Turning the Tables

Lucille Summers was beautiful. She carried with her an elegance that gave her an ethereal charm. At present, she sat across from me in a white dress. She had no makeup on, and her eyes were rimmed red. "Penelope, I know that I have wronged you. But the baby is innocent…" she said as she gently caressed her baby bump. She looked ever so pitiful with her reddened eyes.I used to really like her looks, and I had even taken extra care of her because of her gentle and docile nature. But now, I found her simply revolting. Had we not been in public, I would have splashed my cup of coffee on her face so that she would have a taste of her own medicine. I suppressed the raging fury within me and kept silent. My mind raced as I slowly stirred my cup of cappuccino. My husband, Patrick Walker, and I had been married for five years. It was ironic that in the past five years, no matter how hard we had tried, I had never been able to conceive. However, the one time that we did it when he had be

After Shania found a house and furnished it, I took Lucille there and gave her a bank card.I told her that going forward, I would deposit a fixed amount of money into the bank account to cover her living expenses, and I would also arrange for someone to accompany her for her prenatal checkups. My only condition was that the baby would be mine after she delivered it.She seemed to have no doubt that I wanted a baby but had never been able to conceive, so she had no qualms about moving into the place I had found for her. …In the days that Patrick hadn't been able to contact Lucille, he was visibly distraught and moody. He appeared weak and lifeless, like someone who was suffering from a hangover. It seemed like I had been too certain of his love for me in the past. When I saw him having such fervent feelings for another person, I couldn't control the jealousy that bubbled within and the pain that ate away at me. I held back the bitterness within me and probed, "Honey, has Lu

Patrick came home two months later. He brought me gifts, and we went to visit both our parents. He still kept up the act of being a loving husband and a nice son-in-law.In the past, everything he had done had sat right with me. But now, everything he did rubbed me the wrong way. As I thought about all the women he had kissed behind my back and all the intimate things he had done with them, a sense of nausea came over me. I used to love him and had been really clingy. But now, I refused to even let him touch me. Patrick was perplexed, and I could tell from the look in his eyes that he had started to suspect me. It seemed the saying was true—a person's perception of another really did reveal more about their true character.But still, he coaxed me as he usually did. "Honey, is there something bothering you?"I put on a miserable expression and pretended to be really upset about how I couldn't conceive. I put my arms around his neck and whined for him to go with me for a checkup at

Patrick had two WhatsApp accounts on his phone. Besides the main account that I was aware of, he had another account as well. Almost all the contacts there were young women. Lucille's contact was pinned and appeared at the top of the list. Upon clicking on his conversation with Lucille, I saw that he had sent her messages almost every day to tell her how much he missed her and how he wished she would return to him. He had been sending those messages until the day we had seen her at the hospital. After that, he had stopped sending her messages altogether. It seemed like Patrick had taken my word for it and had no doubt that Lucille had cheated on him. I knew what a vengeful person Patrick was, and I could almost predict what he would do when Lucille came looking for him with the baby. If Lucille had influenced my decision to divorce Patrick, then the crude text messages he had sent other women and his transaction histories with them only strengthened my resolve to go through wit

Patrick had dropped a bombshell, shocking everyone. The spectators had sorts of expressions as they whispered between themselves. I nudged some people aside and walked up to Patrick.The moment he caught sight of me, he blanched.Seeing the sudden change in his expression, Lucille followed his line of sight and looked over too. A flustered look flashed in her eyes when she saw that it was me. I stood there and stared at Patrick unmovingly, not sparing her a single glance. Patrick ran up to me and grabbed my arms. "Honey, when did you get here?"I pushed his hands away and placed a hand on his shoulder, pretending that I needed to steady myself from the shock. "I heard everything…"By then, Lucille seemed to finally realize that I had set up a trap for her. Still, she tried to salvage the situation by explaining, "Penelope knew about this very early on. Had it not been for her help, I wouldn't have been able to deliver our baby so smoothly."Patrick's gaze traveled between Luci