She Got the Marriage License and I Got 99 Broken Promises Chapter 02
He frowned. “Are you still mad?”
Then he let out a sigh and said with helpless patience, “All right. I have time tomorrow. I’ll go see Grandma with you.”
Only after I pulled the zipper shut did I finally look at him. “No need.”
Grandma was gone. I didn’t want anyone disturbing her now.
She had loved having people around when she was alive, but Nolan had never once been one of the people who brought warmth or life into her world.
He hadn’t shown up when she was living.
There was no reason for him to go now that she was dead.
For the first time, he seemed to truly register the chill in my voice.
He paused, then hurried to explain, “Just wait a little longer. Three days. Give me three days to get the paperwork settled with Sabrina, and then we’ll go down to the courthouse and make us official.””
After that, he held out a black Centurion card to me.
“It’s got a three-million-dollar limit. You can use it anywhere.”
“Grandma’s been sick for a long time. I know that kind of thing takes money. This is enough to make sure neither of you has to worry about anything.”
I stared at the glossy black card in silence.
Six days ago, when Grandma was dying and I needed money more desperately than I had ever needed anything in my life, Nolan had played the part of the worried partner.
And yet the money never came.
Now Grandma was dead, and suddenly the card was in front of me.
A bitter laugh threatened to bubble up in my throat.
Too late. I didn’t need it anymore.
When he saw that I made no move to take it, irritation flashed in his eyes.
He was just about to speak when several figures appeared at the doorway.
Sabrina stood there in soft white, with a cluster of housekeepers behind her fussing over her like a royal retinue.
Nolan stiffened. “Don’t get the wrong idea,” he said quickly. “She’s only here to…”
Sabrina smiled and walked over, slipping her arm through his as if it belonged there. “To see the house my husband and I live in.”
Then she looked at me, her eyes openly provocative. “Tessa, you don’t mind, do you?”
As she spoke, her fingers drifted lightly across the diamond necklace at her throat. When she saw my gaze settle there, her smile sharpened with satisfaction.
“Nolan bought this for me six days ago,” she said.
“A ‘push present’ for the baby. It cost more than most people make in a lifetime.””
Something in my chest clenched so hard it hurt.
My lips pressed together until they almost went numb, and I had to force myself to breathe.
That day, when Grandma’s condition had taken a turn for the worse, I had called Nolan again and again and again.
After he rejected the first call, none of the others went through. He told me the company’s cash flow was tight and said I needed to wait.
I waited until dark.
Grandma died.
And Nolan never came.
Now I knew why.
He’d been at an auction with Sabrina, buying her a diamond necklace.
I pulled my suitcase behind me and walked around them toward the door.
Nolan moved instinctively as if to stop me, but Sabrina caught him just enough to slow him down.
The housekeepers looked at me differently now. The old respect was gone.
The second I stepped out, they huddled together and started whispering.
“I seriously thought she was the real thing. I was nice to her for nothing. Turns out she was just some kept woman.”
“That explains why there were never any wedding photos of her and Mr. Hayes in the house. She was the other woman all along.”
“She really waited until the wife showed up and kicked her out. Shameless.”
My mother had been the other woman too.
My father had been obsessed with the way she resembled his wife in her youth. He’d used his power to trap her, building a gilded cage and keeping his legitimate family in the dark.
So my mother lived in the shadows, without a name, without a title, trapped at his side until the truth came out.
When his wife found out, she called my mother a whore and threw her out of the house in a hysterical rage.
That same day, my mother went into a traumatic labor.
She died after giving birth to me.
The man went back to his family, and I ended up with Grandma.
From the time I was old enough to understand, Grandma had taught me the same thing over and over:
No matter how much you loved a man, never become the other woman.
And never touch what belonged to someone else.
But now I had gone from Nolan’s partner of five years to the ‘other woman’ in a marriage I hadn’t even known existed.
If Grandma knew, she would’ve been furious.
I tightened my grip on the suitcase handle and walked faster.
Nolan’s personal driver pulled up in front of me with perfect timing, as if he had known all along this was how it would end.
