Chapter 3

03

Garrett turned to the surrounding parents with an apologetic bow.

"Please excuse her, everyone. She's our live-in nanny. She suffers from severe mental delusions."

He turned his eyes on me, his gaze laden with a dark warning.

"Faye, if you keep making a scene, don't blame me for firing you on the spot."

Rochelle's expression softened into smug superiority. "Oh, so she's that unhinged nanny."

"She certainly has some nerve, daring to steal my son's academy spot. God knows what else she's been stealing from our home."

"We should call the police and have her locked up immediately."

Other parents chimed in with venomous agreement.

"Call the cops! Keeping someone like that around children is dangerous."

"Look at how she's dressed today. She clearly came here to seduce Mr. Cole."

Garrett sighed with fabricated benevolence.

"I took pity on her because she was a single mother and gave her a roof over her head. I never expected her greed to get this out of hand."

"Faye, consider yourself dismissed. Don't bother showing up tomorrow."

A barrage of insults rained down upon me. Staring at Garrett's callous face, my chest ached with suffocating pain.

Garrett and I were childhood sweethearts. The year he got into college, his parents died in a tragic accident, leaving behind crushing debts that forced him to drop out.

Knowing the value of a degree, I dropped out myself and worked multiple jobs to fund his entire college education.

When he started his business after graduation, we squeezed into a damp basement apartment.

To win him clients, I shed my shy nature, put on tight dresses, and endured disgusting business dinners, drinking until I threw up night after night.

Back then, Garrett held me with tears in his eyes, swearing he would cherish me for the rest of his life.

He believed Rochelle was the sole heiress to the Mercer family fortune. What he didn't know was that my recent trip out of town was to reunite with my biological parents.

I was the true Mercer heiress.

I reached into my handbag and pulled out our official marriage certificate.

"Garrett, lie all you want, but I am your lawful wife registered by the state."

"You used our marital assets to fund your mistress and raise a bastard child. Expect my lawsuit."

"I will make sure you walk away with nothing."

The crowd began to murmur in confusion as they saw the red document in my hands.

"She actually has a marriage license? Is she the real wife?"

"If that's true, then Mr. Cole is absolute scum."

Garrett showed no panic whatsoever. Instead, he let out a cold chuckle.

"Faye, you really are sick in the head. Did you think forging a fake certificate would make you my wife?"

He turned to the academy administrator. "May I borrow your computer and the main projector?"

Within seconds, a state registry document flashed onto the giant screen.

My eyes widened in pure disbelief as a tremor ran through my entire body.

The government marriage database displayed on the screen confirmed that Garrett had legally registered his marriage to Rochelle years ago.