Chapter 2

After a moment, the door opened once more.

Instead of the teacher from before, the head of discipline walked out.

She approached me with a stoic expression and handed me the marriage certificate.

"My apologies, Mr. Howards. We just ran an official check on this certificate. It cannot be found in the government's system. That is to say, it's invalid."

My vision began to blur as my mind buzzed in confusion.

Almost immediately, I said, "Impossible! I got this certificate with Wendy seven years ago!"

The head of discipline, Jasmine Zane, looked at me with a frown. "Our system shows that you are not Ms. Lindell's official spouse."

Right after she said that, the parents standing around us burst out into laughter.

"Oh my! A fake certificate? How desperate is he to get his daughter into this school?"

"How humiliating! No wonder he's dressed so cheaply."

"Men nowadays are really willing to do anything to get a rich wife."

Suddenly, Zachary let out a scoff.

He pushed me aside and approached Jasmine. "My apologies, Ms. Zane. My wife's driver seems to have made a foolish mistake."

He glanced at me and took a marriage certificate out of his briefcase before passing it to her.

"This is the official marriage certificate between Wendy and me, as well as Quincy's guarantor form. This is all you need, right? Can we go in now?"

I ran forward and snatched the marriage certificate from Jasmine.

The registration date was seven and a half years ago.

It was registered a whole six months before I had my wedding with Wendy, and before I got that fake marriage certificate.

I held the marriage certificate in my hands as I looked at Wendy in disbelief.

She finally dropped the act and looked at me with disdain.

"Terence, I might as well be honest at this point. Zachary and I are legally married. Your marriage certificate is fake."

"Fake?" I murmured to myself, feeling like my world had been turned upside down.

Other parents had already surrounded us as they began to talk about us loudly.

"Oh my god. Did he catch his wife's boyfriend in the act?"

"Lord, he dated a married woman for seven years and even took care of her daughter. Is he trying to make it official now? How shameless of him!"

"He looks boring. He's probably a boy toy that she got bored with."

I looked at Quincy, whom I had raised as my own for the past six years. She had to be on my side, right?

However, Quincy ducked behind Zachary and peeked out at me with a hateful stare.

"You big liar! You're not even Mom's real husband! Good. I've always wanted a dad like Uncle Zach! He's the boss of a big company and can buy me anything I want. What about you? You just force me to do my homework all the time. You can't give me anything."

Zachary hugged Quincy proudly as he looked at me, gloating like a peacock.

I was blinded with fury. I immediately tore Wendy and Zachary's marriage certificate into pieces.

Wendy's expression darkened as she yelled at me, "Terence, are you crazy? Just because you don't have one doesn't mean you can ruin somebody else's! You're such a shameless hooligan!"

I froze.

Chills began to run through my body.

At that very moment, all I could think about was how everything I'd done for the Lindell family had been seen as a huge joke.

For the past few years, she kept telling me that she was busy with the company, so I willingly watched Quincy and did all the chores. I didn't care that everyone else saw me as a marry-in son-in-law.

Whenever we went out, she used me to show off her perfect family and successful business. Instead of calling her bluff, I went along with it.

Who knew she'd end up with such an inflated ego? I couldn't believe she dared to do such a thing!

She had no idea that I was the head of the richest family in Javeton — the Howards family. She couldn't afford to mess with me.