My fingers tightened around the phone without my meaning them to. I forced myself to stay calm.
As fast as I could, I backed up his WeChat data.
I kept digging, and the absurd part was that he'd even disguised his cloned WeChat app with the icon of a daily-report tool.
I backed that up too, and inside it I found one conversation thread.
The contact was saved as “Baby Lorraine”.
I tapped it open.
【Babe, last night wore me out.】
【That worn-out housewife of yours didn't catch on when you got home, did she?】
【Don't forget to help me pick out maternity dresses today. This weekend's graduation trip, I'm going to show up as Mrs. Whitney no matter what.】
Zane's reply, sent right when he'd gotten home tonight, jumped out at me.
【Relax, I muted all the group messages for her ages ago. She still has no idea there's a graduation trip.】
【That bookworm only ever knew how to bang out code, and after the baby the depression rotted her brain too. Dumb as a post. A few years of being a housewife and she's a piece of cake to fool.】
【I'll bring you and Gabe along, and I'll make sure everyone knows you're the one who's really my wife.】
I stared at the words in silence while my stomach turned over and over.
I looked around at this home.
Back when I'd hemorrhaged giving birth, the postpartum depression had left me wrecked in body and mind.
It was Zane who had knelt at my bedside with red-rimmed eyes, gripping my hand and swearing: “Babe, from now on you don't have to worry about anything. I'll take care of you for the rest of your life. You and our son are my whole world.”
For that one promise, I set aside a software career at its peak, buried the hacking skills I'd been so proud of, and became a homemaker.
I used the annual patent royalties to buy our little family a house and a car,
and I covered every cent of his mother's medical bills, until I turned into a worn-out housewife who'd hesitate for ages just to buy herself a shirt.
But I watched him run around handling every last thing at our son's preschool, all so I could recover from my depression sooner.
I thought I'd married for love.
So it turned out I'd only been freeing up his time to cheat!
The water in the bathroom shut off.
I quickly closed the laptop and dumped the crab-roe buns from the insulated container into the trash.
Zane came out toweling his hair.
“Where are the buns?”
“They got cold. I threw them out.”
He froze for a moment.
“You could've just reheated them. I stood in line forever for those.”
I fixed my eyes on his. “I don't like eating leftovers.”
He looked away from me and turned to pour himself some water.
I gave a cold laugh and went back to the bedroom, then dialed my company's boss.
“Mr. Morton, there's something I need to discuss with you, together with your legal team.”
He wanted to take his mistress and my son on a trip? Then we'd settle every account, old and new, at once.
After the call with Mr. Morton, I opened up the social feed of that account called “Baby Lorraine”.
The latest post had gone up one minute ago.
【Picking up baby after school today and heading straight there. So excited~】
The photo showed three movie tickets.
I scrolled past with a blank face, but inside I couldn't stop shaking.
Four in the afternoon.
I showed up right on time at the gate of Mingde Bilingual International Preschool.
I wanted to see for myself whether that woman really had the nerve to pick up my son in broad daylight.
Back when we moved and switched preschools, Zane had insisted Gabe come here, saying a top-tier preschool would build connections.
And it was always him, adamant that he be the one to handle drop-off and pickup.
With school almost out, the children were tidying up their classroom.
I walked over to the homeroom teacher, Florence Finch.
“Teacher Finch, hello. I'm Gabriel Whitney's mother, Sally Swanson.”
Florence lifted her head, looked me up and down, and her brow furrowed.
“Gabe's mother? Ma'am, please don't joke.”
“Gabe's mother, Ms. Fox, comes to pick him up all the time.”
Picks him up all the time?
So this was how Zane let another woman take my place, right out in the open?
“Besides, dressed like that, you'd be the new nanny Mr. Whitney hired back in his hometown, wouldn't you? Mr. Whitney mentioned it to me, said he has a cousin back home who's not quite right in the head and is always mistaking people for someone else……”
She didn't finish the sentence, but the contempt in her eyes was impossible to hide.
I glanced down at the cotton T-shirt I had on.
All these years recovering at home, being a housewife, I really hadn't paid much attention to how I dressed.
“I am Zane's wife.” I put weight behind every word.
Florence rolled her eyes.
“Ma'am, do I really have to spell it out for you?”
“Mr. Whitney told me he has a distant cousin from back home working as a nanny who's always deluded herself into thinking she's his wife.”
“That's you, isn't it?”
The blood in my whole body went cold in an instant.
The half-witted distant cousin? The nanny?
So Zane had been laying the groundwork for a long time, peeling away my identity piece by piece!
“Oh my, and who might this be?”
A honeyed voice rang out behind me. A woman with a rounded belly came walking over, in Chanel couture, an Hermès Birkin on her arm, the Bvlgari necklace Zane had bought around her neck.
The scent of Jo Malone bluebells washed over me.
Lorraine Fox.
“Ms. Fox, you're here.” Florence instantly put on a fawning smile and hurried to greet her.
Lorraine waved a hand, gave me a once-over, and covered her mouth as she laughed.
“Zane's cousin, what are you doing all the way out here?”
“Didn't he tell you to stay home and do the laundry?”
A few of the parents nearby heard the commotion and turned to look, whispering and pointing at me.
“So she really is a nanny who came to sponge off her relatives.”
“Dressed like that, and she still dares to pass herself off as his wife. Talk about a toad lusting after a swan. She's out of her mind.”
I couldn't be bothered to argue. I pulled out my phone and brought up the high-resolution scan of our marriage certificate.
“Take a good look. I'm his lawfully wedded wife.”
