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Dumped by My Cheating Fiancé, Married to His Cousin
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I was pregnant. The baby wasn't Frederick's. I was staring at the test results, trying to figure out how to explain this to him—when I turned and there he was, walking Felicity Fox out of the obstet...
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第1章
I was pregnant. The baby wasn't Frederick's.
I was staring at the test results, trying to figure out how to explain this to him—when I turned and there he was, walking Felicity Fox out of the obstetrics department.
Our eyes met. Guilt flashed across his face and he looked away.
「Felicity's pregnant. I told her she could keep it.」
「Your baby—go handle that.」
I blinked once, and then I was nodding, relief flooding through me.
A year later, I brought my baby to the hospital for a checkup and ran into Frederick and Felicity again.
He stared at the child in my arms with open disgust.
「You went behind my back and had it?!」
「Even if you did, I'll never claim that kid!」
……
My period was over half a month late before I finally caved and bought a home test.
Two lines on the stick, and the air locked in my chest.
I didn't hesitate. I grabbed my keys, got in the car, and drove straight to the hospital.
Thirty minutes later I was standing in the corridor holding a positive HCG report and an ultrasound—five weeks along.
I wanted to scream.
I was actually pregnant.
One night. One single night, and I was pregnant.
I gripped the report, tilted my head back, and let out a long breath.
This baby wasn't Frederick's.
How was I supposed to explain this to him?
Get rid of it in secret?
No.
The doctor had just told me my health was poor.
If I went through with an abortion now, I might never be able to conceive again.
I wanted to keep this baby.
Then what? Have it in secret?
If I never told him, Frederick would never know.
I was still arguing with myself, both sides screaming, when I looked up—
And saw Frederick walking out of the obstetrics specialist clinic with Felicity Fox on his arm.
Our eyes met.
The instant he saw me, guilt flickered across his face.
He looked away.
His voice was flat.
「Felicity's pregnant. I told her she could keep it.」
His gaze dropped to the report in my hand.
「Your baby—go handle that.」
Shock. Disbelief. And then it clicked.
Three seconds. That was all it took.
I nodded.
One word.
「Okay.」
More than okay, actually.
This way, I could keep my baby out in the open with no questions asked.
I drove home and tossed the test results onto the coffee table.
Antonia spotted them while she was tidying up.
Her voice shot up with excitement.
「Miss Sullivan, you're pregnant?!」
「This is wonderful! You and Mr. Sanchez can get married right away!」
She couldn't hide the joy on her face, grinning so wide it nearly reached her ears.
She knew how I felt about Frederick.
Had always known. It was the kind of love that had been there so long it felt like something I was born with.
We'd grown up together, Frederick and I. Our families were longtime family friends, the kind where everyone just assumed the two of us would end up married. It was never a question—it was a fact, the way holidays and birthdays were facts.
I'd believed it too.
For as long as I could remember, I'd been in love with Frederick Sanchez.
He was handsome, brilliant, amazing on the basketball court.
I'd been chasing after him since we were kids.
But Frederick had never seemed to feel the same way about me.
To him, I was more like a little sister.
Then high school happened, and Frederick fell hard for the first time.
Felicity Fox—prettiest girl in school.
They started dating openly, skipping class together, making no effort to hide it.
Frederick even got her name tattooed on his arm.
The whole thing blew up big enough to reach his father.
Valentine Sanchez tracked Felicity down, paid her off, and shipped her abroad.
Frederick never forgave him for it. Four full years of ice. He went through all of college without speaking a single word to his father.
第2章
After college, Frederick was placed in the Sanchez family's company.
And just like that, our engagement became official.
The moment we were engaged, I threw myself into being the perfect fiancée.
Every day I was in the kitchen, poring over recipes.
They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.
I had zero talent for it.
The things I made weren't just bad. They were barely edible.
I nearly blew up the kitchen.
Frederick came home from work that evening to a smoke-filled kitchen and me sitting in the wreckage, hair a mess, face streaked with grease.
He crouched down and ruffled my hair, all warmth.
「Silly. I'm not marrying you so you can be my chef.」
I pouted, feeling sorry for myself.
「But I can't do anything right.」
I still remember exactly what he said next.
He said, 「If you could do everything, what would you need me for?」
We were together after that.
Really, truly together—meals at the same table, falling asleep in the same bed, wandering through shops on weekends, catching movies with our fingers laced.
Like any of a million couples who believed they were in love.
I thought he'd finally fallen for me.
Then Felicity came back.
And everything reset to zero.
First Frederick stopped coming home on time.
Then came the lipstick on his collar.
It took exactly one week.
After that, Felicity sent me a photo of the two of them together.
I cried. I fought. I fell apart over it.
I grabbed Frederick by the collar and demanded to know why.
Weren't we fine?
Why did everything change the second Felicity came back?
He frowned and pushed me aside.
「Gwendolen, what are you throwing a fit about? Felicity's just a high school classmate.」
Right. Just a high school classmate.
A high school classmate who became his personal secretary the moment she returned.
A high school classmate who only had to call once, and no matter what he was doing, he'd drop everything and go.
The day I was hospitalized with pneumonia, I called him. I just wanted him there.
His voice was flat, distant. 「I'm not a doctor, Gwendolen. Me showing up isn't going to cure you.」
「Stop acting like a child. I'm busy with work.」
But that same night, I saw it on Felicity's page—the two of them at a candlelit dinner, her caption reading: 【All those detours, and it was always you.】
I screamed until my throat burned.
I called Valentine in tears, sobbing out every accusation against Frederick.
Before, whenever I went to his father, Frederick would show up. Valentine would make sure of it.
He always came.
But this time, after I hung up the phone,
the person who walked through my hospital door wasn't Frederick. It was Herman Sanchez, Frederick's cousin.
He wore a light blue button-down and loose jeans, an easy half-smile on his face. Nothing like Frederick at all.
Frederick's closet held exactly two colors: black and white.
He said it was practical. Easy to match.
Anything else was too loud, not his style.
I stared at Herman for a long time.
Long enough that he had to snap his fingers in front of my face to bring me back.
「Uncle Valentine said you were scared, so he sent me to keep you company.」
He propped his chin on one hand and tilted his head, watching me.
「Tell me what's got you so frightened. I'm right here.」
That night, Herman stayed with me until morning.
All the way through to my discharge.
He drove me home.
And the first thing I saw when I walked through the door was Felicity padding barefoot out of the master bedroom in Frederick's shirt.
I pointed straight at her, half out of my mind, and demanded Frederick answer me.
「Why is she in our home?」
「Why is she wearing your clothes?」
「Why is she coming out of our bedroom?」
第3章
「Frederick Sanchez, I was in the hospital three days with pneumonia. You told me you were too busy with work to come see me—and this is what busy looks like?」
Felicity's eyes went red instantly, her lower lip caught between her teeth, the picture of wounded innocence.
「Gwen, it's not what you think!」
She started to explain, but Frederick cut her off.
「Why bother explaining anything to her? She's a pampered princess who's never worked a day in her life. What would she know?」
I stared at Frederick in disbelief.
It wasn't that I'd never wanted to work.
But Frederick had said he earned enough for both of us. All I had to do was look pretty and wait for him to come home every day.
Funny. Back then it was "I'll take care of you."
Now it had become "you're someone I have to take care of."
Did I need him to support me?
Was my family short on money?
I ran out of there like I'd lost my mind, and found Herman still parked outside.
I didn't think. I climbed into his car.
Who made the first move that night, I can't remember anymore.
All I remember is the rush of revenge filling my head.
And Herman asking me, over and over, right against my ear.
「Gwendolen, do you know who I am? Do you really know who I am?」
I held him tighter.
My voice, all silk and heat.
I said, 「I know. You're Herman. You're his cousin.」
「You're big brother~」
The second that word came out, Herman went at me like a man possessed, harder, rougher.
That night, I blacked out more than once.
When I woke, no one was beside me. The room was empty.
I climbed out of bed on shaking legs, got dressed, and slipped out.
We were both adults. I knew what his absence meant.
And I figured he knew what mine meant too.
Just drunken recklessness. Nothing more.
God would forgive me, I thought.
The strange thing was this:
After that night, I stopped clinging to Frederick the way I used to.
Our anniversary, he ditched me to be with Felicity. I didn't care.
Stormy night, he stayed over at her place. It didn't matter.
Even when Felicity sent me photos of the two of them together, I felt nothing.
I was still working out how to bring up ending the engagement with Frederick.
Then I found out I was pregnant.
I took the test results back from Antonia, folded the paper, and tucked it into the drawer.
I said, 「Antonia, I'm going to break things off with Frederick.」
「Why?」 Antonia looked completely lost.
「Miss, aren't you two about to get married?」
Yes. The wedding was set for early October.
Four months away.
Both families had been planning it for a long time already.
But now, my mind was made up.
I was ending things with Frederick.
While I was still talking, the front door opened.
Antonia went out to look and froze.
「Mr.—Mr. Sanchez, you're home?」
Her gaze drifted to the person standing beside Frederick.
Felicity.
Frederick said, 「Antonia, Miss Fox will be living here from now on. She's pregnant, so make sure you take good care of her.」
Antonia's face went rigid.
She turned to look at me, still in the master bedroom packing my things.
「But—Miss Sullivan, she……」
「Gwendolen already knows.」
I had just finished packing. I walked out of the bedroom pulling my suitcase behind me.
Frederick saw that I was already packed, and for a split second, he looked caught off guard.
「Where do you think you're going?」
I said, 「Making room for you two.」
「Gwendolen!」
Frederick grabbed my wrist. 「Cut it out! I'm just letting her have the baby—you're still Mrs. Sanchez. That doesn't change.」
「Everyone in our circle's got a few kids on the side. Who doesn't?」
第4章
I turned to Felicity. 「He loves you so much, and he still won't even give you his name!」
The color drained from Felicity's face. She grabbed Frederick's sleeve, looking wounded.
「Frederick, my baby can't be illegitimate.」
Frederick glared at me. 「Her baby won't be illegitimate. Once we're married, the kid goes under your name. You tell everyone you're the one who gave birth to it.」
「Why the hell would I do that?」
「Gwendolen! Do you still want to marry me or not?!」
「No!」
I shoved Frederick aside and walked out.
The penthouse was his.
After our engagement, I'd all but thrown myself at his doorstep to move in. Pathetic, looking back.
I moved back to my own place.
I lay on the couch, both hands resting over my stomach. Five weeks. Barely anything, and already mine.
Could he accept being born without a father?
Wait. I sat up straight.
If I had this baby in the country, Frederick would find out.
With his resources, getting rid of the child would be nothing to him.
No. I had to leave.
I started packing.
Frederick sent me two messages.
The first: If you won't claim Felicity's baby, we're done.
The second: And remember to go get that abortion!
I didn't reply.
Once I finished packing, I booked the earliest flight I could find.
I didn't care where it went. I just needed to be gone.
The plane landed in France.
I bought a small house there and hired a Chinese housekeeper to take care of my daily needs.
During that time, Frederick sent me countless messages.
Telling me to stop being dramatic and come home.
He said Valentine had found out about Felicity and ordered her to get an abortion.
He said Valentine had thrown him out of the Sanchez estate, and now he and Felicity were renting a place together, barely scraping by.
He said, Gwendolen, how can you be so heartless? Felicity's pregnant and alone, and all I asked was for you to raise one child. Why can't you just agree?
After that last one, I blocked Frederick on his messenger and didn't look back.
Out of sight, out of mind.
The baby was developing well. Nine months later, I gave birth to a healthy boy in France.
I named him Cyril Sullivan.
The moment the baby was born, I came home.
France was beautiful, sure, but nowhere felt as easy as my own city.
I never expected that when I took Cyril in for a checkup,
I'd run into Frederick and Felicity right outside the pediatric wing.
Frederick saw the baby in my arms.
His face twisted with contempt.
「Gwendolen, you actually hid this from me and had the baby!」
「And even if you did, I'm not claiming him!」
I gave him a flat look. 「Frederick, who said this child is yours?」