Groom on Paper, Third Wheel in Reality

The courthouse staff looked at me with sympathy as they handed back the marriage certificate.

I gripped it so tightly my fingertips turned white. When I stood up, I nearly lost my balance. The name Tristan Prescott felt like a needle piercing straight into my heart, drawing fresh blood.

I stared at the photo on the marriage certificate where I was smiling with pure happiness, and my eyes stung with tears.

Five years ago, my wedding with Delaney Sterling had been a grand affair.

To make it up to me, Delaney had paid for every LED screen in the city to play our shared memories, and fireworks worth millions lit up the night sky. She had even designed and handcrafted my wedding ring herself. It was truly one of a kind.

In our five years of marriage, we had been inseparable. Everyone around us envied our relationship and saw us as a match made in heaven.

But it turned out that it had all been a lie.

I returned home in a daze. Just as I was about to push open the door, voices drifted out from inside.

"Laney, it's been three years. Aren't you going to give Max a proper title?" Gillian Norwood, our mutual friend, asked.

I held my breath as I waited for Delaney's response. But she remained silent for a long time.

Unable to hold back any longer, Gillian pressed on. "What are you even thinking? You've been lying to Max for five years for a vain, materialistic man! Weren't you so in love with Max back then that you were willing to lay your life down for him?"

Delaney finally spoke. "I just wanted to make sure that Tris is in a stable condition first! Back when I left him, he missed me so much that he got sick and tried to slit his wrists at home! He almost died! He can't live without me!

"Max gets to be with me openly, but I can't always stay by Tris' side. Is it really so wrong for me to give him a status as compensation?"

The blood drained from my face. Every word she spoke tore my heart to shreds.

"Besides… he's Colin's father. Even if only for the sake of our child, I owe him that much."

Though it was still the height of summer, I felt as though my heart had been plunged into an icy abyss.

Shortly after we got married, Delaney had discovered she was pregnant. At the time, I had thought it was a gift from heaven, a double blessing.

Now that I thought about it, this explained why she had asked me to be gentle with her on our wedding night.

Back when my son, Colin Sterling, first learned to talk and called me "Daddy", her expression had darkened instantly. I had thought she was just jealous that Colin hadn't called her "Mommy" first.

Now I realized it was because she never wanted Colin to acknowledge me as his father.

For five long years, I had been kept in the dark, lost in the beautiful dream she had woven for me. I had never realized that the person sleeping beside me had long since lost her love for me.

The strength left my legs, and I collapsed to the floor.

Hearing the noise, Delaney and Gillian immediately fell silent.

When Delaney saw me sitting on the floor, she rushed over anxiously to help me up.