After 99 Forgiveness, I Faked My Death and Vanished

### Chapter 1

I forgave my cheating husband ninety-nine times.

Until the hundredth betrayal arrived on a video, at the party for our fifth wedding anniversary: Randolph Farley in a bar, knotting a cherry stem with a stripper, a B-list starlet, their mouths locked together for a solid half hour.

Every guest in the room turned to watch the show, waiting for me to fall apart the way I always had, to break down sobbing and beg Randolph to come back to me.

I just cut the cake myself, calm and quiet.

After the party emptied out, six months pregnant, I went to see Kieran Farley and set a fake marriage certificate gently on the table in front of him. "Grandpa Farley, the ten-year agreement is finished. It's time for me to go."

He froze. "Mel, but you're carrying his child. Won't you reconsider?"

He couldn't believe it. The woman in front of him, who had loved his grandson so deeply she'd once have taken a knife for him, was actually leaving.

I looked down, stroking the swell of my belly, and gave a bitter smile. "I'll keep your great-grandchild, but the baby will have nothing to do with Randolph Farley."

From eighteen to twenty-eight, Randolph had taken up almost my whole life.

In our circles we were famous as conjoined twins, and every step of his climb to the top of the Farley Group carried my shadow. He even named a new company after me.

I'd believed those happy days would last until our hair turned white. Then I got pregnant, and everything changed.

Hostesses, lingerie models, little starlets. The women he slept with became trophies he and his buddies bragged about, while my screaming, my crying, my begging, time after time, became the joke.

Until the ninety-ninth time. The pain in my stomach was unbearable and I called Randolph; the call connected by accident. His hoarse breathing came through, followed by a snicker.

"You're still the best. Once she got pregnant she ballooned up like a pig. Just thinking about her makes me sick."

In that moment, the tears simply dried up. My heart felt like it had stopped swinging, and I couldn't even feel the pain anymore.

Since spilled water can't be gathered back, since the love was dead, I chose to keep the baby and set him free.

So why, after I left, did he kneel in front of the whole world and beg me to come back?

……

That afternoon, Randolph had still been kneeling on the bedroom carpet, kissing my belly, making promises to our child.

"Baby, Daddy's going to give you everything, the best of everything, all the love for you and your mommy."

His devout expression fooled me into thinking he had really changed.

But that man's betrayal was like the weather. One second later, it turned.

At the party, I stood alone in the middle of the crowded hall, clinking glasses all around me, facing the malice whispered from every direction.

"Has Melanie Hughes gone stupid from rage? Standing there, not moving a muscle. Every time she catches her husband cheating, doesn't she always carry on like a fishwife, crying and screaming?"

"Right, that last little starlet nearly made her miscarry in the middle of the street. She had to kneel and beg her husband before he'd come home."

"This time Mr. Farley didn't even show up for his own anniversary. Proves he stopped caring about her long ago. That's why she's faking calm, just trying to save a little face."

I didn't argue back.

I wasn't faking calm. I was just tired.

Ninety-nine forgivenesses had used up all my love and cried out all my tears. The exhaustion seeped from my bones, until even breathing felt heavy.

Outside the window, fireworks burst open, the sky ablaze with color, gone in an instant. So much like our ten years.

After the party ended, I set that fake marriage certificate down in front of Kieran Farley.

The old man was trembling all over, and on that always cold, stern face surfaced a grief I had never seen before.

He grabbed my hand, grinding the words out through his teeth. "Mel, it's that little brat who wronged you. It's our Farley family that owes you!"

I cradled my belly, my voice very soft.

"Grandpa Farley, I'm so grateful to you. When my parents died in that accident, you took me in, put me through college, gave me a way to keep living. So I agreed to stand at his side and support him for ten years."

"Randolph never knew our marriage was only a contract. But I really did fall in love with him. I thought I could spend this whole life with him as his wife."

I paused. Something seemed to clog my throat, and I forced the words out.

"But after I got pregnant, he started finding women outside. Once, twice... I gave him ninety-nine chances."

"Now, I'm letting go."

The old man's tears streamed down. "If you've made up your mind, then I'll support you."

He called in his lawyer and signed a thick stack of documents through the night.

"These deeds, these shares, are the compensation you've earned after all these hard years."

"This is a family trust fund for my great-grandchild, so he'll never want for anything his whole life."

He pushed the heavy stack of papers toward me, his hoarse voice full of aching tenderness. "Don't you worry. Your grandfather will never let you or the child suffer a single wrong."

My nose stung and my eyes went red.

Randolph and I had truly loved each other once, too.

As the heir to the Farley empire the old man valued most, he had given up every bad habit of a rich young playboy for me.

He turned down his buddies' invitations to go out and party, and studied through the business school courses at my side. After graduation we joined the Farleys together, often working shoulder to shoulder until dawn.

The day he took the seat as CEO of the Farleys, the first thing he did was marry me, and he gave me the biggest surprise of all: a new company named after me.

He said he hoped our love would be like the Farleys, long-lasting, brilliant, complete.

It wasn't even five years before that perfect love shattered.

Randolph didn't come home until the small hours.

In the dark, the mattress dipped, and a pair of hands wrapped around me from behind, settling over my belly, stroking it gently.

He kissed my hair, his tone carrying a satisfied little laugh. "I'm glad you didn't make a scene tonight. You finally look like the lady of the Farley house, Mel. I hope you keep it up."

The smell of liquor on him mixed with the cloying sweetness of cheap perfume, and my stomach churned.

I kept my eyes shut tight and didn't answer.

Randolph, the reason I'm not making a scene isn't that I've grown sensible. It's that I no longer care.

Randolph got up to shower, and the phone screen on the pillow lit up.

It was Lily White, the stripper.

At the top of the screen was a photo she'd sent earlier, in black lingerie, posed to entice.

Below it was their conversation.

"I just realized one of the condoms broke. What if I got pregnant?"

"It's not that easy," Randolph replied.

After a while, he added more.

"But if you really are, it's not like you can't have it. She didn't cry tonight, so maybe she could even accept my illegitimate kid."