Waking Up From Lies

I was not expecting to pick the wrong man to marry even after I had a chance to redo my life.

In my previous life, I chose to marry James Howard, my then fiance.

But he cheated on me with Verde Sala, a fake heiress, for three years. They even had a child together.

For her sake, he broke my legs so that I would hand over my role as the principal dancer to her.

This time, I chose to marry Elwood Howard, James’s uncle.

I thought that this meant that I had escaped my fate and could fulfill my dreams, but on the day the principal dancer was supposed to be picked, I got into an accident again.

After learning about this, Elwood sent Verde to jail, even if it meant offending all of the powerful people in the city.

I was touched and thought that I had made the right choice in this life.

That lasted for five years until I heard Elwood’s conversation with our son.

“Dad, Verde said that you only married Mom so that you could provide a letter of forgiveness as the victim’s family.

“Since Verde is out, could you divorce Mom? I want Verde to be my mother.”

Upon hearing that, Elwood remembered my trust in him and shook his head. “No. I’ve betrayed your mother by destroying the evidence and giving Verde a new identity to avoid being indicted, so I’m going to make it up to her for the rest of her life.

“She will always be my wife. Don’t ever say such things to your mother and make her sad.”

The pain from before could not compare to the pain in my heart at that moment.

Our marriage was just a scheme to protect Verde?

Elwood only loved Verde? And my son was the same?

If that was the case, I did not want Elwood anymore.

Nor my son.

“Why? You love Verde too! Not only is she pretty and can dance, she doesn’t try to control me, unlike that woman. She also wouldn’t make me feel ashamed in front of my classmates,” Cain Howard, my son, said in disappointment.

My heart hurt so much that I could not breathe upon hearing him outside the study.

When I was not in front of him, he refused to even call me his mother.

After a long pause, Elwood rubbed the ring on his finger and sighed. “Your mother loves us. I betrayed her because of Verde, so the only thing I can do now is to give her an unbroken family.”

Cain’s young voice was laced with puzzlement. “What if she finds out about it?”

“She won’t,” Elwood said firmly. “I’ll keep it a closely-guarded secret. Even if she suspects something, for our family’s sake, she will choose to believe in me.”

The pain in my heart made me tremble. I wanted to run away, but I ended up going into the room Elwood forbade me from entering.

There was nothing strange about the room. Just when I thought that perhaps my ears had played a trick on me, I saw a few property agreement documents on the table. The benefactor was Verde.

Over the years, I thought that she was in prison, but Elwood had actually sponsored her participation in various dance competitions abroad.

When I saw how full of spirit Verde was in the photos, I could not breathe due to the pain in my heart.

The photos had dates along with some words on the other side.

[Dates worthy of remembering should be spent with a person worthy of my companionship.]

It was at this moment that I came to a realization. When Elwood and Cain disappeared mysteriously for several days every month, they were actually spending time with Verde.

On her birthday, they went to Disneyland and hugged her under the fireworks to celebrate her birthday.

On their anniversary, my own son happily referred to her as his mother under the aurora and wished that they could become a real family in another lifetime.

My eyes stung, but I found myself unable to cry.

To think that I still ended up falling in love with the wrong person even when I had the chance to redo my life.

Since I was a child, my parents treated me like a tool and never gave me the warmth of a family. That was why I always wanted to have my own family.

In my previous life, I was tricked by the gentle facade James, my then fiance, put on, and he killed me along with Verde.

At that time, Elwood bawled like a baby in front of my grave and even destroyed James’s company for me, which made me think that he loved me.

Hence, in my current life, I chose him. But to think that I ended up jumping into another trap.

I lived in the lie he created, and I felt thankful to him! I thought that he was my savior!

But the family he gave me was a fake one.

I’ve known Elwood for two lifetimes and had been married to him for five years, but it was time to end it.