She Woke Up After Eight Years To Find Her Husband Had A New Wife Chapter 03

She Woke Up After Eight Years To Find Her Husband Had A New Wife Chapter 03

I used to ask if he missed me. He’d just say he was busy and tell me to stop obsessing over things like that.

The click of the front door unlocking cut through the silence.

Then came a child’s voice—soft, bright, full of joy.

“Mommy! I’m home!”

A little boy with a backpack ran inside and rushed straight into Vanessa’s arms.

She bent down, picked him up, and kissed his cheek.

“You’re back from school, Caleb. Were you good today?”

Caleb threw his arms around her neck, nuzzling against her like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Of course I was good. I saved my milk from school. For you, Mommy.”

My eyes locked onto the small red mole at the corner of his eye. A tremor ran through me. I couldn’t stop it.

The position, the color, it was exactly the same as what I had seen in that final glance after giving birth.

He was the child I had risked my life to bring into the world.

And yet there he was, calling her “Mommy” so easily and lovingly, like she’d been his mother his whole life.

The nanny led him off to change.

I forced the words out. “He… doesn’t look very much like you.”

Vanessa sighed. “That poor kid. His birth mother died of cancer.”

“Lucian and I didn’t want him growing up with that sadness hanging over him.”

“So we’ve always just let people assume I’m his biological mom. I’m the only mother he’s ever known.”

“He’s been with me since before he could even remember anything else.”

Caleb didn’t recognize me. He didn’t even know anything about his biological mother.

For all eight years of his life, I simply… wasn’t there.

Vanessa stood up and walked toward the kitchen. “Sit tight. I’ll make us some juice.”

I noticed the way she cut the oranges, uneven and clumsy.

She fiddled with the juicer for a long time before it finally started.

She looked a little embarrassed and gave an awkward smile.

“I don’t usually do housework. We used to have a chef, but I’m picky with food.”

“Lucian ended up learning to cook himself. Now he takes care of all three meals every day.”

“He’s really good at it. Later I’llhave him show off a little. You should try it.”

As I listened, it felt like something was slowly tearing me apart inside.

I used to have a weak stomach. I would often wake up in the middle of the night from the pain.

Some nights it got so bad I’d ask him to just make me some plain oatmeal. Nothing fancy. He’d say he didn’t know how.

Back then, I thought he was just too busy with work to worry about small things like that.

In truth, he simply didn’t care enough about me.

Vanessa handed me a glass of juice, smiling like she was about to share a secret.

“You know, I used to think Lucian was just this total bookworm. Zero romance.”

“But after we got together? Turns out, when that man decides to be romantic, he goes all in.”

She took out her phone and scrolled through her social media album to show me.

In the photos, Lucian wore a bright floral shirt.

He stood near the stage at the Sunnydale Music Festival, surrounded by a cheering crowd.

He held a glow stick, smiling with pure, radiant joy.

“Last year, I was under a lot of stress from work and in a bad mood all the time.”

“He dragged me to the music festival and had even more fun than I did.”

She kept scrolling, and then a photo of their marriage certificate came into view.

The date read March 12, 2018.

Just three months after I was frozen, he had married someone else.

Vanessa’s cheeks flushed a little.

“It’s kind of a funny story, actually. We met through work.”

“Lucian came to the magazine for an interview, and I was assigned to take his photo.”

“I had just gotten out of something messy. Dating was the last thing on my mind.”

“But he just kept showing up at my studio. Every single day. Said it was love at first sight.”

“Two months later, we were married.”

It felt like my chest was tightening, and I could barely breathe.

It hit me. When Lucian had been pursuing her, I had only just been frozen.

All of it. The sweet words. The relentless pursuit.

It had all started while I lay there sleeping.

Everything he had said about waiting for me to wake up, about our family being reunited, had all been lies.