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
Before Patrick could even calm Lucille down properly, we had debtors knocking on our door. The loans he had taken, added with the accumulating interest, had reached an amount that was absolutely impossible to repay.Once again, the coward came to me in tears, admitting to his wrongdoings in hopes that I would be with him through this difficult ordeal too. I made up an excuse that I had invested all our savings and that we would make a great loss if I pulled out now. Besides, our savings were just a tiny fraction of the debt he owed.Due to his huge ego, Patrick refused to go around borrowing money from others. Thus, he was stuck in his predicament with no way out. We had been married for years, and for a fleeting moment, I considered just letting things go.However, despite the plight he was in, Patrick was still involved in orgies. He secretly went out a couple of times when he thought I wasn't paying attention.Though he claimed to love me and had indeed changed a lot of hi
Patrick brought his parents and that brother of his who was always in need of our help to beg me not to get a divorce. They even got on their knees.But thanks to my parents intervening to both pressure and coerce them into agreeing, I managed to get divorced in the end. Since Patrick was the one in the wrong, he was left with nothing after the divorce.Patrick seemed miserable when we left the courthouse. He was worried that I would expose him for embezzling company funds—yes, that was the "brilliant" idea he had come up with to pay off his personal debts. "We might be divorced now, but I won't make things more difficult for you than they already are. If you manage to return the funds by the end of the year, you won't face any complications." Those were my parting words to Patrick.Following that, I sold my house and gave my parents all the money I got from it.I finally got heard back about my request for a transfer at work too. Before I left, I invited Shania and Samuel for a
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 my meeting with Lucille that day, it took me three whole days before I finally calmed down. For three days, I couldn't help feeling disgusted whenever I saw Patrick showing concern and being attentive toward me. The inward repulsion affected my physical well-being, and I came down with a fever that lasted three days. I usually recovered from ailments within a day, but Patrick played the role of a doting husband and waited on me hand and foot the entire time. It took everything I had to hold back the nauseousness that threatened to consume me whenever I saw him.During that time, he answered five calls behind my back and left the house once with an excuse about having issues with a client's contract. I had never been concerned about such things in the past, but now I paid attention to them. As expected, they were all somehow related to Lucille. There were multiple times when I had the urge to ask him why he had betrayed me. But I swallowed the words each time. Arguing was
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
Shania and I decided on Samuel Turner, a marketing manager at Shania's company. Samuel was younger than Lucille and about six years younger than me. I had gotten to know him through a random dinner event in the past. I had formed a deep impression of him because of his good looks and how smart he was at handling all sorts of situations. Later on, I got to know from Shania that he was also very competent at work. He had managed to get his position as marketing manager within a year of joining the company. We were certain that a capable and handsome young man like Samuel would catch Lucille's eye. Planting him around her to distract her was the first step of my plan.Shania arranged for Samuel and I to meet. I told him that Lucille was my cousin who had gotten pregnant before marriage. I painted him a story of how her trash of a boyfriend had dumped her, but she had stood her ground and wanted to keep the baby. In the end, I told Samuel I hoped he would help us out because I cou
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