My Husband Lied About My Pregnancy to Adopt His Illegitimate Child

Jacob thought I had wavered.

He started packing up my things with excitement, saying we were going to visit the child.

I hesitated but didn’t refuse.

I needed to know the truth.

Jacob had always treated me so well, so how could he betray me?

He drove me to a residential complex, one of the newest and most expensive developments in the city. Only those with money could afford to live here.

When the door opened, a woman stood there.

She looked just like the one in the photo—charming, alluring.

The way she looked at Jacob was undeniable.

I had seen that look in Jacob’s eyes countless times before.

It was the gaze of someone in love.

Asher was indeed a well-behaved child.

The moment he saw Jacob, his eyes lit up with unrestrained joy.

Before he could say anything, Jacob cleared his throat and coughed lightly.

"Asher, I came to see you. Have you been listening to your mommy lately?"

Asher reluctantly called him "Mr. Jacob" but shot me a wary, almost hostile glance.

Stepping inside, I took in my surroundings, my unease growing with every glance.

The décor was eerily familiar.

It was almost identical to our home.

Jacob’s favorite style.

I could no longer lie to myself.

Without my knowledge, my husband had built another home outside of ours.

How ironic.

Asher was clearly comfortable around Jacob.

The way they played together carried an unmistakable sense of closeness.

I reached down and touched my stomach.

This was supposed to be my child.

But now, everything that should have been mine had become someone else’s.

"You must be Miss Powell. Mr. Barrett really loves children!"

Sophia Reynolds smiled at me, her eyes filled with blatant provocation.

She was challenging me, determined to take her place beside Jacob.

Even on the way home, I couldn’t snap out of it.

The entire drive, Jacob wouldn’t stop talking about that child.

"Evelyn, that boy is really adorable. And he’s from a single-parent household. If we adopt him, it wouldn’t be any different from having our own. Why don’t we just adopt him?

"He’s already at this age. As long as we treat him well, it won’t be long before he forgets his birth mother."

Worried that I might be upset, Jacob lowered his voice.

"If we haven’t lost our first child, he’d be about this age now."

At the mention of our first child, something inside me stirred.

Back then, Jacob had just started his business, and I was helping him in every way I could.

I was young, unaware of my pregnancy, mistaking all the symptoms for simple illness.

Because of my carelessness and exhaustion, I lost the baby.

I looked down at the document in my hand.

That child would have been five years old this year.

If my first child had survived, he would indeed be that age now.

My grip on the paper tightened involuntarily.

While I was drowning in the pain of losing our baby, Jacob had fathered another child with someone else.

For all I knew, at the very moment I was grieving, he had been celebrating the birth of another child.

The memory of how he played so intimately with that boy just moments ago only made my heart ache.

By the time Jacob brought up the topic for the nth time, I couldn’t hold back anymore.

"Enough! I will never agree to adopting that child. Get that idea out of your head."

Jacob was startled by my sudden outburst.

For a moment, he was stunned, but then he quickly smiled.

"Alright, if you don’t want to, then forget it."