Past Due Love

"Lisa, are you serious about faking your death and erasing your identity?" A friend's voice came through the phone, asking me once again.

"Yes. Please arrange everything for me," I replied without hesitation.

After hanging up, I stared blankly out the window at the light drizzle, my thoughts muddled and my heart heavy.

My fiancé was the CEO of a powerful financial conglomerate, and to the outside world, he adored me beyond measure.

A week before our wedding, I found out I was pregnant with triplets. I had planned to tell him the joyful news in person.

But instead, I witnessed him in bed with other women. Not with just one.

It felt like a knife had carved into my soul, cutting so deep I lost all hope, all trust. My tears begged for release, but I held my head high, forcing myself to stay strong.

For him, I had given up everything—my pride, my family, my career.

Yet he chose to share our love with others.

All those vows to love me and only me for a lifetime had been lies.

Our so-called future, our wedding—it was all a cruel joke.

He was no longer the man I once loved. He had become tainted.

I would not endure his betrayal. He no longer deserved to be the father of my children.

So I made my decision—to disappear, to fake my death and start over, to give myself and my babies a chance at a free, unburdened life.

I rested a hand gently on my abdomen. There were moments when I thought about getting rid of them, but I couldn't. They were my flesh and blood.

I had dreamed of giving them a complete family. But to bring them into a world where their biological father was a cheater… What kind of cruelty would that be? It would torment me and an insult to their very lives.

I didn't want them to grow up in his shadow.

Leaving was the only way to set us all free. It was the only way to give them a healthy start.

Just then, I heard a familiar name on the TV.

The entertainment news was showing Wall Street's most powerful CEO, Cole Gates, and his upcoming marriage to the woman he loved in a grand ceremony.

Cole's business empire was legendary. That he would marry a woman from the slums made headlines everywhere.

But once I vanished, the wedding would be over too.

My mind drifted to the day Cole proposed. He got down on one knee at a concert, in front of tens of thousands of people. His hand holding the ring trembled. His eyes were filled with nervous anticipation as he looked at me.

Only when I said yes did he finally breathe again.

I cried tears of joy. He kissed them away and held me tightly in his arms.

It had been a beautiful, moving moment. But now, it was just a memory, something that belonged to the past.

"Wow! Cole must be so in love to marry a poor girl like her."

"She's insanely lucky. I'm so jealous."

"How did a girl from the slums manage to snatch up such a rich, handsome, and devoted man?"

"She used to be a nobody, but once she marries Cole, she'll instantly enter the upper class."

"..."

Outside the door, I could hear the maids chatting enviously.

I let out a bitter laugh. The irony stung.

Everyone believed Cole loved me deeply, believed I was the luckiest woman in the world. After all, he was willing to defy convention and marry a woman with nothing. Wasn't that proof of his undying love?

But no one knew it was all an illusion. A role he played perfectly.

In truth, he had countless women outside. He indulged himself without restraint.

There were so many, I'd lost count. He even bought a house for a young actress he was recently supporting.

Every time he said he was "busy," he was in bed with another woman.

My phone was filled with photos of him tangled with them.

It was like he held a knife and kept slicing open my wounds, again and again, until I was left bleeding and numb.

Memories of our past surfaced without warning.

At a networking event, no one would come near me because of my humble background. Everyone avoided me like the plague, except him.

He came and spoke to me.

Back then, he encouraged me, saying, "No one is born inferior. You work hard. I believe you'll change your fate. One day, you'll shine bright like a diamond."