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Marriage by Betrayal

After her grandmother’s passing, Audrey White trusts Hunter Jones to be her partner. They seemingly register their marriage, but the illusion shatters when Hunter’s colleague, Sarah, shares a photo of her own legal union with him. Audrey discovers that Hunter faked their wedding to fulfill a deathbed promise while dedicating his heart to another woman. When Hunter attempts to fix his scheme by tricking her again, Audrey chooses to walk away, leaving him with a final, cutting wedding gift.
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Chapter 2

Biased

"Ms. White, you can come by and pick it up tomorrow."

I handed my grandmother's ashes over to the staff at the diamond institute because I planned to have them made into diamonds to wear with me.

When I got home, I was startled by a sudden bark from a dog.

"Sorry, my puppy is a bit shy around strangers," Sarah said as she came out of the room in a silk nightgown.

Hunter quickly came over to take my hand when he saw my face fall. "We were tied up with work until very late last night, so I let her sleep in the guest room for the night."

I scoffed, my mind recalling Sarah's post. "You two were quite busy, indeed."

Hunter raised his voice, clearly stung by my rebuke. "Audrey, what are you getting at?"

I shook off his hand and went upstairs. Before he closed the door, I heard him comforting Sarah in whispers. "She's been behaving strangely lately. Just ignore her."

The room was filled with my grandmother's things. I took a deep breath, trying to soothe my emotions. Still, my tears refused to stop.

The door to the room swung open just as I was going through my grandmother's belongings. Sarah was standing there and looking at me with a mocking smile.

"Audrey, Hunter doesn't love you anymore."

"Let him come and tell me himself, then. I promise I will never bother him after that."

Sarah's smirk froze on her face.

"Just you wait!" she hissed.

However, I didn't want to waste my breath on her. I was just about to tell her to leave when I smelled a foul odor.

I quickly saw that her puppy was jumping into the bed and peeing on my grandmother's portrait. So, I immediately pulled it away and wiped it with a tissue.

"Oh, no! My baby!" Sarah screamed, hugging the dog with tender pity.

"Audrey, how dare you bully my baby!" Her face twisted in anger as she kicked my grandmother's clothes out of the bag to the ground and stomped on them hard.

I gave her a sharp slap in a fit of rage, causing her to stagger from the blow. Then, I slammed her against the wall.

"Sarah, I'll kill you if you dare touch my Grandma's things again."

Suddenly, someone grabbed my arm and threw me heavily to the ground. My head slammed against the nightstand with a thud.

"Audrey, what the hell is wrong with you?" scolded Hunter while hugging Sarah tenderly. As she showed her swollen cheeks, she expressed her grievance, sobbing loudly. "I just wanted to come and help, but… Since Audrey doesn't like me, I'll leave and won't get in her way."

Hunter's face darkened as he listened to her words. "Audrey, what exactly is your problem? Sarah was just trying to help."

I held up the urine-soaked portrait of my grandmother in front of him. "Tell me, which part looked like she was trying to help? Was it the part where she let her dog pee on Grandma's portrait? Or was it the part where she stepped on Grandma's clothes and got them dirty?"

Hunter guiltily looked away.

"It's just a photo. I'll ask her to print another one for you. There's no need to make a scene."

I looked at him with disappointment. That was when my heart stopped beating for him.

It was one thing for him not to love me romantically, but my grandmother had treated him like her own grandson for years and even saved his life. Yet, he had the audacity to allow another woman to trample on my grandmother's things!