Chapter 4

Samuel continued, "Later on, Misty came to me with Zack and Zoe in her arms, and I had no choice but to intervene then."

I shook my head.

"That's not a reason for all this. You could have just told me when she came to you for help. Instead, you chose to hide it from me, lie to me about everything, and even rob me of my things just to give them to her!"

Samuel was silent for a long time. Then, he finally said, "I was afraid that you'd overthink things. I had no other choice."

There he went again. He kept saying that he had "no choice".

I simply couldn't understand it.

When we made our wedding vows, he promised that he would always put me first and be right by my side, no matter in sickness or in health. How did he end up lying straight to my face for three years straight?

Was it really because it was Samson's dying wish? Or did Samuel really have other motives for doing this?

"I'm asking you one last time, Samuel Tucker. What else have you been lying to me about?"

He understood the hidden meaning in my words and immediately shook his head.

"Nothing else. Really. Also, I only did all these because of Samson's dying wish. I didn't want him to roll in his grave if I didn't fulfill it. I wanted him to rest in peace."

Then, he came over to me to hold my hand, speaking in a humbled voice, "You have to trust me, darling. This is the full truth.

"I promise that I'll start reducing contact with Misty today onward. If she needs anything, I'll ask her to call a proper repairman or the property manager to handle things instead.

"I'll always spend every weekend with you and Elsie now."

He said a lot of words to me, but none of them were his apology, sincere or not. He was just sweeping the elephant in the room under the rug, not even bothering to bring up any solutions for the mess he'd created.

I felt a wave of disappointment wash over me as I gritted my teeth and yanked my arm away from his hold.

My phone buzzed just then, and I saw that it was a text message from a friend of mine.

"I thought you didn't manage to get a spot in Prime Elementary School. But why did I see your husband this morning when enrolling my kid at the school?

"Also, didn't you have a daughter? I thought I saw your husband with a little boy instead. What's going on?"

She then sent me a video she'd taken of a man signing some enrolment papers at the elementary school, wearing the exact same outfit that Samuel was now wearing.

Because it was him in the video.

Meanwhile, the loud, noisy, and rowdy little boy next to him, with a plane model in his hand, was none other than Zack Tucker—Misty's eldest son, who was the same age as my Elsie.

No wonder I'd only seen the five of them at home earlier today.

I looked up at Samuel, rage burning intensely in my eyes.

It was bad enough that he had given Misty my apartment and my job, but this was Elsie's education matters, for crying out loud!

"Samuel Tucker! If there's one thing I regret the most, it's believing in all of your stupid lies!"

I showed him the video on my phone, and his confused face immediately paled when he saw himself on the screen.

He began to panic.

"Wait, Carol, I can explain… Zack is supposed to be enrolled into elementary school at his age now, but he can't because the school requires a permanent address. That's why I—"

"What about Elsie? Is she also not the age to be enrolled in elementary school? How could you give your own daughter's chance at education away to somebody else! Do you want Elsie to hate you?"

"No, wait, I had no other choice! Samson told me to—"

"No. You had a choice."

For some reason, I felt the anger and fury in me suddenly transformed into a sense of desolation when I heard him say his stupid "catchphrase" again.

So, this was the man I had married after all—a man who pretended to be a good person to others while lying incessantly to me.

I suddenly calmed down at that very moment.

"You could have told me that Misty had no place to stay, and I would have made the decision whether or not to rent out the apartment to her.

"You say that she couldn't find a job. You could have let her work in my department, and I could have guided and mentored her along.

"As for this elementary school enrollment, if you managed to get a spot for Zack, that means you could have also gotten a spot for Elsie as well.

"But you didn't. You keep using 'you had no choice' as your flimsy excuse to abandon your wife and daughter, instead leaving the best for outsiders."

Samuel frowned hard and kept shaking his head.

"No, that's not it! Listen to me, darling! I really had no choice!"

I straightened up my hunched back and looked at him.

"Then let me tell you now about my plan to take back everything that rightfully belonged to me."

"What is it?"

I dialed a number on my phone and put it to my ear, making the call in front of him.

"Hello? I want to make a police report. My husband, Samuel Tucker, rented out my apartment to his relatives at an extremely low-balled price without my consent.

"I suspect that they colluded to illegally seize my personal property from me."