I forced my trembling hands to steady and said coldly, “If anyone asks, just say I am your housekeeper.”
Chris stared at me in shock.
Even Melissa looked frozen in place.
Only Tucker burst into delighted laughter, utterly unaware of the tension in the room.
“Yay! Then we can use the money saved on a housekeeper to buy lots of toys! I want the new drifting go-kart! And the realistic sniper rifle! And—”
“Tucker, stop talking nonsense!” Chris snapped, though disbelief still lingered in his eyes.
Then, he turned back to me and asked, “Nadine, you really do not mind?”
I looked at Matty sleeping on the bed, guilt squeezing painfully in my chest. His toys during his childhood had been nothing but mud and pebbles along the roadside.
The toys Tucker casually listed were ones Matty probably did not even know existed.
“I don’t mind,” I said, swallowing the bitterness rising in my throat.
Then, more evenly, I added, “You said the school is going to check the deed and the household records to make sure both kids can enroll, right? Chris… let’s just get a divorce. You can go ahead and marry Melissa.”
When I married him, his family had been so poor they could not even afford a bride price.
A wedding ceremony was not even an option.
Outside this village, no one even knew I was his wife.
I thought divorcing now would make things easier for him and Melissa.
Unexpectedly, Chris shot me down right away.
“No. We’re not divorcing. Nadine, when we had nothing, all I could offer you was the title of wife. But now that life is better, I’m not going to fail you again.”
Ah, yes... The man who made his fortune in sales.
His words were always beautiful, but the hidden blade behind them always cut the deepest.
My heart twisted with irony, but I kept my tone steady. “You misunderstood. I meant we could have a fake divorce. Once both children finish school and no longer need the quota, we can marry again. It is for the children’s sake. The only question is whether Melissa would agree.”
Melissa’s eyes lit up instantly, though she fought to maintain a gentle, considerate expression.
“Nadine, if you are willing to divorce Chris for the children, how could I possibly refuse?”
Her eagerness barely hid her triumph.
Seeing this, Gemma stepped forward as well, urging her son. “Chris, both Nadine and Melissa are thinking of the kids. Just finalize the divorce. You relied on education yourself to leave the village, so you know how important schooling is.”
Melissa quickly added, “Chris, if you feel guilty, then rent a place in the city for Nadine. She can live there with Matty. It is better than squeezing in with all of us anyway.”
Chris had been hesitant, but after hearing that, he finally agreed. He gripped my hand tightly, his eyes filled with guilt and tenderness. It brought to mind the day he learned I was quitting my job to go back to the countryside.
But I no longer knew whether that tenderness was real or fake.
Silently, I took out our marriage certificate and handed it to him.
Ten years of foolish devotion, every last piece of it, had turned out to be nothing more than a dream mistaken for reality.
A guest’s dream, destined to dissolve into smoke.
What I did not expect was for Gemma to burst into tears suddenly.
She hobbled toward me, her wrinkled hands cupping a pair of heirloom bracelets.
“Nadine, our family has wronged you. These bracelets were given to me by Chris’s grandmother. I am giving them to you now.”
With watery eyes, she gently slid them onto my wrists, her fingers softly brushing over the calluses on my hands.
I let her hold my hand, emotions swirling chaotically beneath the surface.
When Chris married me years ago, she cried and apologized, saying their family was too poor to offer me anything meaningful as a bride price.
And now this.
Was she finally feeling guilty on her son’s behalf?
