Chapter 3

I turned around and shoved Samuel back with all of my might.

He surely knew how to play the game and twist the facts here! He was the one who agreed to "rent" the place to them, yet he told them that I was the one who insisted on collecting the rental fees. And now, he was the one with their favor, while I was made out to be the unreasonable one.

"Let's go home first, Carol. I promise I'll tell you everything when we're back," Samuel said, grabbing my wrist tightly as he looked at me pleadingly.

However, I didn't know if the pleading in his eyes was to preserve his pride and dignity or for Misty's sake.

When he saw the cold look on my face, he made up his mind to drag me out of the place.

However, I kicked out at the umbrella stand in the doorway all of a sudden. Then, I pointed at the blue employee badge hanging there, my voice shaking in anger and disbelief.

"You even gave her my position too? And this is what you mean by her not being able to find a job?

"Samuel Tucker! What else have you been lying to me about?"

I had worked very hard and even insisted on working from home throughout my maternity leave. Then, once it was over, I left Elsie with her nanny and shuttled tirelessly between home and the office, practically risking my life until I was finally promoted to Deputy Director.

However, three years ago, during dinner, Samuel suddenly brought up that the company was doing a massive layoff, and unfortunately, I was one of them.

He choked up and apologized to me, saying that even though he was the Deputy Director of the Human Resources Department, he couldn't influence the board's decision at all.

I had felt sorry for his predicament, and despite my own reluctance to leave my position, I still comforted him and said, "It's okay, honey. I guess now's the best time to stay home and take care of Elsie instead."

In the following years, I thought quite often that I would find myself a new job once Elsie was enrolled in and started elementary school.

But today, I saw my old employee badge with Misty's name on it instead!

Judging from the employee number, the start date was exactly two months after Samson's death, which was also the very month I was supposedly laid off from the company.

Samuel had lied to me again.

The company hadn't been laying anybody off the entire time! He just wanted to give my position to Misty, his sister-in-law!

Seeing that even this cat was let out of its bag, Samuel lowered his voice and pleaded, "Darling, please, let's just go home first…"

But I refused to move.

At this time of the day, he wasn't at work because of Misty's call. However, Misty wasn't at work. Why was that?

I scoffed after thinking about it.

"Really, Samuel Tucker? This is the job position for the Deputy Director of the Creative Department. You really dared to let her just hold onto that position and take the monthly salary without even going to work?

"When I worked at the office, you refused to even approve of my sick leave when I was obviously very sick!"

Misty came over to us just then, probably thinking that I was sounding a little too pitiful. She sighed and frowned as she said, "Don't blame this on him, Caroline. It's just that he thought I had it really hard bringing up my kids by myself, and he only did this for me—"

I couldn't hold it back anymore and interrupted her, "Misty! You're just receiving a salary of at least 20,000 dollars a month without even having to go to work, and you're only paying 300 dollars a month for your family of six to live in a luxurious apartment like this!

"You even have my husband as your private handyman! What is it that's hard about your life?"

"Caroline Whitaker!"

Samuel grabbed me by my hand when he saw how white Misty's face had gotten and forcefully dragged me out of the door despite my protests. He didn't let go of me until we were finally out of the building door.

Then, he plastered the pitiful look on his face again and said, "Listen, darling, I can explain. I had no choice but to do all these!

"Did you know how depressed and heartbroken Misty was after Samson died? She was suicidal every other day! I only did this because I was trying to stabilize her emotions!"

I stared straight into Samuel's eyes until he felt goosebumps crawling on his skin.

"When Samson passed away, you and your mom were both upset and distraught, and I was the one handling all of the funeral proceedings. I know her condition more than anyone else!"

If a widow were truly depressed and heartbroken because of her husband's death, she would never have brought her six-month-old baby out on cafe-hunting trips at that time.

And if she were truly suicidal, she wouldn't have slept snugly until noon while I got up at the crack of dawn to make funeral arrangements, and then pretend to wipe away fake tears from her eyes while thanking me for my trouble!

Yet, Samuel was still lying to me until now.

This was our eighth married year together. Elsie was five-and-a-half years old, and her little sibling was still in my belly.

However, this was the very first time that I finally took a good, hard look at him. I had given my all to him, but I still didn't know what exactly was on his mind.

At this point, Samuel was behaving like a deflated balloon. He kicked a stone by the roadside with a sullen face and finally threw caution to the wind.

"I'll tell you the truth, Carol. Samson specifically asked me to take care of Misty and his kids before he passed away."