My name is Emily. I’m a call center agent. My husband, Daniel, doesn’t have a permanent job. Most of the time, he only does side hustles—fixing faucets, carrying loads at the market. Even though we’re poor, I love him because he’s a good father to our child, Benny.
But in the past few months, Daniel changed. Every night at exactly nine o’clock, he would dress Benny and say,
“Ma, we’re just going to the park to get some fresh air.”
They would come back around midnight, the child already asleep, and Daniel would smell of expensive perfume. Sometimes they even brought home costly chocolates or toys—things impossible to buy with what he earned from manual labor.
I began to suspect something.
Did he have a mistress?
Was there some rich benefactor giving him money in exchange for… something I couldn’t even bear to imagine?
One night, I couldn’t hold it in anymore. As soon as they left, I got on a tricycle and followed them from a distance.
To my shock, they didn’t go to the park. They took a taxi (where did Daniel get the fare?!) and stopped in front of a huge gate in Forbes Park. It was a mansion that looked like a palace.
I saw the gate open and Daniel and Benny walk inside. A beautiful woman wearing an elegant dress greeted them. She hugged Daniel and kissed him on the cheek.
My vision went dark.
The audacity! He even brought our child to his mistress’s house!
I got off the tricycle and ran toward the gate.
“Open this!” I shouted at the guard. “I’m taking my husband out of there! You shameless people!”
Because of the noise, the woman came out with Daniel. Daniel was holding Benny.
“Emily?” Daniel called out in shock.
“Daniel! How dare you!” I screamed through my tears. “So that’s why you disappear every night! Your mistress is rich! You even used our child as an excuse!”
I raised my hand to slap the woman when the security guards suddenly blocked me.
“Don’t touch her!” shouted an elderly man who had just stepped out of the door. He looked strict and wealthy.
“Let go of me!” I struggled. “Daniel, come with me! Let’s go home! Even if we’re poor, I thought you were faithful!”
“Emily, calm down,” Daniel said. He walked toward me and held my hand. “She’s not my mistress. She’s my mom.”
I froze. “M-Mom?”
I looked at the woman closely. When you really looked at her, she did resemble Daniel.
“And I am his father,” the old man said. “I am Robert Williams. And your husband… he is the sole heir of our company—Daniel.”
I collapsed onto the pavement. “W-What?”
That was when Daniel—confessed everything.
He was actually an heir who had run away five years ago because he refused to marry a woman he didn’t love. He wanted to prove that he could live without his family’s money. When he met me, he loved me because I accepted him even when he had “nothing.”
“But in the past few months, I found out that Dad is sick,” Daniel explained as he gently held my face. “So Benny and I have been coming here every night. He wanted to meet his grandchild before he… passes away. And they’ve been urging me to return to the company.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I cried.
“Because I was afraid you might see me differently. I was afraid you’d think I deceived you,” he replied.
His mother walked toward me. “My dear, I’m sorry this was kept a secret. But we saw how you fought for your husband tonight. Daniel was right—you truly love him not because of money, but because of who he is. Welcome to the family.”
That night, we didn’t return to our small apartment. We slept in the mansion.
The next morning, I woke up not as the wife of a porter, but as the wife of the CEO of one of the biggest companies in the country.
Daniel stood before me, wearing an expensive suit.
“Are you ready, Mrs. Williams? We have a lot to buy. Let’s start with a new house for my family.”
I hugged him—not because of the wealth, but because at last, there were no more secrets between us.
What I thought was betrayal turned out to be the beginning of our Happily Ever After