The Lies Behind Her Marriage novel Chapter 199

Never In Line.

“Tell Sterling, I want to talk to him!”

“I want answers!”

“I want to know!”

Melvin’s screams echoed in the narrow cell of Fort Calder Military Correctional Facility — a place designed not to break bones, but to break minds.

“Tell him! I want answers!”

Melvin had been locked up in isolation for three days after he went head-to-head with Victor Kline.

Nathaniel Thorne truly was calculated, putting him in a prison cell together with Victor. From what Melvin had heard, his wife, Jean, was in the same cell as Vanessa Holt in the women’s wing.

Melvin had also met Mathew Holt, and whatever passed between them wasn’t pleasant.

They blamed each other — attacked each other, not just with words but with fists.

Mathew blamed Victor for lying about Serena’s identity.

Victor blamed Mathew and his wife for not taking care of Serena’s best friend.

And as for Melvin? Of course, he blamed Victor for telling on him!

After screaming for hours from within his isolation, Melvin retreated to the floor, curling down to hug his knees.

It had been more than a week since his arrest. The last words Sterling had said to him still lingered in his head.

‘You were never a Vander.’

Melvin never got the answer that day.

Sterling did not give him the satisfaction, and that was why, ever since he had been locked up in the most secure military prison in the country, he had been begging for the truth.

Following his solitary confinement, Melvin was subjected to relentless interrogations — sleepless nights, blinding lights, the same questions asked over and over until his voice turned hoarse.

He gave them names.

Every single one.

Only to discover they had known all along.

The soldier had merely said, “We just wanted it to come out of your own mouth.”

It was cruel and unnecessary torture.

***

“How is prison treating you?” Sterling asked.

It was already Melvin's second week in prison when Sterling finally came.

Not as a brother.

But as a man who had been wronged.

There was no warmth in his voice. Sterling wanted to see his suffering.

Melvin forced himself to lift his head.

The movement felt heavier than it should have.

His eyes felt heavy from the lack of sleep.

“Father believed you deserved a chance to become something decent, and to some degree, you did become part of our family,” Sterling said flatly.

“Still, it was hard to accept. That was what he told me. Even I—” Sterling continued. “After I learned the truth, I distanced myself from you for a while, but I decided it wasn’t your fault. It was your mother’s.”

"I treated you like a brother, and decided not to make you feel guilty about the truth behind your DNA."

But just as Sterling said that, his jaws tightened. "Who would have known I would regret it one day? Our biggest mistake was to show you mercy and let you carry our name when you weren’t truly our flesh and blood.”

Sterling gave Melvin another envelope.

“This is information about your biological father. His name is Albert Hernandez. He was your mother’s fitness coach. You were one of his three children. Your mother, Minerva, was one of his benefactors.”

“Here are more DNA tests I had done myself,” Sterling said, giving him additional envelopes.

Melvin saw how Sterling had secretly compared his DNA to his own and to that of Albert Hernandez.

“If you don’t believe any of these tests, you can ask your daughter, Julia, to verify this. Your father, Albert, is still alive and owns a gym in downtown Rexam,” Sterling proposed.

Julia had stayed out of his schemes, but Melvin knew Sterling was fully aware of the bitterness she carried toward their wealth.

If they had recorded his every step, then that meant they had caught his daughter talking enviously about Serena.

“I came to make one thing clear," Sterling said firmly." Melvin, you weren’t denied because you were less loved. You were given more than you ever had a right to.”

“Everything you had — your name, your education, your inheritance — was mercy.”

“And you repaid it with betrayal.”

“You hated me for being favored,” Sterling said. “But there was never competition, Melvin.”

“You were never in line.”