Chapter 4
Andrew and I had entered a marriage of convenience. Our union also meant a powerful alliance between the Graham and Lincoln family businesses.
Only after both sets of parents had settled everything did they come to ask for our opinions.
To be honest, I did like Andrew back then, so I naturally agreed.
But Andrew refused. His reason was that we barely knew each other, and he didn't want to waste either of our lives.
To the parents, though, it sounded like nothing more than a young man being shy and reserved. What did it matter if we didn't know each other? We could grow closer with time.
So under his parents' arrangement, Andrew and I somehow ended up drunk together.
With the handsome guy I'd been crushing on right in front of me, I was totally lovestruck and let my feelings take over. And from that one night, Charlie came into our lives.
Under pressure from both families, we rushed through the engagement and wedding within three months.
After we got married, he was distant and cold. He often worked late into the night, and even when he came home, he usually stayed in his study alone. He said he was worried about exhausting me during pregnancy and didn't want to disturb my sleep.
After Charlie was born, Andrew's parents adored him. Andrew's father also gradually let go of the resentment that had once pushed him into a heart attack and partial paralysis.
From then on, Andrew's attitude toward me slowly softened. I wouldn't say our marriage was blissful, but it was peaceful—like countless ordinary, stable families.
That lasted until three months ago, when Sophie Rivers suddenly returned to the country. Only then did I understand how devastating a "first love" could be.
It was also then that I realized Andrew could be this gentle, this warm, and this quick to smile.
If Sophie mentioned feeling unwell, he would drop his important business meeting and rush straight to her side.
If she said she was craving lobster pasta, he would put on gloves and prepare buttery garlic lobster for her—something he normally wouldn't even touch, let alone cook.
But when it came to me, I stood on the opposite end of the scale.
When Charlie ran a high fever and went into convulsions, I couldn't drive while holding him in my arms, so I called Andrew.
But he was busy strolling by the lake with Sophie and told me to just book a ride on my phone myself.
His love—and his absence of it—was plain to see.
Because of things like this, we fought countless times. Yet Andrew kept insisting they were nothing more than ordinary friends. He said I was the one with a dirty mind, always assuming the worst and making things up in my head.
Every time I brought up divorce, he treated it as me making a scene—thinking I just wanted attention or was throwing a tantrum for drama.
Over time, I became the calculating, scheming, and lying woman in his mouth.
My memories tangled like fine threads, slowly wrapping into a cocoon that bound me tight and left me gasping for air.
I shut my eyes in pain as grief spread through my chest.
Just then, the hospital room door was pushed open with a loud bang.
My close friend Natalie Quinn stormed in, phone in hand, totally pissed off.
"Emily, you have to see this. That shameless pair is about to drive me insane," Natalie snapped. She opened a video on her phone and shoved it in front of me.
It was a public display of affection. The caption read: [Thank you for remembering the promise you made to me when we were young.]
The video showed Andrew confessing his love to Sophie beneath the glowing aurora. He vowed to give her the status she deserved as soon as possible.
Sophie's eyes sparkled, and Andrew gazed at her with unmistakable devotion. He said, "My heart has always belonged to you—back then, now, and forever. I'll give you everything that's supposed to be yours."
Then the two of them embraced tightly.
So this was his idea of just friends? What kind of ordinary friends behaved this shamelessly?
The account's IP location showed Iceland, and judging by the earlier posts, it clearly belonged to Sophie.
The comments were full of congratulations and well wishes, including several from Andrew's friends whom I also knew.
Not a single one of them mentioned what had happened to me or to Charlie.
They said birds of a feather flock together, and this proved it perfectly.
Natalie's eyes were bloodshot. She clenched her teeth in anger. "What the hell is wrong with Andrew? How could he do this? Charlie's gone, and he's still out there showing off his romance with that homewrecker? Why can't a meteor just drop from the sky and smash those two shameless lowlifes to pieces?"
I stared at the video. There was nothing left in me but hatred for losing my son. Every other emotion had gone numb.
That hatred spread from the depths of my heart to every inch of my body. My hand trembled violently as I gripped the phone. Rage was burning in my chest.
So, you wanted to be together that badly. Fine. I would make it happen.
But what Andrew owed Charlie, I would make him pay in full.
Since you loved showing off your romance online, let me help you turn up the heat.
*****
I immediately paid to boost the video, pushing it onto trending lists and showering them with even more "blessings."
Before long, the video passed a million likes.
After that, I asked Michael to help me dig into Sophie's life abroad over the past ten years. The more detailed, the better.
I refused to believe that she had spent a whole decade overseas without a single skeleton in the closet. If everything had been so perfect, why come back now?