The Fake Marriage, the Real Mistress, and the Baby He Wants Me to Abort Chapter 4
Back when Julian and I were still together, my mom showed up one day. She pressed a thick envelope of cash into my hands and begged me to leave the country.
She told me a secret – one that changed everything. Julian’s mother had been the one who paid my mom to play the mistress for Julian’s father.
Julian’s parents had never loved each other. Their marriage had been arranged – a condition Julian’s grandfather put on the family inheritance.
They had to play the happy couple for appearances. Julian’s mother broke first – she paid my mom to seduce Julian’s father.
Then she staged a breakdown; faked the coma – all theater. She’d been overseas with her real lover for half a decade. She even had twins with him.
I kept the truth buried because I didn’t want to hurt Julian. The only person it destroyed was me.
The memories ran through me on that freezing table, and the tears came with them -hot against my cold skin. Then everything went black.
I woke in a hospital bed. The first thing I registered wasn’t the pain – it was the sound. Breathing. Moaning.
A man and a woman.
“Is your husband really that good?”
“Then let me hear you.”
On the sofa across the private hospital suite, two bodies were tangled together.
I turned my head, and my entire body locked. There was no mistaking what I was seeing.
“Julian – Claire’s awake. Maybe we shouldn’t -”
“So what?”
“You’re my wife. She’s nothing.”
“Go on, baby. Let her know who I belong to.”
Julian laughed under his breath and pulled Chloe upright.
His chest was bare covered in hickeys and scratch marks.
“Is it done? The baby’s gone?”
“Good. Be more careful next time.”
“Don’t let it happen again.”
Julian lit a cigarette, took a long drag, and leaned over my bed. He exhaled the smoke straight into my face.
“Acting is exhausting, you know that?”
“You had that mild asthma, so I never smoked around you. Part of the act.”
“But the show’s over now.”
“So why bother?”
The smoke clawed down my throat. I choked, eyes watering, lungs burning.
“Claire, Chloe and I are having our official wedding ceremony today.”
“I came all this way just to invite you.”
He didn’t wait for my answer. He turned toward the door and snapped at the bodyguards.
“Get her up. Take her to the venue. The ceremony starts in exactly one hour.”
The door slammed open. Hands closed around my arms, hauling me upright, and I felt the stitches in my stomach tear-wet, ripping heat.
The pain nearly dragged me under, but they didn’t stop. They shoved me into a car.
The venue was packed – flowers, champagne, a crowd dressed in white and gold. Every head turned when they dragged me through the doors.
“Julian – you actually brought her?”
“So are we still good for what you promised last night?”
Julian’s friends circled closer, their eyes crawling over me like hands.
My blood went cold. Julian’s laugh carried across the room.
“A deal’s a deal.”
“Claire’s not my wife – she’s a homewrecker. I’m done with her. She’s all yours.”
The words detonated inside my skull.
I couldn’t feel my legs. I stared at him.
“What did you just say?”
*Julian – what the hell are you doing?!”
The scream ripped out of me. I lunged toward him.
Arms caught me from behind.
Thanks, Julian honestly, I’ve had my eye on her for half a decade.”
Strange hands were on my skin. I thrashed, gagging on disgust, trying to scream the truth at Julian – about his mother, about the lie, about all of it.
A palm clamped over my mouth.
“Julian – we’ll take her to a room upstairs. Don’t worry, we’ll be quick.”
They dragged me toward the exit. Through the blur of tears, I kept my eyes locked on Julian’s face – empty,
bored, already looking past me – and pressed my mother’s number with my thumb.
A broken laugh scraped out of my throat.
“Julian – you’re going to regret this.”
Minutes later, the ceremony started. The officiant smiled, gestured to the couple, and told the groom he could kiss his bride.
My mother burst through the doors, phone still clutched in her hand.
“Julian – you’ve been hating the wrong person!”
“That’s not what happened – none of it was real!”
“Your mother was never in a coma! She left the country to be with another man!”
Julian’s face went blank. He turned, lips parting – but he never got the word out.
A body plummeted past the floor-to-ceiling windows. Gone.
“Julian – you said we were just messing with her -”
“She – she jumped!”