Chapter 4

"You think taking care of me isn’t something you should do?"

As I laughed, I bit down hard on my teeth. "Or did you change your heart, feel like I’m not good enough, and think that taking care of me is your way of making up for me so you can feel like you still have a conscience?"

He laughed once, then suddenly let go of my hand. "Grace, Mia is twenty-one."

I was struck like I’d been hit by lightning.

Twenty-one?

Three years older than my daughter?

That meant......

"She was already born before you married me?"

Ryan lit a cigarette. "Yes, I never changed my heart. The person I’ve always loved has been Summer."

"That year, she got sick, and we were broke. If we didn’t have money, neither she nor the child would have survived."

"Just then I noticed you were interested in me, and your family was well-off, so I married you and saved their lives."

"So the reason I took care of you wasn’t to make up for anything. It was to repay you for saving their lives."

"The money I made over the past two years was only enough for them to use, so I couldn’t spare any, which was why I pretended to be poor."

"Now my business is starting to recover again, and it’s enough for you and our daughter to go back to the life you had four years ago—"

I couldn’t bear to listen anymore.

It felt like icy needles were stabbing every pore in my body, and the pain tore me apart!

I completely broke down and grabbed his collar.

"What am I then?"

"So all these years, you’ve just been acting with me? Am I just a tool in your eyes?"

"Ryan, how could you......"

"How could you do this to me!"

My sorrowful roar made him frown tightly.

He held me like he was trying to comfort me, but his words were cold and harsh.

"I haven’t done anything wrong to you."

"These years, I’ve fulfilled the responsibilities of a husband. In the future, I’ll keep playing the role of your husband and the role of Lily’s father."

"You’re already forty, and your health is not good. Be rational."

"Pretending not to know anything is the best choice for you."

My body stiffened.

I no longer felt anger toward him. All that was left was deep fear!

I shoved him away and felt like I no longer knew him.

He was so strange that the hair all over my body stood on end!

"No!"

"Ryan, you are not my husband."

"Divorce!"

"I’m divorcing you—"

"Ring ring ring—"

The sudden ringtone cut off my words.

It was my daughter, Emily Miller, calling.

I stepped back several paces, putting a wide distance between myself and Ryan before I dared to answer.

My daughter’s cheerful laugh came from the other end. "Mom, I’m off work!"

"I got last month’s paycheck. It’s three thousand bucks! I’ll take you out to eat tomorrow!"

I suddenly couldn’t breathe through the bitter ache in my chest.

My daughter was eighteen this year, and after getting into college, she found a summer job because our family wasn’t well-off, working overtime every night until eleven or twelve.

But Ava, the daughter of Ryan and Summer, had clothes on her body that cost enough to cover my daughter’s tuition for four years.

I dug my nails into my palm until it bled before I finally forced out a shaky "Okay" and hung up.

Ryan, who had just put out his cigarette, walked toward me.

"Grace, be rational. After the divorce, can you afford Lily’s life?"

"You’re like this already, and you can’t even take care of yourself. How are you going to take care of her?"