Thirty Years Of Marriage I Thought Was A Mistake Chapter 07

Thirty Years Of Marriage I Thought Was A Mistake Chapter 07

But I still couldn’t stop scrolling, reading one comment after another.

[She isn’t good enough for Mr. Prescott. He should be with someone from his own world.]

[Maybe she’s only someone he’s keeping around for fun. He’ll throw her away as soon as he gets bored.]

[Vanessa is beautiful and comes from a powerful family. Why can’t Mr. Prescott see how perfect she is?]

The phone was suddenly pulled from my hand.

I looked up and found Adrian standing in front of me with my phone in his hand. His expression was grim.

“How did you get in?” I asked, startled.

“Your mother opened the door.”

Adrian slipped my phone into his pocket.

“Stop reading that garbage. It’s just a group of bored strangers talking nonsense.”

I leaned to the side and looked toward the living room.

My mother stood frozen in the kitchen doorway. She hadn’t even tied her apron yet, and she was still holding a spatula.

Her eyes were wide as she looked from Adrian to me. Her mouth opened, closed, and then opened again.

“Sweetheart,” she finally managed, “is this… your boyfriend?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head.

“Yes,” Adrian answered at exactly the same time.

We looked at each other.

“I’m also the father of her baby,” he added.

The spatula slipped from my mother’s hand and struck the floor with a sharp clang.

She took one deep breath, then another, before gripping the doorframe and slowly crouching down.

“Mom! Don’t scare me!”

I rushed over and helped support her.

She looked up at me with tears in her eyes.

“Sweetheart, tell me the truth. Did he take advantage of you? Did this man force himself on you?”

Her voice shook.

“Don’t be afraid. I may only be a teacher, but even if it kills me, I’ll make sure he answers for what he did.”

My nose stung, and I nearly burst into tears.

She had reacted the same way in my previous life.

When Adrian came to ask for my parents’ blessing before we married, my mother had blocked the doorway and told him, “You may be rich, but if my daughter ever suffers because of you, I’ll haunt you from the grave.”

Over the years, as Adrian continued to treat me well, my mother gradually stopped worrying.

“Mom, it isn’t what you think.”

I crouched beside her and wrapped my arms around her.

“He didn’t hurt me. It was… an accident, but he’s a good person, and he has treated me very well.”

My mother pushed me back and carefully looked Adrian up and down.

Adrian stood ramrod straight, like a student waiting to be interviewed, with his hands hanging awkwardly at his sides.

“What’s your name?” my mother asked.

“My name is Adrian Prescott.”

“What do you do?”

“I run a company.”

“How old are you?”

“I’m thirty-two.”

“Do you have any family?”

“My parents have passed away, and I don’t have any other relatives.”

My mother asked one question after another, and Adrian answered every one obediently.

He looked nothing like the billionaire CEO who controlled a multibillion-dollar corporate empire.

The comments were beside themselves with laughter.

[Hahaha! Look how obedient Mr. Prescott is while his future mother-in-law interrogates him!]

[Adrian: I’ve negotiated multibillion-dollar deals, and I’ve never been this nervous.]

[He’s answering every question so seriously. You can tell he genuinely means it.]

[Girls, I’m now eighty percent convinced that Mr. Prescott is in love with the female supporting character.]

After my mother had questioned him thoroughly, her expression finally softened.

She stood and brushed a little dust from her apron.

“I’m going to make dinner. Sweetheart, keep our guest company.”

She turned toward the kitchen, then poked her head back out.

“Don’t take advantage of my daughter just because she’s slow to react. She may need an extra second to process things, but she always remembers who treats her well and who doesn’t.”

Adrian nodded.

“You have my word.”

Only then did my mother disappear into the kitchen. The sound of a knife hitting a cutting board soon followed.

Adrian and I stood in the living room in awkward silence.

“Why did you tell my mother you were my boyfriend?” I asked quietly.

“What I said is true.” He looked directly into my eyes. “Grace Miller, I’m not joking.”

“But you still won’t tell me whether you love me.”

“It isn’t that I don’t want to tell you.”

He drew a deep breath.

“I was… afraid the truth would scare you.”

The comments instantly flooded my vision.

[What does he mean by that? Is being loved by Mr. Prescott supposed to be terrifying?]

[Could Mr. Prescott have been secretly in love with the female supporting character for years? What else could possibly scare her?]

[I just had a disturbing thought. What if Mr. Prescott was sent back in time too?]

[Whoever posted that, shut up. That theory is too insane even for me.]

I stared at Adrian as my heart raced wildly.

“Adrian, what exactly are you hiding from me?”

He didn’t answer. Instead, he reached into the inside pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out an old wallet. He opened it, removed a photograph from an inner compartment, and handed it to me.

The photograph had yellowed with age. Its edges were worn, as though someone had run their fingers over it countless times.

It showed a girl with her hair tied in a ponytail, wearing a blue-and-white school uniform as she stood beneath a sugar maple tree with a stack of books in her arms and turned toward the camera.

Sunlight filtered through the maple leaves and cast shifting patterns across her face.

She looked slightly dazed, her lips parted as though she hadn’t realized someone was taking her picture.

The girl in the photograph was me at fifteen.