Chapter 25
So, Liliana was just a decoration Cedric brought home to appease the Forrests?
That was even harder to accept than the affair itself.
Her face was ashen. She bit her lip so hard she could taste blood, her eyes turning red. In just a few short days, her entire world had been turned upside down.
The man she thought was merely a cold but devoted husband not only didn't love her but was also having an affair. And now, she learned he had married her for ulterior motives.
Beyond her firm resolve to get a divorce, a bitter sense of injustice began to fester. After a long while, her emotions finally settled.
"I can't choose the family I was born into, but I have the right to choose my marriage. I will not stay in a marriage without love."
Cedric had made her use birth control, which meant he never wanted her to have his child. When the time was right, he would likely divorce her and marry Sylvia.
By then, Liliana would be older, having wasted even more of her youth, and her situation would be even more difficult.
Even if it was as Juniper said that Cedric planned to keep Sylvia as a mistress for life while she remained Mrs. Forrest-she still wouldn't stay.
As the young mistress of the Forrest family, she would eventually be expected to produce an heir. Not even Cedric could change that. She refused to let her child grow up in a loveless home as she had, with a father who treated his mother as an accessory, to be summoned or dismissed at will.
"Alright then. In that case, I've got a plan to catch them in the act—" Juniper launched into the scheme she had been devising all night.
Liliana cut her off. "Junie, I don't want to catch them. I just want a divorce."
In a doomed relationship, the worst thing you could do was prolong the entanglement. She wouldn't be catching them in an affair; she would be catching herself—a desperate, pathetic version of herself trapped in a failing marriage.
"But if you just divorce him like this, will he even give you a settlement? Without money, your father will just
force you into her marriage! Juniper said, frantic. "I'm not saying we expose them, just that weget some evidence to use as leverage for a better settlement."
"If he doesn't plan on giving me anything, no amount of leverage will work against him."
After two years of marriage, Liliana knew Cedric all too well. He wasn't a man who could be easily threatened.
If he wanted to be fair, he would be. If he didn't, he had a hundred ways to counter her, and she'd only succeed in making an enemy of him.
"If Jerk Forrest had any decency, would he have done this in the first place?" Juniper muttered under her breath.
Liliana rubbed her tired face, pushing the chaotic thoughts away. She managed a weak smile for her friend. "You've been up all night because of me. Go get some sleep. I'm sorry to have burdened you with my problems again."
"Don't be ridiculous," Juniper said, thumping her chest. "My life is a cakewalk. No one dares to mess with me, so I'm always looking for a good crisis to unleash my temper on. From now on, you tell me whenever you have a problem..."
Juniper's loyalty was unwavering. Liliana was deeply touched, vowing to remember this kindness and hoping that one day she would be in a position to repay her. To do that, she had to become stronger. Only then could she possibly help Juniper.
Only then could she hold her head high in front of Cedric again.
Though they would have nothing to do with each other after the divorce, and she had no desire to see himè again, she still dreamed of making a name for herself in the design world. At the very least, she wanted to.
show or that ist as she could
become a housewife for his sake, she could also thrive without him.
Her professional ambitions were now tangled with the pain he had caused her, leaving her mind in a constant state of turmoil.
Thinking of the anonymous number, she guessed it was Sylvia. She probably even knew Liliana was Cedric's wife. That would explain why she had so brazenly tidied his clothes and planted her lingerie in his bed right in front of Liliana.