The Daughter He Abandoned Called Him A Stranger Chapter 05

The Daughter He Abandoned Called Him A Stranger Chapter 05

After that terrible fight, Nathaniel stopped pretending altogether.

He began appearing with Chloe openly, without even bothering to hide it.

I became the wife left behind, forced to piece together their new life through scraps of news, gossip, and social media.

He took her with him on business trips to Europe.

I accidentally saw the photos on his phone.

In one photo, the Eiffel Tower rose behind them. Nathaniel had his arm around her waist, and they wore matching-toned coats, looking exactly like a couple in love.

Chloe’s social media made their relationship look even more blatant.

He went with her to concerts.

She kept him company while he worked late.

The two of them shared street food in the early hours of the morning.

All the things he had once called boring and a waste of time were suddenly thrilling when he did them with another woman.

He rarely came back to the home where Claire and I lived.

Everyone in their circle was saying he and Chloe had bought a private apartment together in the best part of downtown.

Even when Claire, the daughter he had once adored, was hospitalized after a high fever triggered a seizure, I called him in tears and begged him to come.

He only brushed me off impatiently. “I’m dealing with something important right now. I can’t leave. Isn’t that what doctors are for?”

Only later did I learn that he had been celebrating Chloe’s birthday that night.

Nathaniel acted like a reckless boy in the middle of his first infatuation, doing every childish, impulsive thing imaginable.

He was not even willing to leave me the last shred of dignity.

On the rare occasions when he came home, he carried the traces of their intimacy on him without the slightest attempt to hide them.

I completely fell apart.

I became the kind of desperate wife I had once pitied, trying to grab hold of something that was already gone.

I followed them and confronted them outside restaurants. I grabbed at Chloe in public and called her a homewrecker.

I went to Nathaniel’s company and caused a scene, accusing him of using me up and throwing me away.

But all it earned me was deeper disgust from Nathaniel and a colder way of looking at me.

He gripped my wrist hard, dragged me away from the scene, and berated me.

“Evelyn, look at yourself. What have you turned into? A lunatic. A shrew.”

Chloe, meanwhile, always knew exactly when to look hurt and gracious, making me seem even more pathetic by comparison.

Nathaniel began asking me for a divorce more and more often, almost without emotion.

Each time, he was more determined than the last, unwilling to offer even the smallest explanation.

All my crying, fighting, and struggling seemed ridiculous in the face of his resolve.

Driven to the edge, I contacted a tabloid reporter and exposed the evidence of his affair.

For a while, the headline spread everywhere.

[Prominent Entrepreneur Nathaniel Whitmore Caught Cheating, Shares Luxury Apartment With New Flame]

I thought it would ruin him.

I thought it would make him come back to me.

But I underestimated his cruelty, and I overestimated the power of public opinion.

Nathaniel did not even appear in person. His PR team moved quickly, paying influencers and bot accounts to twist the facts and steer the narrative.

Soon, the story became something else entirely.

Nathaniel and Chloe had supposedly been childhood sweethearts who had always loved each other.

I became the calculating woman who had used shameful tricks to push Chloe out and steal her place.

Now that true love had returned, I was painted as a bitter, greedy wife clinging to wealth and standing in the way of destiny.

The internet was flooded with insults and curses against me.

Some people even dug up my background and mocked me as a nobody who had tried to marry into a world she never belonged in.

Everyone seemed to be condemning me, and nothing I said could get through.

By then, I was exhausted in both body and soul.

That was the moment something in me finally went quiet. Whatever love and hope I had left was gone.

By the time I reached this part of the story, Claire was already crying.

I smiled faintly, my voice calm and empty of emotion. “That was when I finally decided to give up. I didn’t want him anymore.”

“But on the morning after I contacted a lawyer and prepared to sign the divorce papers…”

“I found out I was pregnant.”