My Perfect Husband’s Perfect Lie

“Chloe.”

My heart sank at the name.

Not long ago, a package addressed to "Chloe" had arrived at our house. Inside was a limited-edition set from Victoria’s Secret.

I asked Liam about it. He didn’t even glance at it. He just tossed the package in the trash, his face perfectly calm.

“It’s either a mistake or some influencer trying to get attention. Forget it.”

The truth I couldn't see then was staring me in the face now.

I looked at Chloe, my voice like ice.

“You’d better wait for Liam. Let him tell you himself who the two people standing in front of you are.”

Chloe’s face grew dark.

“You conniving bitch! I knew you were after my husband. You even know his name!”

Only then did Mary finally understand. This was her son’s spa.

And the husband Chloe was talking about was Liam.

But she still couldn’t believe it.

“Miss... you must be mistaken,” Mary stammered. “I'm Liam's mother. My son... he would never be with someone like you. He can't be your 'darling'.”

SMACK!

The word was barely out of her mouth before Chloe slapped Mary hard across the face.

“You old hag! A country bumpkin like you, trying to pass yourself off as my man’s mother? You wish.”

She shoved Mary hard.

Mary wasn't ready. She stumbled backward.

“Mary!” I lunged forward to catch her.

“So this is your little game, huh?” Chloe sneered down at us. “Play the victim, claim you’re related, and then try to sue?”

Mary was coughing violently in my arms.

I saw her breathing become ragged. Her face went pale as she clutched her chest in pain.

“Mary, what’s wrong?”

Seeing her in such agony, my heart plummeted.

After we married, I’d found the best cardiologist to treat Mary’s heart condition. But the doctor’s warning echoed in my head: any severe emotional distress could trigger a fatal heart attack.

I immediately started digging through her purse.

The little bottle of life-saving nitroglycerin was in there.

“Found it!” I had just pulled out the small pill bottle.

Chloe snatched it from my hand.

“What’s this? Some new kind of drug?” She held up the bottle, a mocking smile on her face. “Faking an illness now? You even brought props?”

“That’s not a prop!” I screamed. “That’s her medicine! She’s having a heart attack!”

The crowd started murmuring again.

“These scammers are so convincing these days.”

“They even brought medicine.”

“Be careful, Miss Chloe. Don’t fall for it.”

Mary’s breathing was getting shallower.

Her face was turning from white to a deathly gray. Her hands gripped my arm.

I remembered years ago, when Liam was trying to win me over. He stood outside my family’s villa in the Hamptons for a whole weekend in a rainstorm.

That persistence won me over.

It won over my father, too.

That’s why, after we married, I brought him into the family business. I turned him from a broke nobody into a Wall Street elite.

Now I wondered. Was that all an act, too?

“Please!” I knelt on the floor in front of Chloe. “She’s really going to die! Please give me back the medicine!”

Chloe looked down at me on my knees, a sick pleasure in her eyes.

“Staff, hold her down,” she commanded. “Stop this pathetic act.”

Several employees rushed over.

I fought with all my might, trying to get that life-saving bottle back.

But they were too strong.

They pinned me to the floor. I couldn’t move.

Mary’s breathing was getting fainter.

Her lips were starting to turn blue.

“She really is Liam’s mother!” I shrieked in desperation. “She has a heart condition! She’ll die without her medicine!”