"Mr. Bernadi, Laura and I are the rightful husband and wife. So, hurry up and please leave now.”

At our tenth wedding anniversary celebration, my wife’s assistant from the sports college shoved a bright red marriage certificate in my face as he looked at me with disdain.

Everyone turned to me in shock, then looked at Laura, my wife, who was standing arm-in-arm with Doyle Bell.

Doyle swept a proud glance around the room.

"Antonio Bernadi," he said smugly. "Back then, Laura only married you to stop her family from pressuring her to settle down. I was just studying in high school, so she needed someone to act as her temporary husband to buy her time. Now that I’ve made something of myself, it’s time you knew the truth. Laura and I are the ones who truly love each other.”

I stared in disbelief at the marriage certificate, then turned to Laura Savas. “Didn’t you tell me you two were just like siblings. Tell me he’s lying. Tell me this isn’t real.”

However, in a flash, Laura snapped at me brusquely, "What else could I do? You don’t have the looks or the stamina. Is that so wrong that I just wanted good genes for my child?”

——

I did not know how I left the hotel. A moment later, my good friend called. He said, "Antonio, I had your marriage certificate checked … It turns out it’s fake. The official seal was forged.”

I took a deep breath as I tried to keep my voice from shaking when I said, "What about Doyle? Who's listed as his wife?"

My friend answered, "It's Laura. They're legally married."

My hand curled into a tight fist as my body nearly gave out. If there were two illusions in the beginning, they were now destroyed in an instant.

Ten years of what I thought was a perfect affectionate strong marriage turned out to be nothing but a lie.

I threw the fake certificate away and went home. My heart felt numb and defeated.

As I sat on the couch, I cracked open bottles one after another and chugged down the wine.

I couldn’t wrap my head around it. The girl who once treated me like her whole world … how could she change so completely? Probably she actually never changed. Maybe all she did was just a performance.

All those years ago, I was so determined and stubbornly went against my parents' wishes. I even cut ties with them just to marry into the Savas Family. Now I finally saw that … it was all part of her plan.

All the confusion and suspicion in the past finally made sense.

On the day of the wedding, Laura insisted that we stay child-free until the company had stable.

However, once her business settled down, she “adopted” a poor student and sponsored him all the way through college.

After he graduated, instead of letting him become a fitness trainer, she bent the rules and made him her executive assistant.

Then, to help him gain credibility for Doyle Bell, she even transferred the sales deals I brought in under his name.

All he had to do was chat and keep Laura company, then somehow, he became the company’s top performer, the so-called “golden boy.”

When Laura got home that night, I was already sitting on the floor in a drunk state and teary-eyed.

She gently knelt and assisted me to get up with a guilty expression. A strong smell of cologne clung to her body.

She got me water, wiped my face delicately, helped me drink water and patted my back gently.

For a moment, it felt like I was back to ten years ago, to the time we were truly in love.

Back then, I had just secured my position in the Bernadi Family’s business and even pulled off a miracle of three consecutive jumps in the stock market.

However, the Savas Family’s finances had collapsed and they were almost bankrupt. Her father was so devastated and ended up in the hospital.

Laura clung to me while sobbing, "Antonio, what am I going to do? What should I do?”

Without hesitation, I resigned and joined the Savas Family's company. I proposed to her and, at her father’s insistence, agreed to marry into the Savas Family.

My father was furious and threatened to sever the father-son relationship as long as I joined the Savas Family and he would never allow me to return to the Bernadi Family.

I did not resute him, since by doing so, I would step legally into the Savas Group and save it.

Back then, I truly believed our twenty-plus years as childhood sweethearts meant something to Laura and I was so sure she must feel the same happiness.

However, looking back … it could be she figured I was the one who took advantage of her while she was down.

For years, I worked myself to the bone for the Savas Group. I was out late every night schmoozing clients and drank so much that I had three bleeding ulcers in a month. My blood pressure and cholesterol were already out of control even though I was still in my thirties.

Back then, she held me the same way. Laura would cradle me in her arms. She was crying as she wiped my face and fed me water, while gently patting my back to comfort me.

She sobbed while saying how sorry she was for dragging me into her mess.

I hugged her tightly and told her I would save the Savas Group no matter what. I had to make sure she would once again stand proudly as the heiress of the Savas Group.

Laura held me close and kissed my forehead over and over again then said, "Antonio, please stop. Don't make this harder than it already is. I didn’t have a choice.”

“Just look at the state your body’s in now. Even if we had a child, how could you raise them? How could they ever be healthy enough to take over and build the Savas Group?”

My eyes were directed at Laura. They were filled with heartache as I said, "Ask yourself the reason my body became like this. Don’t pretend you don’t know why. Do you really think I want to be this way?"

"Laura, please … just send Doyle go, okay? I promise I'll start taking care of myself right away. We’re still young. We can still have a healthy baby.”

She stiffened. There was a long pause before her next words stabbed me like ice-cold blades.

"Doyle is very handsome. Since I want my children to be good-looking, you don't fit the criteria,” she said.

The fog in my mind cleared in an instant and I asked to make sure, "Are you telling me that you don't like my face, Laura? Why didn't you say so before we got married?"

I slammed my fist hard on the marble table. It was so hard the marble's surface cracked like shattered glass.

Meanwhile the sound of drip … drip sounded steadily as blood fell from my hand.

Perhaps Laura had never seen me this angry before because she gasped and slumped on the ground while covering the bump in her lower abdomen.

My eyes lasered toward the hands that guarding her stomach. Then a hollow laugh rang out from my chest.

Laura opened her mouth as she tried to explain when someone rushed in and then a fist smashed my face.

"Bastard! How dare you handle my woman so roughly. Do you want to die?"

Before I could react, he kicked me hard, knocked me over, then straddled me and started raining punches down like a madman.

I heard Laura's panicked voice rang out, "Doyle! Stop! Please stop! You'll kill him!"

A moment later, Doyle finally stopped and spat a mouthful of spit onto my face.

He sneered, “You’re nothing but a dog the Savas Family fed. You were only fed a few good meals and you forgot what you are.”

“A worthless loser. Ugly as hell. You got no balls and you dare give Laura an attitude? If we hadn’t kept you around, you’d still be out there wagging your tail for scraps!” Doyle mocked.

Laura immediately stepped in. "Alright .... Stop it."

She turned to Doyle. “Doyle, my stomach hurts. We should go to the hospital.”

Doyle immediately panicked. In an anxious tone, "Laura, what's wrong? Which part of your stomach hurts? Is the baby alright?"

Then with a firmness, he said, “I’ll take you to the hospital right now. Don’t worry.”

Doyle scooped Laura up into his arms, then they left the living room in quick steps. They never looked back, not even once.

I stayed motionless for a long time while gasping for breath. Then I dragged myself up to the coffee table, grabbed my phone and dialed for an ambulance.

At the hospital, after a round of tests, they told me I had two broken ribs, a severely injured left eye and one of my teeth had been knocked out.

I was lying in the hospital bed and staring up at the sterile white ceiling as I thought everything over. After a long silence, I picked up my phone and called the police.

It did not take ten minutes before Laura stormed in. Her face flushed with rage. Doyle trailed behind her while trying to calm her down.

"Don't get to work up, Laura. Don't you remember you're pregnant?" He added, "Don't appeal to him for me. I’ll go to jail if I have to. If he dares hurt you again, I’ll beat him worse than before.”

Laura's eyes bulged with rage and snapped, "Antonio, how could you be so vile? Do you have to ruin Doyle's life so you can feel better!"

“He only hit you a few times! He was just worried about me, okay? How could you call the police?” she demanded.

“Withdraw the report. Now. If word gets out and it ruins Doyle's reputation, I swear I won’t let you off easy," she threatened.

I stared coldly at Laura, who was fuming with rage. From the moment she walked in, not once did she ask how I was doing. My head was wrapped in thick bandages and she didn’t show even a sliver of concern. All she cared about was how this incident might tarnish her little boyfriend’s reputation.

It seemed she had never truly loved me. A wave of cold sorrow washed over me.

Well, just the ten years of love and hard work as if I had been blind before and thought I fed a dog.

"Laura, what gives you the right to ask me to drop the charges? Who are you to me? Why should I listen to you?” I asked with a low ice cold. I looked at her with a sharp gaze.

My wife, Laura, betrayed her husband and conspired with her boy toy to beat me into the hospital and yet she still had the nerve to demand things from me.

Laura looked stunned. She stayed silent for a while before flying into a rage.

“Antonio, how could you say that? We’ve been married for ten years and you’re seriously asking me who I am to you? Do you even have a heart?” she asked.

I let out a cold laugh. So she did remember we had been married for ten years.

“Then tell me … what are you to me? My wife?” I asked.

Laura paused. She looked annoyed.

Finally, she said, "I already explained everything to you. I did this because I want a good-looking healthy child. Why can’t you try to understand? Why do you always have to be so petty and unforgiving?"

"Oh, so explain this to me," I continued. "What’s the deal with the marriage certificate?"

Laura's face twisted with discomfort. She retorted, “Why are you still hung up on that? I've told you, haven't I? It was for the child. Why can't you understand?"

"Are you saying my children have to endure being called as a bastard behind their back? What about Doyle, he is still young. Should he be called a third party, the homewrecker? Wasn't giving them legal status the right thing to do?" 

I closed my eyes as I tried to suppress the wave of pain and bitterness that threatened to drown me. She had told everyone we were child-free by choice and I played along. I even went as far as getting a vasectomy just to support her. To silence the gossip, I claimed I was infertile. I let the world think I was the problem.

 No one said anything to my face, but behind my back, they all mocked me for being a weak, emasculated joke. I became the husband who lives off his wife.

It was true in the past few years since the Savas Group managed to get through its crisis and flourish. Everyone started treating me with disdain, acting like I was just a nobody who was marrying Laura for her money and status.

However apparently, Doyle still cared about his appearance, but I had no pride left to protect.

"Laura, are you saying I was your mistress?" I asked and looked at her eyes. My eyes filled with heartbreak and disbelief. I had loved her for twenty years. And now, I was nothing but a clown in her play.

Laura stayed silent, then finally said coldly, "Antonio, I haven’t treated you badly. You’re the Vice President of Savas Group. I let you use the Savas Family name in high society. Haven’t I given you enough?"

“I’m the heir of the Savas Family, a woman with my own mind. If I want to have a child, why should I need your permission?” she declared.

Suddenly, I guffawed. Of course. Why would she need to ask me anything? Who am I to her, really?

Everything I did was just me making a fool of myself and being a self-serving bitch.

"Get out," I said through clenched teeth. "You disgust me, Laura. Get as far away from me as possible. I don’t want to see your face ever again."

Laura's face went white like a ghost. She whispered, "Antonio … how could you say that to me?"

Doyle exploded with rage. He slapped me hard across the head and it sent a jolt of pain through my skull.

“Who the hell are you calling disgusting?” he exclaimed. "If you dare insult Laura again, I’ll beat you to death.”

He pulled me off the hospital bed and once I was down, he started kicking me like a madman.

He was one point eighty-five meters high and graduated from a physical education school. So, when I tried to fight back, he kicked me square in the chest. I flew backward, slammed into the wall, then crumpled to the floor in a heap.

Doyle charged at me again, but just then, the door slammed open.

"Stop!" a loud voice roared. Several police officers stormed into the hospital room.

Ten minutes later, I sat in the police station, covered in bruises and drenched in cold sweat.

Beside me, Laura was frantically trying to smooth things over. She told the police, “It’s all just a misunderstanding, Officer. We’re … we’re family.”