Chapter 4

Karen had just turned to leave when her secretary came over holding a phone. "Ms. Quinn, there's a call for you."

Karen put it on speaker. A soft laugh from her business rival came through on the other end. "Ms. Quinn, the rumors online are just a little warning. You'd better drop out of this bid. Otherwise, if I'm not careful, all the videos I have might just get released."

The call ended.

Karen opened the video and went pale.

So her rival was the one who had stirred up the online backlash. They had all wronged me.

Cade apologized, looking ashamed. "Karen, it's my fault for not looking into it properly. I almost ruined everything."

Karen couldn't bring herself to blame him and sighed. "At the end of the day, we got careless and gave someone something to use against us. We'll just be more careful next time."

Seeing Karen's deep frown, Cade gritted his teeth, helped me up, and stiffly apologized. "Todd, I misunderstood you this time. If you're still upset, go ahead and hit me back."

Before I could even move, Karen reached out protectively to stop me. "Don't be ridiculous! You were only trying to help me. He's the one who didn't open his mouth and explain himself. That's not on you."

Ha. It was my fault again.

But when had she ever believed a single one of my explanations?

I said nothing.

Right in front of me, her own husband, she slipped her arm through Cade's and comforted him as they walked away. She didn't spare a single glance for me, the one who had been wronged.

Everyone else in the room trickled out after them.

My body, which I had been forcing to hold up, finally gave out. A wave of dizziness swept over me, and I collapsed to the floor.

When I came to again, all I could smell was disinfectant.

I was about to open my eyes when I heard Cade whisper, his voice giddy, "Todd has stage four lung cancer. He doesn't have long to live. Killing Kayce back then and wrecking their relationship was worth it after all.

"Now I'm finally about to get everything I worked for!"

My whole body shook.

So all these years, I had been taking the blame for someone else!

For a moment, I desperately wanted to tell Karen the truth.

But a second later, I gave up on the idea in despair.

I had no proof. Nothing I said would make Karen believe me.

Once Cade's voice had faded away completely, I took out my phone, got in touch with a private detective, and had them look into it.

Whether Karen believed me or not, I was going to clear my name before I died.

I didn't know how much longer it was before Karen finally rushed in.

The moment she came through the door, I actually caught a trace of worry in her eyes.

But when I blinked again, there was nothing in her eyes but cold severity, as if what I'd seen had only been an illusion.

She asked the doctor, "Why did he suddenly pass out?"

The doctor hesitated.

Cade answered for him. "Oh, he just has low blood sugar. It's nothing serious."

Karen let out a breath of relief and believed it without even asking me.

She had me discharged and brought me home. She had the housekeeper cook a whole table of food, then pushed a bowl of beef stew in front of me and nagged at me to eat. "Todd, have I ever let you go without food or clothes? Who are you putting on this pitiful act for?

"Hurry up and eat more, so people don't go around saying the Quinn family starves its live-in son-in-law."

Karen cared about appearances more than anything.

So even when our relationship was at its worst, she never did what my family had done, cutting back on my food and clothes so everyone would know I was unwanted.

Instead, for the sake of so-called appearances, she defended me in public and put on a show of being a loving couple.