Chapter 2
Mark immediately hung up.
The car went dead silent.
The livestream chat exploded.
[Damn, that's a whole drama bomb.]
[Barren hen? Is she straight-up shading Susan now?]
[So, Megan isn't just Mark's friend. His mom basically picked her to be the daughter-in-law?]
[OMG, what is this, peak countryside drama?]
Mark was sweating bullets, literally scrambling for the end button, blurting out panicked excuses to me, "Honey, please, it's not what you think. My mom... She just starts rambling nonsense whenever she feels lonely."
I stopped his hand from ending the stream, turning to the camera and forcing out a smile that was more painful than crying.
"Everyone, I'm sorry. Maybe... maybe my mother-in-law just has some kind of misunderstanding about me," I said, my voice shaking.
My eyes burned, instantly going red, threatening to spill over with tears.
Managing my emotions on stream was second nature—I could dial it up or down like a total pro.
Seeing my tears, Mark got even more panicked. He grabbed my hand, desperate to explain himself, "Yes, it's just a misunderstanding. Megan is really just a friend of mine.
"My mom has always liked her. As for the gifts, my mom forced her to bring them over. I swear, I had no clue."
He shifted all the blame away from himself, keeping his own hands perfectly clean.
The mood in the chat started getting complicated.
Some people were taking my side, calling Claire and Megan out as villains.
But some viewers started doubting, thinking maybe this was just a family mix-up after all.
I meant, Mark's whole devoted-husband act had everyone convinced for ages.
I looked at his "so worried, so innocent" face and scoffed to myself. Just keep playing your role. Let's see how long you could last and keep up this act.
The car finally pulled into the next rest area.
Mark parked, unbuckled his seatbelt, and immediately cupped my face, his eyes full of concern.
"Honey, I'm so sorry. It's all my fault. You didn't deserve any of this," he said, his voice thick with guilt.
He was so convincing that if I hadn't seen the dashcam footage myself, I might have actually believed him.
I turned my face away, playing the hurt wife to the hilt and refusing to even look at him.
"I don't want to hear it," I snapped, my voice trembling.
Just then, his phone started ringing again.
Not taking any chances now, he shot a look at the caller ID, slammed it on silent, and placed the phone face down.
But the more he tried to cover it up, the sketchier it looked.
Mark cleared his throat, obviously trying to change the subject. "Honey, didn't you say you needed to hit the restroom? Go ahead, I'll chill here and wait for you. Let's take a little break, grab a drink, and get our vibes back before heading out."
That gentle voice, paired with his pretty-boy face, could make almost any woman go weak in the knees.
Viewers started comforting me, telling me not to overthink it.
[Susan, don't be mad. Mark really didn't mean to upset you.]
[Yeah, mother-in-law stuff is always hard to maintain. Every family's got their own saga.]
[Come on, make up already. We're all waiting to see you two being all lovey-dovey again."]
I took a deep breath, as if I'd just made a huge decision, and finally nodded.
"Alright, wait here for me," I said softly.
I grabbed my phone and selfie stick, got out of the car, and walked toward the restroom, glancing back at Mark every few steps.
Mark stayed by the car, waving at me with that doting smile plastered on his face.
But as soon as I turned away, his smile dropped and he instantly grabbed his phone, urgently—and sneakily—calling someone back.
All of it was secretly captured by my phone, which I'd discreetly angled to make sure the camera caught his every move.
I stayed in the restroom for a full ten minutes.
All the while, I kept the livestream running, pretending to fix my makeup at the sink, while really I was listening in on everything happening outside.
When I finally stepped back out, Mark was nowhere to be seen.
The white SUV we'd been driving for three years vanished—gone, along with all my stuff.
People came and went, cars whizzed past nonstop, but I was just standing there, completely alone.
Standing there, I was nothing but a clown, ditched by the whole damn world.
The livestream chat just froze.
Everyone was left speechless.
Then, a tsunami of comments flooded the screen.
[Holy crap. Where the heck did Mark go?]
[The car's gone too. Did he really just leave Susan behind at the rest stop?]
[No way. What is even happening right now?]
[Did something urgent come up at work or what?]
[Bullshit. If it was really such a big deal, he could've just taken his wife along. That was totally on purpose.]
I stood there, letting the highway wind whip through my hair, not moving an inch.
After what felt like forever, I slowly turned back toward the camera.
All the sadness, disappointment, and shock I'd shown vanished like they were never there.
Instead, I let an icy, resolute smirk curl across my lips.
I fixed my gaze on the camera, saying each word slowly and clearly.
"Alright, guys, now's when the real surprise kicks off."
As soon as I finished speaking, the chat exploded—viewers started pouring in like a tidal wave.
The numbers went from ten thousand to thirty thousand, and then to fifty thousand. Before I knew it, we soared past a million.
The barrage of comments was absolute chaos. The server could barely keep up and almost went down.
[Wait, what?]
[Susan's gone full savage. I'm obsessed.]
[Spill it. What happened?]
Instead of spilling the tea right away, I dialed Mark's number.
It rang forever before he finally answered, and in the background, I could clearly hear Megan acting all cute. "Mark, who's calling?"
Mark sounded totally fed up. "Just another annoying spam call."