Chapter 4

Uncle Gary rushed to press the pressure point under her nose.

Grandpa Fox slammed the table so hard a wine bottle flew off it, chest heaving with rage.

"The eldest branch has no heir! And the third branch has lost its mind too, stirring everyone up to sell the ancestral home! This is madness!"

"Zachary, you make me proud! Go get that marriage license right now!"

Tears streaming down his face, he seized my hand and Zachary's and shoved us toward the door.

"Anyone who picks at my grandson's wife again answers to me!"

The instant the door of the private room closed, a crash of shattering dishes came from inside.

Along with Aunt Denise's shrieking, sobbing curses.

No one asked anymore how my parents had a child at fifty.

No one brought up the birthmark on my waist.

And no one cared whether I was the light-fingered mom from the group chat.

Zachary stood outside the county clerk's office, holding my hand with guilt written all over his face.

"Joy, I'm sorry. My family's a mess. They ruined our engagement banquet today."

"But don't worry. From now on I'll be good to you, and good to my little brother and sister."

"Let's get the license."

I nodded.

Thinking to myself, my family's far more of a mess than yours.

But I didn't feel the slightest guilt. He was a cheater, after all.

According to my client, this Zachary Fox traded on his looks to hook up with college girls a dozen years younger than him.

Her best friend had fallen for it.

Or maybe the friend had read too many novels and web dramas, always dreaming of landing a rich alpha and living as his kept bird.

So the client decided to spend the money and get her revenge, to pull her best friend back from the edge before she wrecked her own life.

Ten minutes before closing, the little red booklet was in my hands.

The seal came down, and Zachary and I were legally husband and wife.

I clutched the marriage certificate, my palm slick with sweat.

Done.

I opened the chat with my client, ready to report progress, collect my money, and disappear.

Right then, she sent a fifty-nine-second voice message.

My hand jerked, and I converted it to text.

"What the hell are you doing? Didn't I tell you to go after that cheater? He got my best friend pregnant, and today the two of them went shopping for baby stuff together. Where the hell are you?"

My head buzzed. I quickly snapped a photo of the marriage certificate and fired it over.

"Zachary Fox and I already registered. We got engaged today. He didn't go anywhere."

She typed for a long time, then sent one line:

"You got it wrong! The cheater I meant is Carl Stewart, not Zachary Fox!"

My mind went blank.

Then she sent a photo, the big-bellied man circled in red pen.

But the first thing I saw was the girl beside him, her belly just barely rounded.

She looked about twenty, her stomach slightly swollen, smiling down at a crib.

I stared at her face, and my pupils shrank.

Wasn't that the cousin from the engagement banquet, the one who threw up partway through, said she wasn't feeling well, and left early to go pick up medicine at the hospital?