After a month abroad on business, I finally returned home. Sliding into my cherished car, I planned to give my husband a pleasant surprise by picking him up from work.
Yet the moment I settled in, unease crept over me; the driver’s seat felt noticeably tighter than before. Surely, I hadn’t grown larger in just a month?
Unwilling to let it go, I reached for a ruler. My suspicion was right, the seat was two centimeters closer than my usual setting.
My chest tightened. With my fastidiousness about cleanliness, only my husband and I ever touched this car. At one meter eighty, he had no reason to shorten the distance. And he rarely used it anyway. So who had been in here?
Without hesitation, I dialed Lennon Morrison. “Who drove my car?” I demanded.
Silence lingered for a moment before his voice answered. “No one. You know how particular you are; I wouldn’t let anyone else near it. I only moved the seat back for you.”
I didn’t say another word. I simply hung up and turned the car toward the hospital.
——
There, I waited in restless silence for the DNA results.
Though suspicion had long gnawed at me, without solid proof, a part of me still prayed it was all in my imagination.
If not, then decades of childhood friendship and three years of marriage would all turn into nothing but a cruel joke.
Yet Lennon’s words on the phone were hard to ignore. Every time he had borrowed my car before, he never once moved the seat back. His explanation had been needless, almost insulting.
And then I heard his voice from a distance.
“Baby, be careful, don’t hurt our child.”
Baby? Child?
I froze, turning in shock. The man who was never late and never left early now stood there, tenderly holding another woman, completely unaware that his wife was watching him.
I thought back to when I had burned with a high fever at home, too weak to move, and Lennon only called his assistant to send me to the hospital. At that time, he had said, “Sorry, wife, you know those old, stubborn people at the company are always watching me. I can’t just leave early and give them leverage.”
Being career-driven myself, I hadn’t taken his excuse too much to heart. But reality now told me, he could leave early, just not for me.
From the look of them, they had just stepped out of gynecology. That woman must have been pregnant. When had this all begun?
I picked up my phone and called Lennon again. He answered smoothly, without a trace of panic, “What’s wrong, wife? I just finished a meeting.”
Watching the two of them in the distance, hands gently caressing her belly, I forced down the lump in my throat.
“Didn’t you want a child? Let’s have one.”
Lennon was visibly shaken by my words. His eyes darted nervously around the room, and when he didn’t spot me, he exhaled in relief.
“Wife, did someone upset you? Was it my mom again? Don’t mind her, you know how she is. She just wants a grandchild too badly. Don’t feel any pressure, just focus on your career. I’ll always support you.”
From the very next day after our wedding, his mother had been pressing me to have children. But I had wanted to spend five years building my career first, which led to countless quarrels between us.
Each time, Lennon defended me, and I believed I had a husband who truly understood and supported me.
Yet in the end, all he did was find another woman to bear the child she wanted.
I ended the call without hesitation. Taking the test report from the doctor’s hand, I turned and walked away.
Then, after a brief pause, I called my assistant.
“Look into Lennon’s recent schedule, the people he’s met, and his transaction records. And take care of my car, I never want to see it again.”
