Samuel's face turned red then pale as he frantically thought of a way to explain things to me.

However, there was no denying the facts, and after hesitating for a long time, he could only admit, "Misty's parents and younger brother were worried about her, and also, their old house in the village was getting too old for them…"

"Samuel Tucker," I said, stressing every syllable of his name. "Did you know that your own mother's place in her hometown is small and drafty, and she sleeps huddled in the corner of her bed every day, but she absolutely refused to move here so she wouldn't disturb us.

"And yet, yesterday, she slipped and fell into a puddle, injuring her leg terribly. It was her neighbor, Lettie Carlson, who had to send her to the clinic to get treated!

"But now, you're telling me that you took in your sister-in-law and her entire family of six here, paying only 300 dollars in rent for my 3,000-square-foot apartment that's worth at least 10,000 dollars a month?

"Who's the daft one here? Is it you? Or your sister-in-law?"

Samuel began to panic.

"How did Mom fall? Was it serious? What did the doctor say?"

I chuckled coldly and turned to return to my room.

"If you were really worried about her, you wouldn't have hung up straight on Lettie multiple times yesterday when she tried calling you just because you found the calls annoying!"

He then called out to me behind my back, "Carol! I'll settle things on Mom's side… And as for Misty, I really didn't mean to keep it from you. Don't get mad at me, please. It's not good for your health."

I didn't even bother stopping as I replied to him, "Clean up the kitchen. You're sleeping on the couch tonight."

I then shut the bedroom door behind me and looked down at my belly, which was very slightly protruding.

Our second baby together was just eight weeks old today.

Initially, I had wanted to tell Samuel about this good news tonight and discuss with him about using it as an excuse to ask his mom to move in with us. After all, her tiny place was really too run-down and unsuitable for her as a retirement home.

Who would have thought that I'd see Misty's message pop up on his phone before we even had a single bite of food to eat?

And so, our seventh wedding anniversary dinner was ruined, just like that.

When I came out of the room the next morning, the living room couch was back to normal. Samuel had already gone to work.

He texted an apology to me.

However, the entire mini TED Talk he gave me in text simply defended Misty again and again, citing how hard life was on her and more.

I didn't reply to any of his messages. Instead, I sent Elsie to preschool before driving straight to my luxury apartment in the center of the city.

After keying in the wrong passcode thrice, someone impatiently yanked the door open from the inside.

"Who is it? How dare you break into a house in broad daylight!"

I stared at the man with stubble all over his face, recognizing him as Misty's younger brother, Mitchell Patterson.

Misty came out of the kitchen just then, her eyes doubling in size as soon as she caught sight of me at the door.

"What are you doing here?"

"Is this your friend, Misty? Doesn't she know basic manners like ringing the doorbell instead of keying in the passcode immediately?"

Mitchell rolled his eyes at me before turning away and walking back into the place before entering the master bedroom.

Misty hurriedly placed Zoe on the floor and rubbed her hands together, sounding a little nervous as she asked, "Caroline? What brings you here?"

My face was dark as I entered the door and swept my gaze around the apartment. "Do I need to give anyone a heads-up coming into my own apartment?"

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, however, someone punched in the keycode at the door. And then, Samuel walked in with practiced ease, crouching down to change into some indoor slippers when he suddenly saw me and froze midway.

"W-What are you doing here?"

This was getting ridiculously absurd.

I didn't even know where to begin questioning him.

"And what are you doing here, Samuel Tucker? Shouldn't you be at the office working right now?"

Samuel was at a loss for words. Misty hurriedly stepped in to smooth things over and said, "Don't blame this on him, Caroline. I was the one who asked him to come here.

"It's just… Our door broke. I was worried about our safety…"

She didn't even finish her sentence before shutting up.

They had changed the door passcode themselves a long time ago. It wasn't broken in the slightest, and she knew it more than anyone else.

Samuel then tugged on my sleeve and said, "Let's go back first, darling. I'll explain everything to you once we're back."

I met his gaze and questioned him in response. "Which part are you planning to explain to me? About the low-balled rent? The lightbulbs? The family of six living in this apartment?

"Or the fact that you refused to take even a half-day leave when your own daughter was hospitalized due to a high fever, yet you immediately rushed here to fix a door that wasn't even broken in the first place?"

Samuel's expression changed. He hesitated, unsure of what to say, when the door to the secondary bedroom was opened, and Misty's parents, Chris Patterson and Francine Garcia, walked out.

They were no longer dressed in their drabby old countryside clothes. Rather, they wore bright, expensive clothing on their bodies as they rolled their eyes at me.

"Ah. You're the Tuckers' second daughter-in-law," they said. "Heard that this place belongs to you. How could you be so insensible and unreasonable at your age?

"Your husband already agreed to let us live in this place for free, and yet, you still insisted on collecting 300 dollars a month from us!"

I turned around and shoved Samuel back with all of my might.

He surely knew how to play the game and twist the facts here! He was the one who agreed to "rent" the place to them, yet he told them that I was the one who insisted on collecting the rental fees. And now, he was the one with their favor, while I was made out to be the unreasonable one.

"Let's go home first, Carol. I promise I'll tell you everything when we're back," Samuel said, grabbing my wrist tightly as he looked at me pleadingly.

However, I didn't know if the pleading in his eyes was to preserve his pride and dignity or for Misty's sake.

When he saw the cold look on my face, he made up his mind to drag me out of the place.

However, I kicked out at the umbrella stand in the doorway all of a sudden. Then, I pointed at the blue employee badge hanging there, my voice shaking in anger and disbelief.

"You even gave her my position too? And this is what you mean by her not being able to find a job?

"Samuel Tucker! What else have you been lying to me about?"

I had worked very hard and even insisted on working from home throughout my maternity leave. Then, once it was over, I left Elsie with her nanny and shuttled tirelessly between home and the office, practically risking my life until I was finally promoted to Deputy Director.

However, three years ago, during dinner, Samuel suddenly brought up that the company was doing a massive layoff, and unfortunately, I was one of them.

He choked up and apologized to me, saying that even though he was the Deputy Director of the Human Resources Department, he couldn't influence the board's decision at all.

I had felt sorry for his predicament, and despite my own reluctance to leave my position, I still comforted him and said, "It's okay, honey. I guess now's the best time to stay home and take care of Elsie instead."

In the following years, I thought quite often that I would find myself a new job once Elsie was enrolled in and started elementary school.

But today, I saw my old employee badge with Misty's name on it instead!

Judging from the employee number, the start date was exactly two months after Samson's death, which was also the very month I was supposedly laid off from the company.

Samuel had lied to me again.

The company hadn't been laying anybody off the entire time! He just wanted to give my position to Misty, his sister-in-law!

Seeing that even this cat was let out of its bag, Samuel lowered his voice and pleaded, "Darling, please, let's just go home first…"

But I refused to move.

At this time of the day, he wasn't at work because of Misty's call. However, Misty wasn't at work. Why was that?

I scoffed after thinking about it.

"Really, Samuel Tucker? This is the job position for the Deputy Director of the Creative Department. You really dared to let her just hold onto that position and take the monthly salary without even going to work?

"When I worked at the office, you refused to even approve of my sick leave when I was obviously very sick!"

Misty came over to us just then, probably thinking that I was sounding a little too pitiful. She sighed and frowned as she said, "Don't blame this on him, Caroline. It's just that he thought I had it really hard bringing up my kids by myself, and he only did this for me—"

I couldn't hold it back anymore and interrupted her, "Misty! You're just receiving a salary of at least 20,000 dollars a month without even having to go to work, and you're only paying 300 dollars a month for your family of six to live in a luxurious apartment like this!

"You even have my husband as your private handyman! What is it that's hard about your life?"

"Caroline Whitaker!"

Samuel grabbed me by my hand when he saw how white Misty's face had gotten and forcefully dragged me out of the door despite my protests. He didn't let go of me until we were finally out of the building door.

Then, he plastered the pitiful look on his face again and said, "Listen, darling, I can explain. I had no choice but to do all these!

"Did you know how depressed and heartbroken Misty was after Samson died? She was suicidal every other day! I only did this because I was trying to stabilize her emotions!"

I stared straight into Samuel's eyes until he felt goosebumps crawling on his skin.

"When Samson passed away, you and your mom were both upset and distraught, and I was the one handling all of the funeral proceedings. I know her condition more than anyone else!"

If a widow were truly depressed and heartbroken because of her husband's death, she would never have brought her six-month-old baby out on cafe-hunting trips at that time.

And if she were truly suicidal, she wouldn't have slept snugly until noon while I got up at the crack of dawn to make funeral arrangements, and then pretend to wipe away fake tears from her eyes while thanking me for my trouble!

Yet, Samuel was still lying to me until now.

This was our eighth married year together. Elsie was five-and-a-half years old, and her little sibling was still in my belly.

However, this was the very first time that I finally took a good, hard look at him. I had given my all to him, but I still didn't know what exactly was on his mind.

At this point, Samuel was behaving like a deflated balloon. He kicked a stone by the roadside with a sullen face and finally threw caution to the wind.

"I'll tell you the truth, Carol. Samson specifically asked me to take care of Misty and his kids before he passed away."

Samuel continued, "Later on, Misty came to me with Zack and Zoe in her arms, and I had no choice but to intervene then."

I shook my head.

"That's not a reason for all this. You could have just told me when she came to you for help. Instead, you chose to hide it from me, lie to me about everything, and even rob me of my things just to give them to her!"

Samuel was silent for a long time. Then, he finally said, "I was afraid that you'd overthink things. I had no other choice."

There he went again. He kept saying that he had "no choice".

I simply couldn't understand it.

When we made our wedding vows, he promised that he would always put me first and be right by my side, no matter in sickness or in health. How did he end up lying straight to my face for three years straight?

Was it really because it was Samson's dying wish? Or did Samuel really have other motives for doing this?

"I'm asking you one last time, Samuel Tucker. What else have you been lying to me about?"

He understood the hidden meaning in my words and immediately shook his head.

"Nothing else. Really. Also, I only did all these because of Samson's dying wish. I didn't want him to roll in his grave if I didn't fulfill it. I wanted him to rest in peace."

Then, he came over to me to hold my hand, speaking in a humbled voice, "You have to trust me, darling. This is the full truth.

"I promise that I'll start reducing contact with Misty today onward. If she needs anything, I'll ask her to call a proper repairman or the property manager to handle things instead.

"I'll always spend every weekend with you and Elsie now."

He said a lot of words to me, but none of them were his apology, sincere or not. He was just sweeping the elephant in the room under the rug, not even bothering to bring up any solutions for the mess he'd created.

I felt a wave of disappointment wash over me as I gritted my teeth and yanked my arm away from his hold.

My phone buzzed just then, and I saw that it was a text message from a friend of mine.

"I thought you didn't manage to get a spot in Prime Elementary School. But why did I see your husband this morning when enrolling my kid at the school?

"Also, didn't you have a daughter? I thought I saw your husband with a little boy instead. What's going on?"

She then sent me a video she'd taken of a man signing some enrolment papers at the elementary school, wearing the exact same outfit that Samuel was now wearing.

Because it was him in the video.

Meanwhile, the loud, noisy, and rowdy little boy next to him, with a plane model in his hand, was none other than Zack Tucker—Misty's eldest son, who was the same age as my Elsie.

No wonder I'd only seen the five of them at home earlier today.

I looked up at Samuel, rage burning intensely in my eyes.

It was bad enough that he had given Misty my apartment and my job, but this was Elsie's education matters, for crying out loud!

"Samuel Tucker! If there's one thing I regret the most, it's believing in all of your stupid lies!"

I showed him the video on my phone, and his confused face immediately paled when he saw himself on the screen.

He began to panic.

"Wait, Carol, I can explain… Zack is supposed to be enrolled into elementary school at his age now, but he can't because the school requires a permanent address. That's why I—"

"What about Elsie? Is she also not the age to be enrolled in elementary school? How could you give your own daughter's chance at education away to somebody else! Do you want Elsie to hate you?"

"No, wait, I had no other choice! Samson told me to—"

"No. You had a choice."

For some reason, I felt the anger and fury in me suddenly transformed into a sense of desolation when I heard him say his stupid "catchphrase" again.

So, this was the man I had married after all—a man who pretended to be a good person to others while lying incessantly to me.

I suddenly calmed down at that very moment.

"You could have told me that Misty had no place to stay, and I would have made the decision whether or not to rent out the apartment to her.

"You say that she couldn't find a job. You could have let her work in my department, and I could have guided and mentored her along.

"As for this elementary school enrollment, if you managed to get a spot for Zack, that means you could have also gotten a spot for Elsie as well.

"But you didn't. You keep using 'you had no choice' as your flimsy excuse to abandon your wife and daughter, instead leaving the best for outsiders."

Samuel frowned hard and kept shaking his head.

"No, that's not it! Listen to me, darling! I really had no choice!"

I straightened up my hunched back and looked at him.

"Then let me tell you now about my plan to take back everything that rightfully belonged to me."

"What is it?"

I dialed a number on my phone and put it to my ear, making the call in front of him.

"Hello? I want to make a police report. My husband, Samuel Tucker, rented out my apartment to his relatives at an extremely low-balled price without my consent.

"I suspect that they colluded to illegally seize my personal property from me."