charm bracelet. A nostalgic look crossed Hank’s face.

This was the first gift we ever exchanged, back when we officially started dating in our junior year of college. I’d given him the matching one, but his broke, so he bought this second one for me.

…

When he opened the box marked Age Eighteen, he lifted out an evening gown, his eyes glowing with warmth.

“This is from our fourth year together. You pointed at this dress in a store window and said you wanted to wear it when you married me.”

“I never forgot. I couldn’t afford it back then, but now I finally bought it.”

Finally, he opened the small box marked Age Thirty and got down on one knee.

“Stella Owen, will you marry me?”

“We’ve been through everything together for seven years. I’ve always known you’re the one I want to spend my life with.”

“I love you. Will you say yes?”

I stared at him coldly, watching his confidence that I would accept, and tore through every lie.

“You love me? Then why did you give false testimony to the internal investigation team, saying I faked those expense reports?”

“You love me? Then why did you destroy the career I built over seven years?”

“You love me? Then why did you let Cindy get promoted at my expense, without caring what happened to me?”

“Hank, your love is utterly worthless and shallow.”

Hank pressed his lips together, got up from the floor, and set the ring box on the coffee table. He looked down at me with a sigh.

“Stella, honestly, Cindy had nothing to do with my choices here. I really did all of this looking out for you..”

“You know how badly I’ve wanted kids for a long time.”

“Once we tie the knot and start trying to conceive, you can’t split your energy between a demanding career and building a family. That’s why I just let Cindy’s complaint move forward naturally.”