Chapter 2

2.

"Are you snooping in my desk?"

Helen suddenly appeared at the door. She rushed over and slammed the drawer shut.

She's seventy-five, but she's still elegant. Her hair and clothes are always perfectly styled.

People always said a ragged old man like me didn't deserve her.

She was a beauty in her youth. She and Silas were a famous couple back then.

She was the graceful socialite, and Silas was the refined heir to a wealthy family.

They only broke up because Silas had to move to Chicago for his career.

Her parents set us up on a blind date, and I was the lucky man who caught her. Or so I thought.

"Caleb, what right do you have to touch my things? This is my privacy!"

She frowned, her voice dripping with anger.

I stood there, stunned. My glasses were fogged with tears, making her face look like a blur.

"You've been seeing Silas every month?"

I gripped the back of the chair, my whole body trembling.

She hesitated for a second before shoving me hard.

"You looked at all of them?"

My legs aren't what they used to be. That shove sent me crashing to the floor.

A sharp pain shot through me, and I let out a cry.

Helen looked down at me with nothing but disgust.

"Look at you. You don't even have to speak for people to know you're uncultured and gross."

"It's no wonder you have no boundaries. Rummaging through my personal life like a stray dog."

"You aren't even worth a single hair on Silas's head. He's a gentleman. He respects me."

Every word was a knife to my heart. The pain was unbearable.

"My biggest regret is being with someone like you. If you hadn't had that stable job back then, I wouldn't have looked at you twice."

She glared at me, her words ice-cold.

Usually, we got along fine. She was never affectionate, but she was never cruel.

Today, she finally revealed what was buried deep inside.

She regretted every second of our fifty years together.

But if she hated me that much, why didn't she just leave?

"So you never loved me. You went behind my back to see him and lied about my own daughter?"

I stared at her.

The seventy-five-year-old woman began to merge with the memory of her at twenty-five. On our first date, she wore a beautiful dress and red lipstick.

She had said: "You have a stable job, and I'm not bad-looking. We can make a marriage work."

Helen's eyes flickered with a hint of panic. She gritted her teeth. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Our daughter is yours. Yes, I saw Silas, but it was just to make up for our youth. We promised we'd travel the world together."

"We never did anything inappropriate!"

"Stop slandering me. If I really wanted to be with him, you would have been out of the picture long ago!"

"But I read your notes, Helen."

"We've been married for fifty years. You've lied to me for fifty years."

"You made me raise another man's child!"

I could barely get the words out through the heartbreak.

Slap! She suddenly struck me across the face.

The wrinkles at the corners of her eyes twitched. Her clouded eyes were cold.

"Fine! So what if she's Silas's daughter? What are you going to do about it?"

She was right. I couldn't do much.

I worked like a dog when I was young. I worked construction after retirement. Now at seventy-five, I sweep streets for extra cash.

Every penny went to them. Helen controlled all our savings.

If I left her and our daughter now, I'd have nothing. I could barely walk on my own.

And even if she wasn't mine, I had raised that girl from infancy.

I couldn't imagine leaving her. I couldn't imagine leaving the woman I'd spent fifty years with.

Helen knew that. That's why she was so bold.