Even Melissa looked frozen in place.
Only Tucker burst into delighted laughter, utterly unaware of the tension in the room.
“Yay! Then we can use the money saved on a housekeeper to buy lots of toys! I want the new drifting go-kart! And the realistic sniper rifle! And—”
“Tucker, stop talking nonsense!” Chris snapped, though disbelief still lingered in his eyes.
Then, he turned back to me and asked, “Nadine, you really do not mind?”
I looked at Matty sleeping on the bed, guilt squeezing painfully in my chest. His toys during his childhood had been nothing but mud and pebbles along the roadside.
The toys Tucker casually listed were ones Matty probably did not even know existed.
“I don’t mind,” I said, swallowing the bitterness rising in my throat.
Then, more evenly, I added, “You said the school is going to check the deed and the household records to make sure both kids can enroll, right? Chris… let’s just get a divorce. You can go ahead and marry Melissa.”
When I married him, his family had been so poor they could not even afford a bride price.
A wedding ceremony was not even an option.
Outside this village, no one even knew I was his wife.