Chapter 2

Every time I tried to share the burden of taking care of Victoria, he would put on that understanding, considerate act and patiently urge me to focus on my job.

Back then, I fell for it every time.

Now, I just hung up and headed straight to the hospital.

…

The hospital was crowded. I pushed through the stream of people toward a hospital room I knew by heart but had never once entered. Just as I reached the door, I heard Victoria's loud, energetic voice.

She was chatting with another patient in the room.

I stopped at the doorway because I heard exactly what they were talking about.

Someone asked, "Mrs. Wilde, you look perfectly healthy. Why are you in the hospital?"

Victoria couldn't hide the smugness in her voice.

"My body's fine, but my mind isn't. Whenever I see my daughter-in-law, my eyes hurt, my heart hurts, my whole body hurts. My son had me stay in the hospital and sent her out to work to pay for my medical bills."

The room fell silent, and so did my heart.

For five years, they kept the lie going.

I had been married to Marcus for five and a half years, and Victoria had been "hospitalized" for five of them.

The two of them had been working together to deceive me all along.

My marriage had been a nightmare crafted by their own hands. My gaze drifted out of focus, and all the sounds around me faded, leaving only Marcus's voice from the beginning of her hospital stay.

Back then, I was three months pregnant, suffering from severe morning sickness, vomiting nonstop. After a full day and night of it, I couldn't take it anymore and wanted to take leave from work.

Marcus had held my hand, looking deeply troubled. "If you take time off, what about Mom's medical bills? Darling, her life is in your hands."

What could I say after that?

Later, I overworked myself, and I lost the baby.

I was devastated.

Marcus said, "We can always have another child. It was just a fertilized egg. It's not worth more than Mom's life."

My child was worth less than Victoria's life. My suffering, my exhaustion, the way I was mistreated, even my injuries and blood meant less than Victoria's life.

I once cried and asked Marcus, "Why is my life so difficult?"

He said, "It's all because I'm useless. I don't have money."

Those words ran through our entire marriage. And yet today, the same man who cried about having no money and pushed me to work myself to the bone had withdrawn five million dollars from my account to buy a house.

I took a deep breath.

Just as I was about to push the door open and expose everything, Victoria's phone rang. She was a little hard of hearing, so she put it on speaker.

Marcus's impatient voice blasted through. "Mom, Emily's lost it. She's insisting on going to the hospital. Make sure you play your part!"

Victoria clicked her tongue in irritation. "That bitch only knows how to stir up trouble!"

The next second, her tone changed.

"Marcus, did you buy the house? That stupid family used to give us 100 thousand dollars every month. Luckily, you were smart enough to claim that little bitch was sick so we could get 500 thousand dollars from them. Now that we've bought the house and the car, can we finally get rid of her?"

I gripped the door handle, my body going numb.

Who was that family she mentioned, the one paying them 100 thousand dollars a month? On top of that, they had even pretended I was sick to cheat them out of 500 thousand dollars.

The unknown surged up like a wave of fear, swallowing me whole.

Before I could even calm myself, Victoria dropped another bombshell.

"I miss Lucas. Marcus, if you don't get rid of that bitch, when will my real daughter-in-law and my grandson finally be reunited with us?"

Marcus fell silent for a moment.

"Just a little longer," he said at last. "At least until we secure one more payout big enough for us to live comfortably for the rest of our lives."