The night before we were supposed to get our marriage license, I discovered that my mother-in-law had secretly canceled the deposit on our future home. Instead, she used the money to put a down payment on a massive, luxury condo right next to my fiancé's office. I kept my expression perfectly calm, indefinitely postponed getting the license, and told her I was going to hand over all the money my parents gave me for the house directly to her. 01 Four bedrooms, three bathrooms, with master suites facing north and south. Staring at the floor plan, my hands couldn't stop shaking. The phone screen was still unlocked, displaying the text thread between me and Sarah, the sales agent at Riverbend Estates. My fiancé, Liam, and I had agreed: tomorrow morning we would get our marriage license, and tomorrow afternoon we would go sign the papers for our new home, putting both our names on the deed. I had been so excited I couldn't sleep. I ironed the dress I was going to wear to City Hall and his suit multiple times. I even texted Sarah one last time to double-check what documents we needed for the down payment, terrified of messing anything up on our big day. I never expected her to call me back, sounding completely bewildered. "Chloe, didn't your mother-in-law tell you guys weren't buying the house anymore? She came and got the deposit refunded last week! Or did you guys talk it over and decide to stick with Riverbend...?" I barely heard the rest of her sentence. My brain completely short-circuited. In less than twelve hours, I was supposed to be a legally married woman. And my future mother-in-law had canceled the deposit on our house? If this had been the old me, I would have immediately called her to demand an explanation. But a deeper, much more terrifying anxiety gripped my heart. I needed to know. Did Liam know about this? Did he agree to it? Liam had gone out to dinner with his boss tonight and still wasn't home. Driven by a desperate need for answers, I rushed into the home office. It didn't take long. I found the brochures for a completely different luxury development. The receipt for the deposit was dated last Sunday. And the signature on the bottom... belonged to Liam. 02 Last Sunday was our five-year anniversary. We had originally planned to visit our old college campus to reminisce, and then take our old college friends out for dinner to celebrate before officially getting married. But that morning, Liam received a phone call, and his face instantly went pale. He told me that a massive VIP client had suddenly showed up at the office for an unannounced tour, and he absolutely had to go in. Left with no choice, I took the train to the neighboring city alone. During the dinner with our friends, Liam called me, sounding incredibly guilty. "Baby, once I close this massive deal, we'll have so much extra cash to furnish the new house. Whatever you want, we'll do it exactly your way!" Our college friends, who had watched our entire relationship unfold, laughed and teased him for being so whipped. Everyone believed that our love story—from college sweethearts to young professionals—was pure, flawless, and completely genuine. That it was free of any selfish calculation. Until today, I believed that too. The edges of the floor plan for "The Pinnacle Residences" I was clutching were already crumpled from my grip, but the total price printed at the bottom was glaringly clear. $1.2 million. I opened the desktop computer in the study. Liam used it for work all the time, and his iMessage was still logged in. I scrolled through his chat history with the sales agent from The Pinnacle. The minimum down payment was 15%, but they had been running the math on monthly mortgage payments based on a 30% down payment. Which meant he had put down exactly $360,000. A sudden, paralyzing wave of sheer terror washed over my back. Because that exact amount—$360,000—was the exact total price of the modest, two-bedroom condo Liam and I had originally agreed to buy in full. 03 The money for the house was primarily coming from my parents. Liam and I had been working for three years and managed to save up $60,000 together. His mother had given me a $30,000 engagement gift, but told us we needed to save it to pay for the wedding next year, claiming she had absolutely no money to help with a house. I understood how hard she had worked as a single mother, so I didn't complain. That was exactly why, when we were house hunting, I strictly only looked at affordable, small starter homes. Liam's office was on the north side of the city, and mine was on the south. Riverbend Estates was the only development that worked for us. It was right next to the highway, exactly a 30-minute commute for both of us, and the price was reasonable. When we paid the deposit, his mother came with us. She didn't say a single word the entire time. My parents, on the other hand, called me later and said that on top of the $30,000 engagement gift, they were wiring me another $230,000. They were old-school and absolutely hated the idea of debt. They told us to just buy the two-bedroom condo in full with cash. They said we could consider it a zero-interest loan from them, and we could just pay them back slowly over time. Thinking back on it now. That day, when I was happily signing the deposit paperwork, I remember seeing his mother pull Liam outside for a private conversation. She had probably already made up her mind right then and there. Sitting on the floor of the study in the dead of night, a cold sneer involuntarily tugged at the corners of my mouth. Looking at the texts Sarah had sent me, the timeline became crystal clear. I paid the deposit for Riverbend on Saturday. On Sunday, his mother went back, canceled the deposit, and then took Liam to the north side of the city to put down a new deposit on The Pinnacle. Meanwhile, I was in a different city, completely oblivious to what was happening. Once you pay a deposit on a new build, you have exactly seven days to wire the full down payment. By that time, Liam and I would already be legally married. If we backed out then, the lost deposit money would legally be my financial loss as his spouse. What an absolutely flawless, psychopathic calculation. The warmth slowly returned to my fingertips. Even I was surprised by how incredibly calm I felt. There was only one question left. Why were Liam and his mother so absolutely certain that once I found out, I would just swallow my anger and accept it? I looked back down at the floor plan. Liam and I had absolutely zero need for a massive, four-bedroom, three-bathroom luxury condo. Years ago, in our college sociology class, after watching a brutal documentary on childbirth, Liam had tears in his eyes and swore he would never make me go through that. He swore he wanted to be child-free. My parents had their own house in our hometown. Liam was raised by a single mother, but she had always lived with his older brother to help raise her grandson. Liam had promised me that she would never live with us. At least, that’s what he told me. So who exactly was this massive luxury condo for? Right at that moment, I heard the lock click on the front door. Liam was home. 04 "Wifey! Look what I brought you! Barbecue and boba!" The same attentive, sweet face I had known for years appeared in front of me, but suddenly, the man named Liam felt like a complete stranger. From the day we started dating, he had taken care of me meticulously. He saved seats for me in lectures, walked me to the library, and picked me up from my late-night campus job. Combined with his passionate vows about never wanting me to suffer the pain of childbirth, all my friends constantly praised him as the absolute perfect boyfriend. But now, on the exact night before we were supposed to get married, I had discovered an entirely different side of him. I opened my mouth, my voice raspy. "Is there anything you want to tell me?" Liam froze for a second, then smiled and nodded. "Of course." He set the food down on the coffee table, walked over, pulled me into his arms, and smiled with pure adoration. "Tomorrow we're officially becoming husband and wife, so of course I have to tell you—" "I love you, wifey. I hope we hold hands and walk through the rest of our lives together." The tiny, pathetic sliver of hope in my heart completely evaporated. Just a second ago, I had actually thought to myself: If he confesses to me right now, maybe I'll try to forgive him. But he hid the fact that he completely changed our future home, and still had the audacity to look me in the eye and say he loved me. For the past few days, I hadn't suspected a single thing. Being held in his arms, I felt physically nauseous. Using the excuse that I had to wake up early tomorrow, I pushed him away and rejected his attempts to be intimate. He didn't suspect a thing. Probably because of the alcohol, he washed up and immediately passed out from exhaustion. And while he slept, I unlocked his phone and found the exact reason why he changed the house. 05 Even through the text messages, his mother's ecstatic tone was glaringly obvious. [Your brother and sister-in-law have been eyeing those condos for ages, but they just couldn't afford them.] [When the time comes, your brother's family can take the master suites. I'll take my precious grandson and sleep in the north bedroom, and we'll still have a room left over for your future kids! Our whole family living under one roof! Mom is so incredibly happy!] [Plus, the complex is right next to your office! You won't have a commute, and you can come home to Mom's hot meals every night. It's going to be a perfect life!] Liam's responses were slightly more hesitant: [Mom, you need to help me smooth things over with Chloe when the time comes. I'm worried she'll freak out when she finds out and we'll get into a massive fight.] [What is there to fight about? It's not like we aren't letting her live there! Taking care of your mother and providing for your brother's family is exactly what the younger generation is supposed to do. If she complains, everyone will think she's a selfish brat.] Liam sent a voice memo, sighing heavily: "The place is massive, and it's in a premium school district. My salary isn't going to be enough to cover the mortgage and the renovations. We're really going to have to butter Chloe up." [Don't you worry about a thing, son. Tomorrow she officially becomes part of our family. Every woman knows she has to prioritize her husband's family once she's married. She won't dare say a word.] [As for the mortgage, let her worry about it! She has rich parents, there's no way she won't be able to pay it! From now on, your paycheck needs to be saved up to pay for little Leo's college tuition!] Convinced by his mother's logic, Liam felt much better, replying "You're right" several times. Then, he sent a screenshot of a bank transfer. [I just paid Leo's life insurance premium for this year.] His mother replied with a voice memo. When I clicked it, a little boy's voice piped up sweetly: "Thank you, Uncle Liam!" I was so shocked I literally couldn't find the words. Didn't Liam constantly complain that his salary was too low, the cost of living was too high, and he could never save any money? Why was he paying his nephew's insurance premiums?! I held my breath and systematically scrolled through his bank statements for the past three years. That's when I realized: him not saving money was true, but his salary being low was a complete lie. He had been underreporting his income to me by $1,500 every single month, secretly funneling all of that extra cash to his mother and his brother's family. Looking at the man sleeping soundly next to me. I suddenly felt completely numb. Scenes from our relationship flashed before my eyes like a movie. I finally realized that his version of "love" was incredibly cheap. Saving me a seat in class. Buying me late-night takeout. And I had been completely trapped by those cheap gestures, genuinely wanting to spend the rest of my life with him. I had never associated the word "hypocrite" with him. But now, it was the only word I could use to describe him. As I scrolled to the very bottom of the chat, an even more horrifying message caught my eye. His mother urged him repeatedly: [I told you to poke holes in the condoms with a needle. Did you do it yet?] The blood in my veins turned to absolute ice.
? Continue the story here ?? ? Download the "MotoNovel" app ? search for "442365", and watch the full series ✨! #MotoNovel