The Cold Surgeon's Contract Bride novel Chapter 863

A fake? I stared at her, my mind struggling to process the information. "What?" Why would she buy a counterfeit?

"It's a little embarrassing to admit, but I didn't have much of a choice," Lucille said, looking slightly sheepish. "The day Ferris gave me the bag, I took it straight to afternoon tea with my friends. I showed it off, and they were all green with envy. When I gave it back the next day, I couldn't exactly tell them the truth, or I'd never hear the end of their snide remarks. So, I bought a replica. Unless you took it to a boutique for authentication, you couldn't tell the difference. It was good enough for keeping up appearances."

So that was it. I had been completely blind to her social reality. When she had excitedly told me about the gift, I had written her off as vain and materialistic. I had forgotten that she had her own social circles to navigate, circles where a luxury bag was a shield against judgment. It had been years since she had bought herself anything nice. Instead, she had been quietly selling off her old designer bags to keep our family afloat. When Silas needed medical bills paid, she had pawned two bags just to cover the emergency.

And the moment she finally got a new one—an incredibly lavish one, no less—she had flaunted it, only for me to ruthlessly demand she give it back. Under those circumstances, returning the authentic bag and buying a knockoff to save face made perfect sense.

But why had she never told me? I had misunderstood her for so long. My blood would boil every time I saw her with it, convinced she had traded my happiness for leather and hardware. But even as the question formed in my mind, the answer was painfully obvious. I had never given her the chance to explain.

"It was such a trivial thing at first, I didn't think it was worth mentioning," Lucille's weak voice pulled me from my thoughts. "But when I noticed you pulling further and further away, I figured you had gotten the wrong idea. I wanted to clear the air, but by then it was too late. You didn't want to hear anything I had to say."