Chapter 3My Husband Is The Rival

Alex’s face was a mask of iron as he stepped forward, prying my hand off the older woman’s wrist.

"Isabel, enough!" he barked. "One is the sister whose life you stole for twenty years. The other is the mother who raised you. Do you have to be this vindictive?"

His grip was tight—the same way he used to hold my hand in the field, his breath ragged, promising me that if we made it out alive, he’d spend the rest of his life making me happy.

I never doubted his love then. But love is a volatile element. It shifts. It decays.

"Apologize to Lucy and her mother," Alex commanded. "Now. Or I will make sure you never work in this city again."

He was using the same protective instincts he once used to defend me, but now the weapon was pointed at my heart.

"Even knowing they started this? Even knowing she hit me first? You still want me to apologize, Alex?"

Alex set his jaw and looked away.

My mother, seeing his support, lunged forward and landed another slap. "Shut up, Isabel! He’s your sister’s husband now. You have no right to speak to him like that!"

I started to laugh, but tears escaped anyway.

"I have no right? My sister stole my husband, Mom... I have more right than anyone."

Alex’s voice turned icy. "She is Lucy’s mother, Isabel. Not yours."

I cut him off, staring directly into my mother’s pale, panicked face. "She is."

My mother began to scream, her voice frantic. "Stop it! Don't listen to her!"

I smiled, though my heart felt like it was being shredded. "She had a one-night stand, had me, and dumped me on my grandmother. She married into the Hart family a year later. It wasn't until Lucy went missing at age five that she 'adopted' me to fill the void."

My mother’s eyes went wide. She hadn't realized I knew the truth.

"Don't listen to her!" she shrieked to the hallway. "She’s lost her mind since we kicked her out! She was a charity case from an orphanage! We have the papers!"

After my grandmother died, I was sent to the foster system. I was seven, but I looked four—stunted, bruised, and starving. I remember the day she "found" me. She cried for twenty-four hours straight. I thought it was guilt. I thought it was love. I thought all those years of overcompensating were her trying to be a mother.

But her love was a paper-thin thing. It couldn't withstand Lucy’s whispers.

"Mom," I said, the word tasting like ash. "That’s the last time I call you that. Good luck. You’re going to need it."

Alex opened his mouth to say something, but Lucy suddenly collapsed against him.

"Alex... my head... I feel like I'm dying..."

My mother’s face went white. "Lucy has a heart condition! Any stress could trigger an episode! Get her to a doctor, now!" She turned to me, her voice trembling with rage. "The new research project—the one for congenital heart defects—that’s for Lucy! That’s why we needed this partnership! She’s going to be on the research team. She has to be!"

Alex’s flicker of hesitation vanished. He glared at me with pure hatred. "Isabel, you knew she was sick, and you still pushed her. If anything happens to her or the baby, I will bury you."

He scooped Lucy up and ran toward the emergency wing.

The man who once promised to protect me for a lifetime was now promising to be my grave-digger.

I wiped the tears from my face, my expression going cold and flat. I pulled out my phone and dialed a number I hadn't called in a long time.

"If you still want to marry me," I said, "be at the courthouse in thirty minutes."

I heard a sharp, intake of breath on the other end. A voice, tight with restrained emotion, replied:

"I'll be there in fifteen."

Alex, you didn't throw me away. I’m finally letting you go.