Chapter 1

"Say, Aaron, when did you get divorced from Rachel?"

My best friend, Titus Pearson, frowned as he asked me concernedly, "How could you not have told me about such a huge matter?"

I was puzzled, thinking that it was absurd of him to even say that. After all, Rachel Brady and I were only faking our divorce, and we weren't planning to let anyone else know about it.

So, how did Titus even find out about it?

I looked at him in shock, asking, "Where did you hear about it?"

Titus widened his eyes and spoke in a slightly higher pitch. His voice was tinged with disbelief. "Rachel's already posted her new marriage certificate with someone else on her social media! And you're still asking me where I heard it from?"

He continued babbling on, but all I heard was ringing in my ears as my mind suddenly went blank. I was completely stunned.

I couldn't stop repeating what Titus told me about Rachel showing off her new marriage certificate online in my head. Everything else he said was just a blur to me.

How could that be?

I instantly felt uneasy and even heard myself trembling as I asked him another question.

"Y-You're kidding, right?"

My relationship with Rachel had always been good and amicable. She had looked so upset and sorrowful when she suggested that we fake our divorce, and I could still remember every expression she made at me then. So, how could she possibly have gotten married to someone else now instead?

Yet, Titus' reply was like a sledgehammer to my head, shattering every last bit of hope I was still clinging to.

"I'm not kidding! I'm serious about everything I said!"

I panicked at once and hurriedly fished out my phone from my pocket. My fingers wouldn't stop trembling as I hurriedly dialed Rachel's number.

However, the only thing I heard on the line was the cold, robotic female voice saying, "The number you called is busy right now. Please try again later."

I then pulled up my chat window with her and realized that she hadn't been replying to my messages for a long time now.

I didn't know when it started, but the chat window now only showed the messages I sent to her without any replies. I'd still been chatting with her, sharing photos of my daily life, keeping her updated, and telling her how much I loved her—but now, they were just a laughable, pathetic eyesore.

Still, I refused to give in and tapped into my social media account to find her there. That was when I realized that I had been removed as her follower and thus blocked from seeing her posted content.

Titus sent me a screenshot of her Instagram post. I couldn't stop my hands from shaking as I took a long time to finally get it to show onscreen.

The man in the photos was Rachel's first love, Max Cohen. I still remembered seeing him at our wedding.

At that time, he had been wearing a very fine, tailor-made suit, and he stood next to Rachel looking like he was the groom instead of me.

I once asked Rachel if she still had feelings for him, but she denied it immediately and even swore that she was telling the truth.

But now, I could see the happy smile on her face as she stood next to him in the photo. The peck she was planting on his cheek felt like a sharp knife that stabbed me right in the heart.

I could no longer stop my tears from gushing down my face.

"Say something, Rachel Brady!

"You'd never lie to me, would you? They're the ones who are lying, aren't they?

"You didn't marry someone else, did you?"

The text messages I sent out still weren't replied to, like they'd been consumed by a black hole.

I completely lost it and rushed to the hospital in low spirits. However, I then learned that Rachel's mother, Shirley Jacobs, had never even been hospitalized in the first place.

When Rachel told me that Shirley was sick, she kept choking on her words and sobbing each time. She even lost a lot of weight over the next few days, and I felt so sorry to see her like that.

So, was everything just an elaborate lie she planned from the start after all?

If she really wanted to divorce me, she could have just told me straight away. After all, I wasn't the clingy kind who'd never let her go!

I had to find Rachel. I needed answers from her.