Husband Hired Fake Future Daughter for Divorce; He Cried

On our tenth wedding anniversary, a girl showed up claiming to be my future daughter.

The reason Dad isn't home for your anniversary isn't a business trip. He's off celebrating their illegitimate son's tenth birthday with his first love!

He's a lowlife. You have to divorce him. If you don't, you'll die giving birth to me, and she'll hound me to death for the sake of that first love of his!

I couldn't believe it. Rattled, I reached for my phone to call the police.

But she grabbed my hand and dragged me off to catch them in the act.

My husband stood there shielding his first love and their son, saying it like it was the most natural thing in the world.

"Since you already know, I won't hide it from you anymore."

"I spent the past nine anniversaries with you. From now on, it's her turn, and the boy's."

I fell apart. I made a scene at that birthday party, and then, in tears, I asked for a divorce.

The divorce wasn't pretty.

So my daughter and I could survive, I walked away with almost nothing.

But on the day I got my divorce papers and stepped out of the courthouse,

I saw Keith Morton, freshly remarried, arm around his first love, writing a check for his "daughter."

"Your acting was good. If it weren't for you, she'd never have walked away with nothing on her own."

"Keep it up a while longer. It'll be so much more fun when she finally learns the truth."

I wasn't angry. I only found it funny.

I was a woman in my thirties. How could I possibly believe in time travel?

But between going down with a rotting has-been under bankruptcy and debt, or standing alone and untouched, I knew exactly what to choose...

One:

The person calling herself my daughter "Sarah" dragged me to the front of a villa I didn't recognize.

She didn't take me inside.

Instead, through the glass, she pointed at Keith Morton, the husband who'd claimed he was away on business, and started explaining.

"The woman standing next to him is Athena Hancock, his first love. When he married you, he never actually broke up with her."

"To your face he's the perfect gentleman, but he's spent the whole time keeping you at home while he plays around outside."

"If you don't divorce, on the day you go into labor, Athena will lock you in the house and let you bleed to death. Once you're gone, she marries Keith Morton, nice and clean."

"She acts sweet to me, but the moment I turned eighteen she forced me to marry a doddering old man. I couldn't stand the humiliation, so I ran from home, and that's when I hit the car crash she'd set up!"

"And Keith Morton knew all along, and did nothing. Thank god, thank god I traveled back through time to today..."

"Now do you believe I'm Sarah?"

I nodded. I believed her.

An hour earlier.

I was up at the hilltop villa waiting for Keith Morton to come home so we could celebrate our tenth anniversary, and tell him the good news that I was pregnant. But instead of my husband, all I got was a text saying something had come up at the company and he had to leave on a trip.

Before I could even reply, a woman punched in the door code and appeared in front of me.

She threw her arms around me, crying, calling me Mom.

Through her tears she told me she was the daughter in my belly, that she'd come to save me.

Of course I didn't believe her, but there really was something of me in her face, so I held off on calling the police and told her to prove it. And the way she proved it was to make me see with my own eyes Keith Morton and Athena Hancock throwing a birthday party for their child...

The world spun. Without a second thought I tore my hand free of Sarah's and rushed into the villa.

"Keith Morton!"

"How could you do this to me!"

Keith Morton froze for barely a second before he stepped in front of Athena Hancock and the boy, shielding them both. He had no idea who Sarah was. Instead of admitting anything, he flipped it all back on me and started demanding answers, indignant.

"You've been following me?"

"Trust is the most important thing between a husband and wife. We've been married ten years. How can you suspect me?"

"I only came to celebrate Athena's son's birthday, and here you are, uninvited, telling me I've wronged you?"

I couldn't listen to another word, so I slapped him.

"Drop the act."

"I already know everything. You and Athena Hancock never broke up, and that boy is your love child!"

Keith clutched his cheek, and his expression finally cracked.

"How could you possibly know..."

He trailed off and looked at Sarah, standing beside me.

"No wonder I've felt someone tailing me lately. This is the private investigator you hired, isn't it?"

"Why can't you just live a quiet life at home? Why do you have to destroy the peace I've worked so hard to keep?"

"I'm calling the police right now to have this stalker arrested."

I slapped him again with the back of my hand and threw his phone straight at the wedding portrait of him and Athena Hancock.

"Keith Morton, she is not a stalker. She's my daughter. Our daughter!"

"She and I were both killed by this Athena Hancock. She came back through time this once just to make me see the truth!"

Keith looked like he wanted to laugh but forced it down hard.

"Catherine Powell, are you out of your mind?"

"Time travel? You actually believe that?"

"Why can't you just tell the truth? You hired someone to follow me because you want to break Athena and me apart, don't you?"

"Athena has stayed by my side all these years with no name, no title. She's already suffered enough, and now you're standing here losing your mind, calling her a murderer?"

"When did you turn this unreasonable, this crazy? I don't even recognize you anymore."

Three:

I had never seen anyone twist the blame this shamelessly.

But I couldn't be bothered to explain. I just looked at him.

"If she isn't our daughter, how would I know you have another family out there?"

"This is the paternity test Sarah brought me. If she weren't my daughter, how could the result come back a match?"

"She and I are only about ten years apart. If that's not time travel, then what is it?"

Keith stared at the paternity test report in his hand, dumbstruck.

"This..."

Seeing that Keith had nothing to say, Athena Hancock quickly pulled the boy down to kneel with her before me.

"Catherine, it isn't like that."

"The child was an accident."

"Back then I thought about having an abortion and leaving Keith, but I was too soft-hearted. This was a life, after all."

"I gave birth to him, but I never once thought about taking anything from you. That's why for these ten years I've stayed quiet, always treating myself as if I didn't exist."

"I'm begging you, please, just act like none of this ever happened. Take her and go. From now on we'll keep to ourselves and never cross paths again. All right?"

Keith gently helped Athena Hancock and the boy back to their feet, pain written on his face.

"I don't care how she showed up, but I know exactly what kind of person Athena is. There is no way she would ever do anything to hurt someone."

"So even if she really is our daughter, even if she really did travel back through time, what she says isn't necessarily true."

"Maybe in the future she found out Athena existed, so she pushed the present you into coming here to make a scene!"

That made me laugh.

"What a delicate, helpless, gentle, kind-hearted little mistress you've got!"

"We've been married ten years, and today that boy is turning ten. Is this something a good person would do?"

"Keith Morton, the things you're saying, do you even believe them yourself?"

Those were lies meant to put me off, so of course Keith didn't believe me.

His eyes moved back and forth between me and Athena, as if he couldn't decide which way to go.

Athena said nothing either. She just gave her son a small push, and the boy was clever enough to run forward and wrap his arms around Keith's leg.

"Daddy, you don't want me anymore?"

Keith heard that.

And finally made up his mind.

"Catherine, I admit it. I wronged you."

"But I've been good to you too. You had that miscarriage and never got pregnant again all these years, and I never once blamed you. You can't stop me from keeping my own child!"

"Since you've found out now, I won't have to hide it anymore."

"You'll still be Mrs. Morton, but Athena and the boy will stay with me too. They're moving back into the house, and the two of you had better get along!"

"And you're pregnant now, you need someone to look after you. Athena has experience, she can help the nanny take care of you. Then you'll believe me and see that she's a good person!"

Athena nodded again and again.

"That's right, I know exactly where I stand."

"From now on you're my big sister. When I move in I won't fight you for anything, I'll treat you with respect!"

"Even if not for my sake, think about Keith and the child in your belly. If this blows up, it won't just hurt me, it'll hurt the two of you."

"And once your baby, Sarah, is born, my son will be good to her, I promise."

I was shaking all over with rage, and had no idea what to say.

Sarah, though, braced herself like she was facing an enemy.

"Mom, don't agree to her. I don't know how you found out about them in your last life, or why you agreed to let her into the house, but I'm certain of one thing. Agreeing to that is exactly what got you killed last time."

"You absolutely cannot repeat the same mistake."

Five:

It snapped me back to my senses at once.

I grabbed the cup off the table and hurled it at Keith. He didn't see it coming and didn't dodge, and it caught him full in the head, leaving him bleeding.

"Keith, you cheat, you feel no remorse, and now you want to have it both ways?"

"How can you be this disgusting!"

Athena had been playing so meek, but watching me strike Keith again and again, she finally couldn't hold it in.

"Catherine, can you get a grip on yourself?"

"Going by how long we've been together, Keith and I have known each other longer, and loved each other longer. If it comes down to who was first, then you're the one who came later."

"And from everything today, you can see it too, Keith loves me and our child more!"

"So whether it's first come or true love above all, I'm more fit to be Mrs. Morton than you. Yet I've swallowed my pride this far, what more do you want?"

"Don't forget, my son may be illegitimate, but he's Keith's only son!"

At that.

Athena stepped closer and murmured against my ear, in a voice only the two of us could hear.

"Either you agree to accept me, and from now on we're sisters, neither above the other, or you can wait and see. Wait for the ending this time-traveling daughter of yours predicted."

"To clear every obstacle out of my son's way, there's nothing I won't do!"

Looking at the darkness in Athena's face, I believed Sarah completely.

I didn't raise my hand again. I only let out a sigh.

"Let's divorce."

"I'll give the two of you what you want."

To my surprise, Keith wouldn't agree to a divorce.

"There are still feelings between us. Loving Athena doesn't mean I don't love you. There's no need for a divorce at all!"

"As long as you accept Athena"

I let out a few cold laughs. I had no intention of staying any longer. I took Sarah's hand and turned to leave, but before I went, I left two hard lines behind.

"Either we divorce, or I tell the media everything that happened today."

"We'll all go down together."

But he had no intention of letting me walk away with the shares and assets that were rightfully mine.

When I thought about it, it made sense. His true love was Athena. He'd married me for the business, for the connections I brought, and every year of the last ten had been an act, all of it for money.

I argued my case, ready to drag it to court if that was what it took to get back what belonged to me.

But in the end, Keith produced the villa's security footage.

"If I don't divorce you right now, and instead take this footage to a psychiatric hospital and tell them you're mentally ill and have you committed, how do you think that ends for you?"

On the screen, I was going at Keith like a madwoman, wrecking the birthday party, dragging around a woman barely younger than me and screaming that she was my daughter.

Anyone who watched it would think I'd lost my mind.

And if they locked me in a psychiatric ward, no amount of crying to heaven or clawing at the earth would save me.

With Deidre talking me down,

I understood that being alive mattered more than anything, so I gritted my teeth.

"Fine. I only want my premarital assets. Everything from after the marriage, I won't take a cent."

"That's my bottom line!"

Keith didn't care about the few scraps I'd brought into the marriage, so he agreed to the divorce quickly.

With no property to divide, the paperwork went through fast, and the moment we had our divorce certificate in hand, Keith and Athena went straight off to register their marriage.

The two of them clung to each other and wept, going on about how hardship had finally turned to sweetness.

Athena especially kept holding my hand, thanking me.

"I honestly never thought you'd agree to divorce so easily and just hand a fortune worth hundreds of millions straight to my son."

"Don't worry, if you and your daughter ever can't afford to eat, our door will always be open to you. You'll always be welcome to come work as our housekeeper!"

I didn't say much.

I turned and walked out of the county clerk's office.

7:

But after I'd walked quite a way, I realized Deidre hadn't caught up with me, so I turned back to look for her.

When I found her, she was just taking a check from Keith's hand.

"Thank you, Mr. Morton. Thank you, Mrs. Morton."

Keith and Athena were tickled by that "Mrs. Morton," but they both shook their heads.

"This is what you've earned. Without you, the divorce would never have gone this smoothly."

"But as you can see, this is more than we agreed on, because I want you to keep the act going a while longer. I want to see her break. Only then can it make up for everything Athena has suffered all these years."

"And if she catches on, be sure to record it, audio and video. I really want to see just how hopeless she looks the moment she learns the truth."

I cleared my throat, cutting off whatever the three of them were about to say next.

Their faces flickered with panic.

Keith seemed about to explain something, but Athena stopped him.

Seeing how calm I looked, Athena assumed I hadn't heard what they'd said, so she offered an explanation that only gave the game away.

"Even though you walked off wanting nothing,"

"we still feel for you. We were afraid you couldn't raise this child on your own, so we gave her a check, to help her look after you from now on."

Keith joined in, barely holding back a laugh.

"That's right."

"I find it hard to believe too, but you were right. Deidre is our daughter, after all. I can't stand by and watch the two of you live in such misery."

"Deidre says she probably can't travel back right away, so you and your child can use the time to catch up!"

I only smiled, paying the two of them no mind, and turned to Deidre.

"Deidre, we should go."

"Didn't you promise to come with me for the miscarriage? Any later and it'll be too late."

Keith froze for a second, and once it sank in what I'd said, he was stunned.

"What did you call her?"

"And what did you say you need her to come with you for?"