Page 83 of Marrying His Brother

The woman I’m holding in my arms, the one I thought I knew, feels like a stranger in this moment. All this time, she’s been carrying this, hiding it from me.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask her, drawing back to look at her face.

“He didn’t want anyone to know. He made my mother and I promise to keep it a secret,” Emily says.

Lisa taps on her shoulder. “We need to sort out a few things.”

There are practical arrangements to be made and I trail after the three women around the hospital. I’m shocked and frankly desperate to get out of here.

Finally, we leave. Outside, Emily says, “I have to go home with my mother.”

I nod, relief surging through me. Right now, I can’t bear to look at her.

I watch her go, her form disappearing down the hallway with her mother and Lisa by her side, and the relief is almost overwhelming.

The weight of what I’ve just learned presses down on me, suffocating and raw. I need air.

Outside, the cool night air bites against my skin, but it does little to ease the storm inside me. I lean against the car, struggling to process everything she just told me.

Her father, the man she spoke of as if he were traveling the world, was in a coma this whole time. I’d never questioned her stories, never thought to.

Every time she said she was visiting her mother, I’d assumed it was exactly that. But all along, she’d been going to see her father. It makes sense now.

The disappearances, the way Emily would sometimes look as if she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders.

What doesn’t make sense is the lies. Why? Why would you lie to a man you were married to? A man you claimed to love. Hurt wedges itself deep in my chest.

A part of me tries to understand, to make sense of her secrecy. She said her father didn’t want anyone to know, that it was his wish.

But she was my wife, wasn’t she? Shouldn’t that have meant something? Shouldn’t she have trusted me enough to share that part of herself, of her life?

The anger simmering beneath the shock builds. This wasn’t a small omission; it was a lie woven into every interaction, every moment we spent together.

And all those times I’d been there, wanting to support her, to get closer to her, she kept me at arm’s length with a story that wasn’t real.

I shake my head, running a hand through my hair. The realization stings. I don’t know her as well as I thought I did. The truth is I don’t know Emily, at all.

After a few deep breaths, I get into the car and sit there, gripping the steering wheel tightly. I’d wanted a partner who’d be open with me, someone I could trust unconditionally.

And like an idiot, I thought I’d found it with Emily. Intense pain rumbles through me.

Was it all a lie? The pretense at having feelings for me? Memories sear my heart. Us lying in bed after making love. Talking. Opening our hearts to each other.

What had Emily been thinking at the time? Had it all been a game to her? Pain ripples across my chest in waves.

Unable to face the emptiness of home, the place now haunted by every memory I’ve made with Emily, I find myself at the Bennett Developers offices instead.

There’s a faint glow coming from Daniel’s office down the hall, the only light in the building.

I push open his door, and Daniel looks up, surprised. “What are you doing here at this hour?”

I manage a shrug. “Could ask you the same thing.”

He sighs, rubbing his neck. “Trying to finish some work.” He pauses, then adds, “You look like hell, Andrew. What’s going on?”

I step in, my resolve wavering as I take a seat. Daniel’s the last person I’d ever want to open up to, but right now, I don’t think I can hold this in alone. The truth tumbles out, raw and strained.

“Emily’s father is dead.”

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