Chapter 4

“Noah, I’ll tell you the truth. Before Emily passed, she asked me to take care of Mark and the kids.

“Later, he came to me holding Lily and leading Ben by the hand. I couldn’t just ignore them.”

I shook my head.

“That isn’t a reason. If he came to you, you could have told me.

“But you chose to hide it from me. You even lied to me and took what belonged to me to give to him.”

The person in front of me stayed silent for a long time before forcing out one sentence.

“I was afraid you’d overthink it. I had no choice.”

There it was again.

No choice.

I didn’t understand.

At our wedding, she had promised that in sickness and in health, in life and in death, I would come first.

How had that woman spent three years lying to me for another man?

Was it only because he was Emily’s widower?

Or was it because she had other feelings for him?

“Claire, I’m asking you one last time.

“Other than all this, is there anything else you haven’t told me the truth about?”

Claire heard the meaning beneath my words and immediately shook her head.

“No. Really.

“And everything I’ve done for him was only because of Emily’s last wish. I didn’t want her soul to be unable to rest.”

After saying that, she came over to take my hand, lowering herself completely.

“Honey, believe me. That’s everything.

“I promise you, I’ll slowly reduce my contact with Mark. If he needs anything, he can go to his mother or hire a nanny.

“From now on, I’ll spend every weekend with you and Daisy.”

Every word sounded like an admission of fault, but she was avoiding the real issues.

She had not mentioned a single thing that actually needed to be fixed.

Disappointment surged through me. I clenched my teeth and pulled my arm free.

My phone vibrated. A friend had sent me a message.

“Didn’t you say you couldn’t get a spot at the downtown elementary school? I took my kid there this morning to handle enrollment, and I swear I saw your wife.

“Oh, right. I thought your child was a girl. Since when did she become a boy?”

In the video, the woman signing the paperwork was dressed exactly like Claire.

It was Claire.

And standing beside her, holding a model airplane with a spoiled, arrogant look on his face, was Ben Lewis.

Mark’s eldest son, the same age as Daisy.

No wonder Mark’s family had six people, but I had only seen five of them.

I raised my head, and the rage inside me burned stronger than it ever had before.

The job and the apartment she had given Mark were mine.

But that school placement belonged to Daisy.

“Claire, the thing I regret most is ever believing your lies!”

I shoved the phone in front of her. She looked at it blankly for a moment, then panicked.

“Noah, listen to me... Ben is old enough to start school, but Mark doesn’t own property here, so I...”

“Is Daisy not old enough to start school too? You gave your own daughter’s school spot to someone else’s child. Aren’t you afraid Daisy will hate you?”

“No, that’s not it. I had no choice. Emily asked me to...”

“No. You had a choice.”

For some reason, the moment I heard those three words again, the fury in my heart suddenly turned into a wave of sorrow.

So this was the woman I had married.

A good person in front of everyone else, and a liar in front of me.

At that moment, I became calm.

“When Mark had nowhere to live, you could have told me and let me decide whether to rent the apartment to him.

“When he had no job, you could have asked me to let him join my department, and I could have trained him myself.

“Even with this school placement, since you found a way to give it to Ben, you definitely could have found a way to get one for Daisy.

“But you didn’t. You used ‘I had no choice’ as an excuse. You abandoned me and our daughter, then handed every good thing over to them.”

Claire’s features twisted together as she kept shaking her head.

“That’s not what happened. Honey, listen to me. I really had no choice.”

My back slowly straightened.

“Then let me tell you what choice I’m going to make to get back what belongs to me.”

“What?”

I unlocked my phone and made the call right in front of her.

“I want to report a case. My wife rented out my apartment to her relatives at an extremely low price without my consent.

“I suspect they colluded maliciously in an attempt to unlawfully occupy my personal property.”