Chapter 2The Price of a Hidden Ring

After saying that, Ethan impatiently swatted away Mia's hand as she tried to reach out again. He tightened his grip on the baby he was holding and turned to leave.

I stepped forward quickly.

I grabbed Mia and pulled her into a tight hug, then took another step to block Ethan's path.

"Ethan, what is the meaning of this?"

Perhaps he didn't expect to see me here today, or maybe he didn't expect that I had returned to the country without telling him.

For a moment, he froze, staring at me with eyes full of utter disbelief.

After a long pause, he hugged the baby in his arms tighter and spoke softly, though his tone betrayed a rare hint of guilt:

"Why... why are you back?"

As he spoke, he seemed to realize something. He suddenly looked down at Mia, who was wiping away tears next to me.

"Is she... Mia?"

Hearing this, I twitched the corners of my mouth. The light in my eyes dimmed, and a bitter smile failed to reach my eyes.

Mia is already five years old.

Yet to this day, he couldn't even recognize his own biological daughter.

"Ethan, aren't you going to explain?"

"You..."

But before I could even finish my sentence, a fleet of luxury cars pulled up to the entrance of the country club, and a group of people stepped out.

When I saw the woman leading the group, I froze, my eyes filling with pain.

"Sister, long time no see."

It was Chloe Hayes.

My half-sister.

Back then, it was her and her mother who destroyed my once-happy family, drove my mother to her death, and had me committed to a psychiatric hospital.

Meeting Chloe's provocative gaze, scenes from the past flashed before my eyes, and my body began to tremble uncontrollably.

"Why are you standing out here? It's freezing."

Chloe smoothly looped her arm through Ethan's, her tone intimate.

Without even giving me a chance to speak, Chloe took the lead, speaking loudly enough for everyone present to hear:

"Sister, Ethan told me everything."

"You insisted on being with him, even willingly accepting the role of the other woman. But Ethan and I have a baby now. Please stop harassing him."

"Ethan and I are married. Are you really going to be like your mother and become a stumbling block in someone else's path to happiness?"

Instantly, the surrounding crowd turned their eyes on me, whispering amongst themselves, their words filled with insults and slurs directed at me.

I clenched my fists tightly, turned my head to look at the man standing beside Chloe, and asked softly:

"Ethan, is this true?"

But before Ethan could even open his mouth, my daughter suddenly broke free from my grasp. She snatched the marriage certificate from my pocket.

Mia ran up, grabbed Ethan's hand, and choked out:

"Daddy, didn't you and Mommy already get married? Why do you have a baby with someone else? Is Mia making you angry?"

"Daddy, look, this is your and Mommy's marriage certificate. Mommy keeps it in her pocket every single day."

Chloe stepped forward, ignoring my daughter's struggles, and snatched the marriage certificate away to examine it.

The next second, she held it up, waving it at me, her tone dripping with mockery:

"Sister, you really have no shame, do you?"

"This marriage certificate is obviously a fake. How much longer are you going to lie to yourself? Look, it doesn't even have an official seal."

With that, Chloe pulled a marriage certificate from her own designer bag and handed it to me with a smile:

"Here, let me show you what a real marriage certificate looks like."

"Oh, by the way, when Ethan and I went to City Hall to get our license, I even recorded a video to document it. Please, enjoy."

She handed her phone to me. It was playing a video of the two of them getting their license.

In the video, Ethan was smiling, looking blissfully happy. The sight stung my eyes so badly I almost cried.