\n
\u201cMrs. Catherine never wanted a divorce, and your mother was the one who personally threw her onto the street,\u201d Brian confessed, his voice steadying.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that letter you received? She wrote every word of it herself, not your wife.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor felt the blood drain from his face, leaving him feeling cold and lightheaded.<\/p>\n
He couldn\u2019t comprehend the depth of the betrayal, and he had no idea that the worst was still yet to come.<\/p>\n
Victor fled the hotel with Annie in his arms, his heart feeling as though it had been carved out of his chest.<\/p>\n
Behind him, the gala had devolved into a chaotic mess of rumors, and he knew his mother\u2019s reputation would never survive the night.<\/p>\n
Inside the SUV, as they drove through the neon-lit streets, Annie explained the reality of their existence.<\/p>\n
They had been living in a cramped, mold-infested room in a run-down building on the outskirts of the industrial district.<\/p>\n
Catherine had been working double shifts washing dishes in a greasy diner and sewing garments at home just to cover the meager rent.<\/p>\n
There were many nights when Catherine would skip dinner entirely, claiming she wasn\u2019t hungry, just so she could make sure Annie had a proper lunch for school.<\/p>\n
When she fell ill, she always hid it, telling her daughter it was just exhaustion from working too hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom always told me you were busy building a better future for us,\u201d Annie whispered, leaning against her father\u2019s arm.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe never once said a bad word about you, even when we had nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor squeezed his eyes shut, the weight of those words cutting deeper than any insult could have.<\/p>\n
He had foolishly believed the poison his mother fed him, never questioning why his wife would suddenly leave him without a conversation.<\/p>\n
When they arrived at the apartment complex, a neighbor, a weary-looking woman, emerged from the hallway and glared at Victor.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you the father?\u201d she asked, her voice dripping with judgment.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou finally decided to show your face after all this time?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere is Catherine?\u201d Victor demanded, ignoring the woman\u2019s hostility.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe collapsed while she was working at the restaurant and they took her to the Metropolitan General Hospital,\u201d the neighbor replied coldly.<\/p>\n
Annie began to cry again, her small body shaking, and Victor didn\u2019t ask another word.<\/p>\n
He drove like a man possessed, ignoring every traffic light as he sped toward the hospital.<\/p>\n
When he finally burst into the sterile, fluorescent-lit ward, he found Catherine sitting in a wheelchair, looking ghostly pale and incredibly thin.<\/p>\n
A doctor was busy adjusting a blanket over her shoulders, his expression grave.<\/p>\n
Victor stopped dead in his tracks, feeling a suffocating mix of guilt, shame, and overwhelming love.<\/p>\n
\u201cMom!\u201d Annie shouted, sprinting toward her mother.<\/p>\n
Catherine looked up, and for a fleeting second, a smile lit her face, but it vanished the moment she saw Victor standing behind the child.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat are you doing here?\u201d she asked, her voice raspy and devoid of emotion.<\/p>\n
\u201cCatherine, please, I found out everything,\u201d Victor pleaded, stepping toward her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know my mother kicked you out, and I know she blocked every single attempt you made to see me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Catherine let out a dry, hollow laugh that sounded like dry leaves skittering on pavement.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes knowing that now actually change anything, Victor?\u201d<\/p>\n
The doctor, a man named Dr. Harvey Reed, intervened with a solemn tone.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Williams, your wife is suffering from advanced kidney failure and requires an immediate transplant to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The floor seemed to drop away beneath Victor\u2019s feet, leaving him dizzy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy didn\u2019t anyone tell me?\u201d he shouted.<\/p>\n
Catherine looked at him with tired, hollow eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cTell you where, Victor?\u201d she asked, her voice barely a whisper.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe phone number you changed? The office where your security guards laughed at me? Or the mansion where your mother threatened to call the police if I ever set foot on the property again?\u201d<\/p>\n
Every sentence was a jagged piece of glass, tearing through his defenses.<\/p>\n
Victor immediately demanded that compatibility tests be run, refusing to leave Catherine\u2019s side even as she weakly protested.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis time I am not going anywhere, and you can hate me all you want, but I am going to save you,\u201d he promised.<\/p>\n
That night, Victor\u2019s assistant arrived with a mountain of legal documents, exposing the depth of the fraud.<\/p>\n
The monthly transfers never went to Catherine; every cent had been routed directly into Maris\u2019s personal offshore accounts.<\/p>\n
Worse, the doctors discovered that someone had been paying for prescriptions that were actually accelerating Catherine\u2019s illness, and the billing address for the pharmacy was traced directly back to Maris.<\/p>\n
Catherine was in complete shock, unable to process the cruelty of the woman she had once called mother-in-law.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, she may have hated me, but she wouldn\u2019t try to kill me,\u201d she whispered, shaking her head.<\/p>\n
At dawn, Maris arrived at the hospital, her hair disheveled and her eyes swollen from weeping.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want this to happen, I just thought I was protecting my son!\u201d she cried, collapsing onto the linoleum floor.<\/p>\n
Victor stood over her, his shadow looming large.<\/p>\n
\u201cProtecting me from what?\u201d he asked, his voice deathly cold.<\/p>\n
Maris pulled a yellowed, folded envelope from her purse.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had proof, Victor, that the girl wasn\u2019t yours,\u201d she claimed, waving the document.<\/p>\n
Catherine struggled to stand up, her face burning with righteous anger.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a complete lie, and I have never once been unfaithful to him!\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor looked at his wife, truly looked at her, and saw the truth he had been too arrogant to see for years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe you,\u201d he said, and he turned to the doctor.<\/p>\n
Dr. Harvey Reed snatched the paper and examined it for a long minute.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis document has no medical signature or authentication, and it is an obvious forgery,\u201d he announced, handing it back with disgust.<\/p>\n
Maris began to shake uncontrollably.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy brother, Leo, gave it to me,\u201d she stammered.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me that Catherine was deceiving us and that their family was cursed with misfortune.\u201d<\/p>\n
Victor narrowed his eyes, his mind working through the implications.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat misfortune?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cMrs. Catherine never wanted a divorce, and your mother was the one who personally threw her onto the street,\u201d Brian confessed, his voice steadying. \u201cAnd that letter you received? She … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amomama-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amomama.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amomama.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amomama.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amomama.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amomama.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/amomama.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2229,"href":"https:\/\/amomama.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224\/revisions\/2229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amomama.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amomama.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amomama.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}