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Love Couldn't Outweigh a Single Lie
NovelShort
Completed
Who do you feel you've wronged most, now that you've come back to your family? My husband cast a vote for his mistress. Maybe it was because, six months ago, I found out he'd been cheating. I loaded up a drone with those six-dollar intimate cards printed with him and his mistress and scattered them all over Seaford. Then I raised hell at his company for seven straight days, made an ugly scene of it. Nathan Mason had no choice but to send the mistress away and come back to his family.
Chapters (4)
第1章
After returning to your family, who do you feel you've wronged the most?
My husband voted for his mistress.
Maybe it started six months ago, when I found out about his affair.
I used a drone to scatter private cards printed with him and his mistress—six dollars apiece—all over Seaford.
And I made a scene at his company for seven days, ugly enough that it went too far.
Nathan had no choice but to send his mistress away and come back to the family.
From that day on, he gave me the silent treatment.
And at that time I was three months pregnant.
Because of his cold cruelty, I lay awake every night until dawn.
At four months, my morning sickness came up streaked with blood, and Nathan finally softened.
He cooked a whole table of food.
"From now on, I'll be good to you and the baby."
And that was the very day I saw his vote.
On his profile page,
three days ago, in the small hours—after he'd lulled me to sleep—he'd taken the mistress who was supposed to be gone out to sea to look at the night view.
The photo had a line of text underneath.
"Starting today, I compromise with life."
I stared at that post for a long time.
For some reason, he wanted to compromise.
But I no longer did.
——
When Nathan came home, his scent had changed.
He hadn't changed his clothes, but he'd secretly showered once before coming back.
He tossed his phone down next to me.
"Same password as always. I was in meetings all day and never went out. Check it if you want."
As he spoke, he walked straight to the dining room.
I didn't pick up the phone.
There was nothing to see. That phone was just like Nathan himself—
scrubbed clean before he came home, no trace left behind.
He'd learned how to handle me.
Nathan didn't find the dinner I'd prepared for him on the table.
In the past, no matter what, I always thought of his stomach trouble,
and had someone make the dishes he liked.
Especially since today was Thanksgiving, and also my birthday.
Nathan frowned,
wearing that look again, as if watching to see how unreasonable I'd be.
"Aren't we celebrating today?"
My hand, cutting the festive pie, went still, and I set down the knife.
"You're already full—could you even eat anything at home?"
At the revolving restaurant on the 180th floor of Seaview Tower, by the window,
Nathan had first sat with Kayla and ordered a whole table of food,
eating more than half of it as if to humor her.
I never used to understand why Nathan never had an appetite at home.
I racked my brains studying recipes,
even went and got a certification.
In the end I found, almost laughably, that Nathan didn't have a poor appetite—he'd already eaten out.
How can one person have two stomachs?
Nathan was quiet for a moment,
his eyes distant and cold.
"My meeting started at three and ended at five. It's five-thirty now, and I checked in with you every half hour. Do you think I had time to go out for dinner?"
"Ebony, can you please stop being so suspicious?"
I put a small piece of festive pie in my mouth,
but it was so sweet it tasted bitter.
To everyone else, Nathan had always been good to me.
He remembered every holiday and anniversary.
He was always making little surprises for me—even the bouquets he ordered every day matched what I was wearing.
He checked in with me, and I knew all his passwords.
He said he wasn't afraid of me checking.
My best friend had always envied me.
"For a man to be so open and aboveboard, it means you're the only one in his heart."
I trusted him too.
Until the sixth year of our marriage,
when, for the first time ever, I checked his phone.
There was still nothing.
At first Nathan laughed at me for having a paranoid fit.
Later he got a little angry,
because no matter what he did, I felt something was off.
He got the flowers I liked wrong, switched to a toothpaste brand I'd never heard of,
even quit the iced Americano he was never without.
I just had a feeling—he was cheating.
Nathan hired a psychologist for me, said I was sick.
So later, while taking the medication,
I caught him and Kayla in bed together.
I thought of the smile on his face tonight, sitting there having dinner with his little mistress.
It seemed he still didn't know who Kayla really was.
I touched my face—even the spaces between my fingers were wet.
I laughed softly.
"I can't live like this anymore. Let's get a divorce."
第2章
For an instant, joy flickered in Nathan's eyes.
But it was quickly buried under wariness.
"What are you trying to do now?"
After all, it wasn't as if I'd never made a scene about divorce before.
But every single time, it ended with me threatening to kill myself,
and he would reluctantly talk me down, until it all blew over.
How could I ever bring myself to let go?
This marriage was something Nathan and I had fought for together.
If I hadn't married him, I might have been betrothed long ago to some old, wealthy businessman.
Before I could speak, he got the words out first.
"Fine, think whatever you want. The company's slammed tomorrow, meetings all day. Look into it all you like."
With that, he went upstairs to the bathroom.
I picked up his phone and tapped to switch profiles.
In an instant, the default wallpaper changed to a photo of the two of them kissing,
and only the business messages and chat threads all turned into a flood of intimate exchanges.
That messaging account had one contact, and only one.
Kayla Henson.
Saved as Kayla.
I dimly remembered how, years ago, when I first chose to sponsor Kayla,
Nathan had still saved her contact as "little Henson."
I'd even teased him that the name was too stiff.
Now "little Henson" had successfully become "Kayla,"
while the "Kayla" in my own contacts had been dropped into the blacklist.
Kayla had posted a lot of photos and videos tonight.
"Happy Thanksgiving, my love. I wish you were here with me, sob sob~"
He hadn't gotten around to answering this one yet,
but every message above it he'd replied to patiently.
I scrolled up,
back to six months ago, when I caught the two of them in bed together.
"Baby, I don't want to leave you, but Ebony is so scary..."
"Sending you away is just an excuse. Stay in that apartment on the inner-city loop and don't worry. She won't find out."
That apartment was one of the wedding homes Nathan had bought for me.
No one usually lived there, so I'd had it rented out to tenants a long time ago.
I remembered—it had gone to a young couple.
I took out my phone and dialed a number.
"I've sent you the location. Take some people and break in right now. Tell them—I'm not renting this place out anymore."
——
Just as I was about to take off my earrings and go to sleep,
someone yanked my hand hard from behind.
A tearing pain shot through my earlobe, and half my hand was suddenly wet.
"Ebony Cox, Kayla is a young girl—where do you expect her to go in the middle of the night?!"
Nathan's put-on composure was gone,
his face nothing but alarm.
His gaze landed on my bloodied earlobe for only a moment.
I pulled out a tissue and pressed it to my ear.
"You moved all kinds of trash into my wedding home. Shouldn't I have someone clean it up?"
"I recall you promised me you'd send her away."
Nathan sneered.
"You're the one who brought Kayla out of the mountains, and now you're the one throwing her out. She's not some stray cat or dog—she has no relatives out there. What's the difference between making her leave and telling her to go die?"
He covered the phone's receiver, as if he didn't want my voice reaching the person on the other end.
"The wedding home is yours, but it's also something I gave you. Without me, what would you even be?"
I stood up.
My swollen belly throbbed with a dragging pain.
The doctor had said I couldn't let myself get upset anymore; that I'd carried this baby this far was already unheard of.
Kayla was crying on the other end of the line.
"Nathan, it's so dark here, I don't know where I am... Ebony, please, have mercy on me..."
"Where exactly did you have Kayla taken?!"
Nathan panicked. He reached to grab at my clothes,
but the second his hand touched my pregnant belly, he snatched it back as if he'd been burned.
He shoved over the dressing table in front of me,
and the bottles and jars crashed down at my feet.
I didn't offer a single word of explanation.
Nathan didn't believe me.
Kayla crying was my fault.
Twisting her ankle on the road was some trick of mine.
Getting tripped up at work was my scheme.
And yet he was the one who'd taken my hand first, who'd said he would trust me and love me forever.
Kayla screamed again on the other end of the line.
"Don't come near me, no—Ebony, I really was wrong, I know I was wrong!!"
"Kayla, Kayla!"
Nathan shouted into the phone, clutching it, and flung my hand off with force.
Caught off guard, I dropped to my knees on the floor.
The commotion was loud enough that the servants had already been roused, all of them watching from the doorway.
Someone screamed.
"Madam is bleeding!"
My nightgown was already dotted with spots of red.
I watched Nathan's steps freeze for an instant, then he bolted downstairs without a backward glance.
I heard the sound of a sports car starting up.
It was the one I'd given him for his birthday last year.
Nathan had said he'd use it to pick me up from then on.
In the end, I never once sat in the passenger seat.
The world spun before my eyes.
I only had time to give one order.
"Get me my lawyer—and Old Mrs. Mason..."
第3章
When I woke up, I was still in a hospital bed.
The doctor said the baby was only barely holding on, and the next three days were the critical period.
I lowered my eyes and listened to the doctor's instructions before the lawyer stepped forward and handed me the divorce papers.
I picked up the pen and gently signed my name.
The lawyer looked a little surprised.
It wasn't that I'd never contacted him before.
But every other time I pulled out the divorce papers, it was only me trying to scare Nathan.
If he dared to sign, I would kill myself.
Nathan no longer felt any passionate love for me.
But the moment I put a knife to my own throat,
I could always see the heartache and panic in his eyes.
Those were my most satisfying moments.
Only now did I understand that every time he dragged me back from the edge of death,
every time he held me tight,
it wasn't that he still loved me.
It was compromise. It was because he had no choice.
The lawyer spoke cautiously.
"The housekeeper says Old Mrs. Mason isn't feeling well. May I ask what you want to say to her?"
He probably thought I only wanted someone to complain to, to save my marriage.
"I'll speak to her myself."
The projector in the hospital room started broadcasting entertainment news.
Nathan had over a thousand roses airlifted to the company.
Then came the designer, the makeup artist, the wedding dress...
He was using the media's cameras to provoke me.
Just then, there was a knock on the door.
A local courier stood there holding a battered bouquet of roses.
"Are you Ms. Cox? This is a gift from Mr. Mason and Miss Henson."
Out of a thousand gorgeous roses, the most ruined bunch had been carefully picked out.
I took the bouquet.
A rose thorn pierced my palm.
"Ms. Cox, the IV isn't finished, you can't pull out the needle!"
The lawyer stood up to stop me.
But I had already pulled the needle from the back of my hand.
I didn't change out of my hospital gown. I wore it just like that, clutching the bunch of rotten roses, and took a taxi to Nathan's company.
The second the receptionist saw me, she trembled as she picked up the phone to dial the internal line.
My hand pressed down on it first.
"No need to announce me. I'll go up myself."
I heard people talking behind me.
"That lunatic is here again."
"So scary... Poor Mr. Mason, and poor Kayla too."
I recognized that voice.
Two years ago, at the company's interview, I was the one who let her through.
Nathan had even been a little annoyed about it, saying I'd lowered the bar.
The elevator doors opened on the 120th floor,
and I was met with cheering.
"Congratulations, Mr. Mason and Kayla! You two have to be happy together!"
The employees crowded around them,
Kayla in a wedding dress, arm in arm with Nathan.
"Thank you. I never thought the day would come when my dream would come true..."
Her eyes brimmed with tears, and she nearly kissed the man in front of her.
"Congratulations. But why didn't you invite me to the wedding?"
I walked closer, step by step, holding that bouquet.
I'd already seen it clearly: her wedding dress was so similar to the one I'd worn back then.
After so many years married to Nathan, of course I knew what all of this meant.
He wasn't looking for a stand-in.
He wished that the woman who had married him in the first place had been Kayla.
"Ah!"
Kayla screamed, covered her ears with her hands, and shrank into Nathan's arms.
"Don't hit me, don't have them strip me naked and throw me out..."
"Stop right there!"
Nathan held her tightly and snapped coldly.
The next second, pain shot through my knees, and I dropped hard to the floor.
My head was pushed down against the ground,
half my face pressed to the cold, hard floor.
Even though I could no longer move, Nathan still looked wary.
"Ebony Cox, you had someone take Kayla away yesterday. Do you know she nearly had an accident?"
"The doctor said she's very emotionally unstable. You can't provoke her anymore!"
I forced my eyes up,
looking at Kayla, who was gently curving her lips in his arms.
"So you sent flowers to provoke me?"
Nathan frowned.
"I don't know what you're talking about. If it weren't for you, Kayla and I would have been married long ago. Today I'm just giving her some compensation and comfort. It has no effect on your position."
He noticed my pregnant belly, and his tone shifted.
"Be gentle with her, she's pregnant."
Kayla lifted her head, her eyes already red.
"Nathan, please let Ebony go. It's all my fault, going on about wanting a wedding with you... If something happens to Ebony's baby, I'll feel even worse."
"Back then, if Ebony hadn't supported me..."
I watched the two of them, so intimate together.
It felt utterly ironic.
Nathan gently stroked her hair with the hand that wore his wedding ring.
"Kayla, I know you're the most understanding of all."
Only then did they loosen their grip,
but the pain in my abdomen kept me from getting up for a long while.
Kayla's closest assistant sneered.
"She really knows how to milk sympathy. We clearly weren't rough with her just now."
"Exactly. Like being pregnant is such a big deal."
I propped up my upper body,
about to take the half-signed divorce papers out of my bag.
And then I saw streaks of blood suddenly rise across Kayla's skin.
第4章
"There's something wrong with what she brought!"
The bouquet was flung aside.
Nathan checked on Kayla with an aching heart.
Then he turned and roared at me.
"How ruined do you have to make her before you're satisfied?!"
He closed the distance in two strides and kicked my bag away.
My hand, which I had just slipped into the bag, was cut by the zipper, leaving a long, thin gash.
Blood dripped onto the floor.
The files inside spilled out.
"You want a divorce?"
For some reason, Nathan's eyes turned red.
"You've turned Kayla into this, and now you think you can just walk away?"
I looked at him steadily.
"From beginning to end, did you ever once believe me?"
He gripped my chin, hard enough that it felt like he might crush it.
"Do you think you're worth trusting, Ebony Cox?"
He was the one who once said he would always believe me.
And now he was the one who wouldn't listen to a single word of explanation.
"Since you don't believe me, then let's divorce. I'll let you both go."
The grip on my chin loosened.
Then Nathan swung his hand and slapped me hard across the face.
He scooped Kayla up.
The look he gave me was ice-cold.
"Strip off her outer clothes and let everyone get a good look—see whether Ebony Cox, who's crossed the wrong people, can still keep living her glamorous life!"
Kayla sobbed in his arms.
"It hurts so much, everything hurts..."
Several hands reached out and started tearing at my clothes.
I couldn't spare a thought for the pain in my body.
"Nathan, you can't do this!"
"The baby... I'm still carrying your baby..."
Nathan didn't even glance at me before stepping into the elevator.
My clothes were ripped to shreds, until only the bare minimum was left to cover me.
I was shoved downstairs and driven out of the lobby.
I don't know who called them, but reporters with cameras and long lenses closed in tight around me.
"Ms. Cox, was running through the company naked also part of your effort to hold on to Mr. Mason?"
"Is it true, as rumored, that you suffer from a mental illness?"
A car came speeding up, and the reporters scattered out of the way.
I could only watch as it stopped right in front of me.
They pulled me into the car.
On the other side,
Kayla had already arrived at the hospital.
After a round of tests,
the doctor said with a smile.
"Congratulations, Mr. Mason—Miss Henson is expecting!"
A flicker of joy showed in Nathan's eyes.
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the divorce agreement on the table.
The joy faded quickly.
Kayla pressed a hand to her belly, about to say something.
Nathan answered his phone.
The person on the other end was Old Mrs. Mason.
Old Mrs. Mason gave a cold laugh—
but she wasn't calling to speak up for me.
"Nathan, I don't care who you're with, but that person absolutely cannot be Kayla Henson!"
Nathan frowned.
The next instant, his whole body went rigid.
