My Ex-Convict Beggar Husband Is Now a Trillionaire

Chapter 5

Adrian held the phone against his ear, and when he spoke, his voice was calm. Too calm for a man who had seen what he had seen today.

"I told you, Chloe. I was going to see my mother. You sent me the hospital address yourself."

There was a short silence on the other end. Then Chloe let out a small sound, like the memory had just come back to her from somewhere far away.

"Oh. Right. Yes, I forgot about that." Her tone shifted, softer now but still flat, like she was asking about the weather. "So how is she? How is your mother doing?"

Adrian's grip tightened on the phone. Something hot and heavy settled in his chest.

"Have you been to the hospital, Chloe? Even once in three years? She is your mother in law. Did you ever walk through those doors and check on her?"

The silence that followed was longer this time. He could almost hear her searching for the right words, the right excuse, the right way to make it sound like it was not as bad as it was.

"I have been really busy with work, Adrian. You know how things are. I barely had time for myself, let alone hospital visits."

Adrian pulled the phone away from his ear and stared at it for a second. Then he looked at Sarah, who was sitting beside him in the back seat with her hands folded neatly on her lap.

"Turn the car around. Take me to this address." He gave Sarah the address of the apartment he and Chloe had shared before prison. The place he once called home.

Sarah nodded to the driver without a single question, and the car turned smoothly in the opposite direction.

Twenty minutes later, Adrian stood in front of the apartment door. It looked the same. Same paint, same doormat, same number on the wall. But nothing about it felt like his anymore.

He opened the door and stepped inside.

The first thing he saw was the dining table. Two plates of food, two glasses of wine, and two people sitting across from each other like it was the most natural thing in the world. Chloe was in a white blouse with her hair down, and Julian was leaning back in his chair with his sleeves rolled up, looking like he owned the place. They were laughing about something, easy and comfortable, the way people laugh when they have been doing this for a long time.

The laughter stopped the moment they saw him.

Chloe recovered first. She picked up her glass and took a sip like nothing was wrong.

"You're back? How's Mom doing?"

Adrian did not answer. His eyes moved from Chloe to Julian and stayed there.

"Why is he here?"

Julian put on a wounded expression immediately, like someone had just insulted him at a dinner party. He pushed his chair back and raised both hands.

"Am I in the way here? I'll leave right now. Today is your first day out of prison, Adrian. I shouldn't be intruding on you two. I completely understand."

He started to stand, but Chloe put her hand on his arm and pulled him back down.

"Sit down, Julian." She turned to Adrian, and her face had that look he remembered so well. The look that said he was the problem. "Three years in prison and you still haven't learned how to communicate like a normal person? Julian is staying here because the pipes at his house are broken. He had nowhere else to go. Is that really so hard to understand?"

Adrian felt the words land on him like stones, one after another.

"A hotel. He could stay at a hotel. There are hundreds in this city."

"Julian isn't used to staying in hotels. He doesn't sleep well in unfamiliar places. I wasn't going to let him suffer just because you have a problem with it."

Adrian looked at her. Really looked at her. The woman he had gone to prison for. The woman who promised to take care of his mother. The woman who was now sitting at his table, drinking wine with the man she had sent him to rot for. And she was still making excuses. Still choosing Julian. Still looking at Adrian like he was the one being unreasonable.

He laughed. Not a happy laugh. The kind that comes out when something inside you finally breaks clean in half and you can hear the snap.

Chloe's expression hardened. She set her glass down with a sharp click against the table.

"What is so funny? I thought three years would teach you how to behave. I thought you would come out a better man. But you are still the same disappointment you always were."

Adrian reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, and opened Julian's social media page. He turned the screen toward Chloe, showing her the proposal photo. Julian on one knee. Chloe with tears of joy. The ring. The caption. All of it.

"Why should I be polite to a cheating woman and her lover?"

The color drained from Chloe's face so fast it was like watching someone pull a plug. She stared at the screen, and for the first time since he had walked through the door, she had nothing to say.

Then she turned to Julian, and her voice dropped to a whisper, tight and furious.

"I told you not to post that. I told you to wait. Why did you put it up?"

Julian shrugged with that boyish look he always wore when he wanted to get out of trouble. His eyes went soft and round, and his lower lip pushed out just slightly.

"I was excited, Chloe. I just proposed to the woman I love. Can you blame me for wanting to share that with the world?"

Chloe closed her eyes and took a breath. Then she turned back to Adrian, and the mask was already going back on. Calm. Controlled. Reasonable.

"It's not what you think. Julian's family has been forcing him into an arranged marriage with a woman he doesn't love. The only way to get out of it was to show that he's already committed to someone else. That's why he asked me to do a fake marriage with him. It's temporary. Once he sorts out the situation with his family, we will get a divorce and everything will go back to normal."

Adrian tilted his head slightly. One word caught in his ear like a fishhook.

"Divorce?"

Chloe's mouth stayed open but no more words came out. The realization of what she had just said hit her a full second too late, and he watched it happen in real time. Her eyes widened. Her lips pressed together. Her fingers curled around the edge of the table.

Across from her, Julian leaned forward. A small, sly glint moved through his eyes, quick as a shadow, and then it was gone. He looked at Adrian with an expression of pure innocence, his head tilted to one side like a confused child.

"The marriage certificate you and Chloe had before was fake." He paused, letting the words settle into the room like smoke. "Didn't you know that, Adrian?"