The Man She Loved For Ten Years Let Her Father Die To Protect His Mistress Chapter 01

The Man She Loved For Ten Years Let Her Father Die To Protect His Mistress Chapter 01

On the day of my father’s funeral, Adrian Mercer laid down a bouquet of white lilies and said, out of nowhere, “Evelyn, your dad knew about me and your best friend.”

I froze where I stood, my face going white, but he looked completely at ease.

“While your father was fighting for his life on the table, Sienna had an episode. I had no choice but to stay at her side and calm her down.”

He paused, then went on in the same even tone, “She clung to me so hard I couldn’t stop. I was with her too long. Your father woke up from the anesthesia and caught us.”

“The hemorrhage was too severe. Even I couldn’t save him.”

My knees gave out. It felt as if every ounce of strength had drained out of my body at once, and I nearly collapsed.

After my father’s surgery failed, Sienna had slapped her own face until it swelled, crying as she apologized over and over.

Just yesterday, she had stayed awake with me through the entire visitation, eyes red, telling me my father had been like half a father to her too, that she would take good care of me from now on.

Adrian’s voice stayed soft, almost tender.

“Last night, after you cried yourself unconscious, she had another episode. We did it right in front of your father’s casket.”

“handed me a petition for divorce, so she went back to the hotel to take a pill before coming back to stay with you.”

Then he bent down, gently helped me back to my feet, and slipped a set of divorce papers into my hand.

“Oh, and Landon would rather have Sienna as his mother.”

He looked at me with chilling calm.

“You don’t have to divorce me if you don’t want to. If you can live with it, the three of us can stay together.”

***************

People kept streaming in to pay their respects, one after another, and Adrian tucked me into his arms like the perfect grieving husband.

More than one person praised him.

“Evelyn, Adrian really is a good man. Ten years of marriage, and he’s still this attentive.”

No one saw my nails digging into my palms until they bled.

No one knew I had bitten the inside of my mouth raw just to stop myself from slapping the man beside me.

This was my father’s funeral.

I didn’t want to destroy it.

“Evelyn,” Adrian murmured, his voice mingling with the mournful dirge, “we were married for ten years. Try to keep this dignified.”

His words wound around the mournful organ music like a curse, drilling into my ears again and again.

Beneath his coat, the edge of the divorce papers pressed against me, like something alive, like it was urging me to sign.

But this marriage had been something Adrian had practically begged for on his knees.

My father hadn’t wanted me moving across the country for him.

Adrian had camped outside our house for half a month until my father relented.

On the day we got married, he had been so happy he looked like a kid.

He had shredded our marriage license, saying we were going to stay together for the rest of our lives.

And now, at my father’s funeral, he couldn’t even wait to divorce me.

“Why?”

I barely recognized my own voice when it came out. My throat was already shredded from crying, every word stabbing like a knife.

A faint laugh brushed past my ear. Adrian’s voice was cold as ice.

“Sienna didn’t want your father dying disappointed in you. She didn’t want you taking another hit, either.”

“But I was done, Evelyn. Every time I slept with you, I had to picture Sienna’s face just to get through it.”

“I put up with it for ten years. I’ve had enough. It’s time she got what she deserves.”

There wasn’t a trace of shame on his face.

It was as if the man who used to constantly crave my affection had never existed at all.

I was shaking so hard I thought I might be sick. “I never forced you to marry me.”

At that, something dark flashed across his expression. His hand clamped around my waist so hard it hurt.

“If you hadn’t had a crush on me, Sienna never would’ve stepped aside and given me to you.”

“Do you have any idea how long she cried every time she had to watch us play happy together?”

He leaned closer, eyes full of contempt. “Evelyn, you’re the one who ruined all three of our lives.”

For a second, I forgot how to breathe.

And then, all at once, every wrongness I’d ignored over the years rose to the surface.

No wonder Sienna’s smile had looked so strained when she first heard Adrian and I were together.

No wonder she hadn’t fought for the bouquet at our wedding reception.

When I asked her why, she had stood there with red-rimmed eyes and said the man she loved had married someone else.

The signs had always been there.

I had just trusted them too much.

“Even if you blame me, what did my father ever do to you?”

My voice broke. “How could you not operate on him? He trusted you. He trusted you more than anyone.”

The thought of my father dying on that table without leaving behind a single last word tore through me like a blade.

Before they wheeled him into surgery, I was a nervous wreck. He had smiled and tried to comfort me instead.

“You still don’t trust Adrian?” he had teased.

And the man he trusted most was the one who killed him.

The door creaked open.

Sienna stood there, pale and full of counterfeit remorse.

“Evelyn, I’m sorry. If you want to blame someone, blame me. I had an episode that day. I couldn’t control myself.”

Her voice trembled. “When Adrian was trying to help me, Professor Wren… he kept struggling…”

I couldn’t take another word.

I swung my hand, the slap echoing through the room. My voice came out ragged and broken. “You do not get to call him that!”

But before I could do anything else, a blur shot in from the side.

Landon shoved me so hard I stumbled backward.

He planted himself in front of Sienna like he was protecting her from a threat, his face tight with anger.

“Don’t you dare bully Aunt Sienna!”

My vision blurred.

In the last moment before everything went dark, I saw Adrian pulling Sienna into his arms in panic while Landon fretted over her.

Not one of them looked at me.

I let out a bitter, almost soundless laugh.

So that was the truth.

The happy family I thought I had was never real.

None of it was.