Chapter 4

Chase's POV

By the time Carol and Raymond rushed to the hospital with Shawn, Grandma had just been wheeled into the ICU.

Right in front of everyone in the hallway, Carol jabbed her finger at me and yelled, "For someone from such an ordinary background, you sure have plenty of tricks up your sleeve! You got close to Shawn on purpose and then hounded Jillian. Don't you have any shame?"

I looked at Shawn. Wearing the gold signet ring passed down to the Luke family's sons-in-law, he stood behind Carol as if he were the one I'd hurt.

Jillian arrived soon after.

I thought that this time, at least, she'd tell the truth, but all she did was pull me aside. "I'll take care of it as soon as I can."

…

That night, she came to find me with divorce papers and a public statement.

The statement claimed I'd known all along that Jillian and Shawn were in love, yet I had still used Grandma's critical illness to pressure her into a secret marriage.

It stated that we were married in name only and had been living apart for a long time. It also alleged that, to get back at Shawn, I'd deliberately leaked the proposal photos and old intimate pictures of us.

Signing it meant personally admitting that I was the one who had come between them.

I looked at her. "Three years ago, who was the one who proposed to me? Who knelt beside Grandma's hospital bed and promised to take care of me for the rest of my life?"

Jillian went silent for a moment. "Shawn is innocent in all this."

"And what did I do wrong?" I asked.

She glanced toward the ICU. "Reporters are already camped out downstairs. If you don't play along, my parents will have no choice but to ask your grandma themselves whether she let you pressure me into marrying you.

"She's barely out of danger. You know better than anyone what will happen if she gets agitated again."

Once again, she was using Grandma to force me to step aside for Shawn.

In the end, I picked up the pen and signed both the statement and the divorce papers.

Jillian let out a visible sigh of relief. Before she left, she even tried to hug me. "Once this is settled, I'll explain everything to my parents."

I took a step back, avoiding her.

…

On the day the waiting period for our divorce ended, we went to the courthouse.

Carol and Raymond were already waiting outside with Shawn, surrounded by their friends, family, and a photographer.

To clear Shawn of any suspicion of being the other man once and for all, Jillian had me admit on camera that I'd used our sham marriage to keep hounding her.

I read every single word of the statement.

The moment I finished, Carol thrust a bouquet into my hands. "You're Shawn's best friend. You should be the one to hand him his happiness."

I'd barely gotten my divorce decree when Jillian walked up to the marriage license counter with Shawn.

Less than half an hour later, they came back out holding their marriage certificate.

Carol even had me take their first photo as a married couple.

In the frame, Shawn stood beside Jillian, wearing the gold signet ring passed down to the Luke family's sons-in-law and holding up the marriage certificate.

Outside the frame, their relatives and friends gushed about how the two of them had finally gotten their happy ending.

As for me—the husband who had actually stayed by her side for three years—I had just personally admitted that I was the one who'd come between them.

After taking the photo, I handed the phone back. "Congratulations."

Just as she always did, Jillian told me, "Go back to your place and wait for me. I'll come find you as soon as the celebration dinner is over."

I didn't tell her that I'd already given up the apartment and shipped my luggage to a new city, Larkhaven, the day before.

After leaving the courthouse, I headed straight for the airport.

That night, their photo as a married couple flooded the social media feeds of their friends and relatives.

Shawn captioned it, "We should have gotten this marriage certificate three years ago. Today, it's finally ours."

For the first time, Jillian replied publicly, "For the rest of my life, there's only you."

By then, my flight had already taken off.