Ten Years of Mourning, One Video Call, and a Husband Who Never Left Chapter 03

Ten Years of Mourning, One Video Call, and a Husband Who Never Left Chapter 03

The clerk seemed to want to say more, but I calmly took back the fake marriage certificate and nodded with a smile.

When I walked out of the county clerk’s office, the sky was bright and clear, with a few clouds drifting overhead.

People passed by me. Some were laughing, some were arguing, but all of them had somewhere to go.

I stood there, not knowing where I belonged.

Then I saw Natalie’s Instagram post.

She was announcing a birthday party for the boy that Sunday.

I stared at the photo, and all the hurt and rage inside me surged up at once.

I was going to confront them face-to-face.

In the blink of an eye, the day of the birthday party arrived. I pretended to leave for work as usual.

In reality, I hid nearby and quietly followed Jason’s parents all the way to the hotel.

When I arrived, Jason had his arm around Natalie, and the two of them were putting a party hat on the child together.

He was standing alive right in front of me.

The emotions I had held back for an entire week finally broke loose.

I pushed through the crowd and rushed straight to the front.

“Jason Warren.”

“Tell me the truth. You were never dead, were you? Why did you lie to me?”

I was practically screaming.

The entire room erupted.

Natalie was the first to react. She grabbed Jason’s arm and shouted toward the security guards below the stage.

“What nonsense are you shouting? Security!”

Jason’s mother also rushed up in a panic to stop me, her face turning pale with anxiety.

“Lily! What are you doing? This is the boy’s birthday party. How can you come here and make a scene?”

“Get down right now. Stop embarrassing yourself.”

I turned to look at her.

“Why should I leave?”

“Jason, do you have the guts to tell everyone the truth?”

“Back then, after Graham’s accident, you said you wanted to be a husband to both me and Natalie so you could take care of your widowed sister-in-law. I refused.”

“From then on, you plotted every step of this. You even faked your own death to get away.”

“You left me with your paralyzed father and your sick mother. I worked five jobs a day for five years to hold your family together, while you hid away and played happy family with Natalie!”

Jason stayed silent the entire time, not daring to refute a single word.

Natalie, however, let out a cold laugh.

“I think you’ve lost your mind.”

“Jason and I are together openly. Both of our families and all our friends know about us, and our relationship is stable.”

“You’re nothing but a caregiver my in-laws were kind enough to take in. You spend all day fantasizing that you’re married to my husband. It’s honestly ridiculous.”

The guests below began whispering among themselves, calling me shameless.

I looked at Jason and waited for his answer.

A flicker of guilt crossed his eyes, but the words he spoke shattered the last of my hope.

“Lily, my parents told me your fiancé ran off right before your wedding.”

“You had no one to rely on and nowhere to go, so they took pity on you and let you live with them.”

“But when was I ever with you? Stop making up stories here.”

“Fine.” I took a deep breath and wiped away my tears.

Before anyone could react, I slapped him across the face.

“That slap is for the five years you spent lying to me.”

Then I turned and slapped Natalie across the face as well.

“That one is for the love I wasted.”

“Neither of you deserves any of it.”

My palm burned, and my whole body shook with fury.

The boy beside them rushed over and stood in front of them. Then he started pounding his little fists against me again and again.

“I’ll beat you up! I’ll beat you up! Don’t bully my mom and dad!”

I looked at the family in front of me, so glaringly complete that it hurt, then at Jason’s parents below, frantic to protect them at every turn.

Closing my eyes, I asked one final question.

“Whose child is he, really?”

Jason’s older brother had never looked much like him.

But the boy in front of me was practically a miniature version of Jason.

In Jason’s silence, my heart sank inch by inch.

Then Natalie leaned close with a cold smile.

“My child? Of course he’s my husband’s.”

So from beginning to end, I had been nothing but a joke.

I stumbled two steps backward and finally gave up completely.