Chapter 1The Uninvited Birthday Guest

On my birthday, my wife’s childhood sweetheart crashed the party, holding a child.

He kicked over the table in front of me, sending champagne flutes and plates scattering across the floor.

“Jenna,” he roared, “give us an answer, me and my son. How much longer are you going to make us wait?”

It was then that I learned the truth. My wife, who claimed to be allergic to male proteins, had secretly had a child with him. No wonder she never let me touch her. No wonder she refused to have a baby with me. She already had one, and now, he had come knocking.

“Jenna, you’re going to explain yourself today, or so help me God. Why did you do this to me?”

Jenna’s brow furrowed, but her tone was unapologetic. “It’s my body. I’ll have a child with whomever I please. This is the 21st century. How can anyone still be so backward?”

I laughed, a cold, sharp sound, and slapped her across the face.

“This is not a burden I will bear. We’re calling a lawyer. Now. We’re drawing up divorce papers.”

* * *

A hush fell over the room. Every guest held their breath, their eyes fixed on the unfolding drama.

Leo, my wife’s lover, jabbed a finger in my face, his voice raw. “You listen to me, Mark. Jenna doesn’t love you. She has always loved me!”

“She’s not allergic to anything! That was just an excuse to keep you away from her!”

“You’re the one who cheated! You manipulated her father, forced her to marry you!”

“You tore us apart! You condemned us to this half-life, leaving Jenna miserable and my son without a mother in the daylight. Do you have any idea how much he’s suffered? Have any of you ever been parents? Do you know what it’s like for a child to grow up without their mother?”

His voice boomed through the banquet hall. I saw my mother clutch her chest, her face pale. She tried to speak, to tell them it wasn’t true, but the pain was too much. I saw her distress, and a wave of panic and frustration washed over me.

After Leo’s tirade, the guests turned on me, their eyes filled with contempt. I didn’t understand. I was the husband. My wife had a child with another man, and I was the one being judged?

“I can’t believe this is the real story. He broke up two people in love.”

“How tragic. No wonder they had to sneak around.”

“So Mark isn’t the man we thought he was. He’s a monster.”

“What a hypocrite. All that charity work he does, probably just to wash away the guilt from his dirty secrets.”

Dirty secrets?

My vision went red. “What crime did I commit?” I roared at them. “Did I murder someone? Did I burn down your houses?”

My outburst silenced them, but only for a moment. I turned back to Jenna, to the face that had lied to me for years, and felt nothing but weariness.

“Jenna, tell them. Tell them the real reason I married you.”

She hesitated, her eyes darting between me and Leo. The child in his arms began to cry, and her resolve crumbled. She rushed over and took the boy from him. Seeing them together, the rage in my chest burned hotter. I had once believed that child was a distant relative’s. When Jenna had brought him home, asking me to help care for him, my mother and I had treated him like a grandson. And now, I was being told this boy, whom I had cherished, was the product of my wife’s affair. The humiliation was a wound that would never heal.

To protect Leo, to shield her son, Jenna looked at me with cold indifference.

“You’re the one who slandered Leo to my father,” she said, her voice flat. “That’s why my dad forced me to marry you.”