My husband was away on a business trip, and after I recovered from my injuries, I secretly went behind his back to driving school to learn how to drive. A young female student accidentally hit me, and she looked at me with disgust. "You’re already this old, and your eyesight is this bad. Why are you still trying to learn how to drive?" The girl was beautiful, and she was the first to make a big deal out of it, so the instructor and the other students all took her side. My two toes were shattered in a crush fracture, and I was in unbearable pain, so I insisted on calling the police. The girl’s mother rushed over and slapped a card into my hand. "Isn’t this just about money?" "Is ten grand enough?" "Take it as charity! My monthly allowance is over a million, and I can’t be bothered to argue with someone like you." There was a time when I would not have cared about this little bit of money. But after my car accident injury and the revocation of my driver’s license, I had been resting at home all this time. The company collapsed during that period, and my husband alone was responsible for the family’s expenses and debts, while there was no telling where my daughter’s college tuition would come from. I gritted my teeth and reached down to pick up the card from the ground, but the girl’s mother stepped on my hand. "If you want the money, apologize to my daughter first, and promise you’ll never show up in front of her again and bother her." I was so humiliated I didn’t know how to answer. Just then, another figure hurried over to the girl. "Mia, who’s trying to scam you?" "Dad’s got your back!" The man followed the girl’s gaze and looked at me. The next second, the cold rage on his face drained away, leaving him deathly pale. My humiliating gaze turned to shock. How had my husband, who was supposed to be on a business trip out of town, suddenly come back and become someone else’s father?
I couldn’t feel the pain in my shattered toes anymore, and I struggled to my feet. "Ryan?" "Didn’t you say your manager was bullying you and sent you away on a month-long business trip?" A week ago, when he left the house, he was wearing a faded suit and driving a used car that had been flooded. Now, he was wearing an expensive custom-tailored suit. A black business Mercedes was parked in front of the driving school. The girl’s mother pouted and clung to his arm. "Ryan, who is this woman? Do you know her?" "She tried to extort money from Mia. I gave her ten grand, and she took it." "I was just waiting for her to apologize to Mia." Ryan avoided my gaze and turned to the woman beside him, handing over a beautifully wrapped gift in his hand. "I’m pretty familiar with her." "Summer, take our daughter to the car first. I’ll handle this." "Be good and don’t make a scene." "I promise, once our daughter gets her license, I’ll take you both to Hawaii, okay?" He coaxed her and kissed her again, and only then did the woman take the girl and leave. I stared at them in a daze, my teeth clenched, my whole body cold to the bone. How could I still not understand? My husband of twenty years had had a child with another woman! I felt sorry for him working so hard that I couldn’t even bear to take painkillers, yet he gave another woman a million dollars a month as spending money! I trembled and tried to say something, but my throat felt like it had been tightly gripped, and not a single sound came out. "Fine." "Since this has already happened, I admit I did something that wronged you." Ryan had already calmed down, and his face carried a trace of relief and release. "But your company really did go bankrupt before. In these past few years, I built everything back up on my own, and the assets are under my parents’ names, so it has nothing to do with you." "If you want a divorce, you won’t get a single cent." "If you don’t want to divorce and keep living with me, I can make sure you and our daughter have a comfortable life." At the end, he took my hand and let out a soft sigh. "Grace, at our age, there are a lot of things we really don’t need to overthink." I looked at the husband in front of me in disbelief. I couldn’t believe that the man who had insisted on wiping me down, washing my feet, and taking care of me when I was injured, making me think he was the one who loved me most in the world, could actually face me so calmly and so coldly after I found out he was cheating on me. I wiped away the tears that had somehow spilled onto my face and suddenly laughed. "Ryan, you can’t even be bothered to lie to me a little, can you?"
The black business Mercedes in front of the driving school rolled down its window, and the girl said she was hungry, urging Ryan impatiently. Ryan picked up the card from the ground and stuffed it into my pocket. "Go to the hospital and get checked out first, and calm down while you’re at it. Think it over carefully." "When I get home tonight, I’ll explain everything to you and make it up to you." With that, he waved happily toward the other side. The vivid look on his face was like a child who had just gotten the toy he wanted. My past, my whole life up to that point, came crashing down all at once...... "Grace, I found that woman’s name and address......" Three hours later, my best friend gave me a name, Summer Reed. And an address for a housing complex. I took a taxi there, and along the way, I seemed to have gone crazy, replaying my past with Ryan over and over in my mind. We met at nineteen, and by twenty we were already married. My family was well-off, and Ryan was capable. The two of us quickly found an opportunity, got rich, and started a company. We lived a happy, ordinary life. Until four years ago, on my thirty-sixth birthday, everything changed. I was at a gathering with family and friends when I got a call from the company secretary and learned that Ryan had gotten into trouble, gotten into a fight with someone at a bar, and been beaten up. I was so anxious that I immediately drove over. But because I was too emotional, I ended up in a car accident on the way. My driver’s license was revoked, and I lay in bed for four years before my injuries healed. And during those four years, the company went bankrupt, and Ryan was forced to take odd jobs, coming home late every day and working himself to exhaustion. Even so, he still took careful care of me. I couldn’t get out of bed, and he fed me, washed my feet, and wiped me down, day after day without change. I felt so sorry for him. So once I recovered, I immediately went to get my driver’s license, thinking that even driving for a rideshare app would help ease some of Ryan’s pressure. But how had he suddenly ended up with a daughter? He had already turned things around, so why was he still watching me and our daughter suffer? I wanted all of this to be a nightmare, but even when I pressed hard on my shattered toes, the pain still didn’t wake me up. I didn’t understand! If he didn’t love me, why did he need to keep up this act with me for so long? "We’re here—" The driver pulled over, and I looked at the upscale housing complex in the city center. Very quickly, I noticed that right across from the complex was a bar that looked extremely familiar. It was clearly the exact place the secretary had sent me the location for four years ago! I went mad looking for people to ask what had happened in that bar on the night of my thirty-sixth birthday. It wasn’t until nightfall that I learned that when I drove there to find Ryan, he was fighting over Summer and got beaten up. After learning the truth, I felt like a joke! I don’t know how I made it to eleven o’clock. When Ryan came back, I was sitting dazed on the flower bed downstairs, my eyes completely numb. "Grace, are you crazy?" When he saw me, he panicked and rushed over to grab me. "Your foot is injured this badly. Why didn’t you go to the hospital?" I shook my head blankly. "Ryan, I don’t hurt." "That car accident four years ago made me stop being afraid of any injury." He looked away guiltily. "Why are you bringing that up all of a sudden?" "I didn’t tell you to come find me. You were the one who got into the car accident, which caused problems with the company’s business and eventually made it go bankrupt." "And I still took care of you for four years. Isn’t that enough?" I smiled dazedly. "Ryan, aren’t you the one who’s mixed up?" "I’m your wife, not some mistress who can’t be shown in public!"
"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?"
I stared blankly at Ryan. There was so much I wanted to say, but when the words reached my lips, all that came out was a bitter laugh. "Ryan, do you really think of her as your daughter?" "Do you even care about her?" Ryan had developed anemia caused by bone marrow failure, and every six months he needed a stem cell transplant from our daughter. That kind of pain, worse than death, had already been endured by our daughter several times. Yet she had never once complained. What she got in return was Ryan’s deception, and him not caring at all! In the first month after she started working, our daughter was bullied by customers and cried so hard she nearly broke down. The restaurant owner didn’t care. I couldn’t get out of bed. When I called Ryan, he only gave a perfunctory reply that he was busy. But when Ava had hit me and was unharmed herself, Ryan rushed over in a panic at the very first moment. Facing my question now, there wasn’t even a trace of guilt in his eyes, and his voice was flat. "Of course I care about her. From now on, I’ll cover her tuition. Whatever Mia has, she’ll have too." "Of course, the premise is that you need to behave." "You know what should be told to her and what shouldn’t." With that, he turned and went upstairs. I was left standing there, nearly numb, unable even to move my feet. I didn’t know what I should do anymore. I had nothing now, and my foot was injured. How was I supposed to make money and take care of Lily? I could get a divorce. I could endure a hard life. But Lily could have a better life. What right did I have to drag her through suffering with me? I couldn’t breathe again. In my despair, my best friend called again. "Grace, everything’s been checked." "That bastard Ryan got together with Summer when they were freshmen! But that daughter of his doesn’t seem to be their biological child." "I found some of Ava’s hospital records, and her blood type doesn’t match that pair of scum........" My best friend had known me since childhood. She came from a very good family, and she was the only person I could trust right now. She would never lie to me. Which meant Ava was not Ryan’s biological daughter? Just as that thought surfaced, I saw my daughter’s tired figure. She was still wearing her restaurant uniform, too exhausted to even stand up straight. But after seeing me, she forced herself to perk up because she was afraid I would worry. Then when she noticed the injury on my foot, her eyes went red with panic. "Mom, why is there so much blood on your shoe?" I didn’t even have time to care about my own injury. I forced myself to stay strong and took my daughter’s hand as we went upstairs. "Lily, I have something very important to tell you." "Let’s go home first and see your dad." I couldn’t pretend to know nothing and keep staying with Ryan. I had to tell Ryan that Lily was his only daughter. That way, even if I divorced him, he wouldn’t abandon Lily and would give her a better life. That was the best solution I could think of. But when we got home, before I could even say anything, Ryan was already going to take our daughter to the hospital. "Lily, my bone marrow problem is getting worse. In the future, I may need a stem cell transplant every three months, so you need to be mentally prepared." My daughter didn’t refuse, but she said somewhat awkwardly, "Dad, can we go to the hospital in a few days? I’m sick lately. I feel awful, and I’m a little too weak." Ryan was still smiling, but his brows had already begun to knit together slightly. "Be good, Lily. Dad has to keep traveling tomorrow, and I might not be back for a month. We can’t delay it." I could not bear to listen any longer, so I grabbed Ryan and took him back into the bedroom, locking the door behind us. "Do you even have a heart?" "You’re not going on a business trip. You’re taking Summer and her daughter to Hawaii! Can’t this wait a few days?" "Lily said she’s sick. Don’t you know how painful stem cell transplants are?" Ryan’s face was full of impatience. "She’s my daughter. What’s the big deal if she suffers a little for me?" "Mia’s body is weak. Only Lily can help me." "I’ll give her enough compensation." At that, my whole body began shaking violently on its own, and my mind buzzed. So Ryan wanted to keep Lily not out of fatherly love, but simply because he needed her stem cells! He had no feelings for us at all, and even the fact that Lily was his only daughter would not change that! Hatred surged to the extreme in my heart, and instead I calmed down. "Okay, Lily can go with you to the hospital." "But it’s too late today. We’ll talk about it tomorrow." After Ryan reluctantly agreed, he went to bed and rest. I couldn’t lie down next to him, so I went to my daughter’s room. Then I explained everything to her through the night, packed our things, and took her away from this house. The next morning, Ryan called. "Grace, did you take Lily away?" "If you keep causing trouble like this, aren’t you afraid you’ll use up all my patience and end up with nothing?" Looking at my daughter beside me, who had cried until her eyes were swollen and still had not come out of the grief, my voice was left with only bone-deep coldness. "Ryan, from now on, my daughter and I have nothing to do with you anymore, and we won’t do anything for you ever again." He let out a cold laugh on the other end. "You’re threatening me?" "Grace, you know Lily isn’t my only daughter." "I don’t need her to ease my bone marrow disease, but without me, you two won’t even have a place to live!" Is that so? Then we’ll see. I looked at the bright morning sun on the horizon and hung up decisively.
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