The Lies Behind Her Marriage novel Chapter 211

Alternate Account.

The drive to Greyhold was far.

Noelle was with Silas.

‘How did it come to this?’ Noelle wondered. The last thing she wanted was to be in the same space as Silas.

Although the Vanders were helping her, Silas had a remarkable talent for reminding Noelle of her past mistakes.

Earlier, Noelle had five perfectly good vehicle options to hop into, but the soldiers had strict requirements. There had to be at least two bodyguards in each vehicle.

At first, it seemed easy enough.

But then the children refused to separate from Serena. Naturally, Serena’s car filled up first.

Noelle briefly considered riding with the Hartleys, but she barely knew them. Xavier Dorian was also there, but she wasn't very familiar with him either.

The third vehicle was quickly claimed by Alice’s family before Noelle could even approach it.

That left the fourth SUV with Celine and Sterling, but joining one of the most elite couples in the city felt painfully awkward. Noelle barely knew them, and she could already imagine herself sitting the entire ride stiffly, afraid to say the wrong thing.

While Noelle was still weighing her options, the soldier beside the vehicles began closing doors one by one.

And just like that, every seat was taken.

Except one.

Silas’ car.

She supposed riding with Silas was the lesser evil. He would probably remind her, again and again, of what a fool she had been. But maybe that was exactly the slap of reality she needed to wake up from the nightmare she had created for herself.

“You should see this,” Silas suddenly said, giving Noelle his phone.

Noelle accepted his mobile and saw he had opened a profile on social media. It was Gwen Porter’s account.

In Gwen’s latest post, she was hugging a young boy. Her hand was flaunting a new diamond ring. Then she captioned, “I’m with the two people I love the most in my life. It’s the best birthday ever.”

Noelle’s chest tightened.

She didn’t have to guess who that young boy was. Although Gwen only showed his back, the shirt alone was a giveaway. It was a polo shirt Noelle had bought for Benson.

Noelle also noted how one Logan Redford had liked the post.

Immediately, Noelle shoved Silas’s phone back in his hand. Tears welled in her eyes as she stared out the window.

‘So, that’s why Benson did not want to come with me. He wanted to celebrate Gwen's birthday.’

Yesterday, Noelle was trying to bribe her son into coming with her.

She had already set out to leave their marital home and take Benson with her. However, after buying her son his favorite snacks and telling him about her plan to divorce his father, he had screamed at her, “No! I want to be with Aunt Gwen! If you are going to leave Dad, I'm going with him!”

‘Who does that?’ Noelle thought bitterly. ‘How could a child prefer someone else over his own mother?’

When Benson understood her plans, he called his father. That was how Brian arrived at the café to take their son away.

“Did you collect enough evidence of their affair?” Silas asked, pulling her out of her painful thoughts. “You are going to need it.”

“Gwen blocked me,” Noelle reasoned. “And even if she hadn’t, the posts on her public account never showed her and Brian being intimate. It might have alerted me, but there was nothing there that could truly prove their affair. Only this alternative account does."

"Besides," she added. "Gwen had only become bolder in her posts after I had discovered the affair, and Brian's parents no longer came after him."

"I only found this BriWen account after logging into Logan Redford’s account.” She explained further, showing Silas the account. “Logan is Brian’s college best friend.”

“None of your close friends ever noticed this and reported this to you?” Silas asked.

“Honestly? My life revolved around raising Benson and working for HelixPoint,” Noelle admitted. She shook her head faintly. “I lost touch with my friends, especially our high school friends.”

After a pause, she added, “Moreover, not many people even knew Brian and I were married. Even Benson’s teachers had never seen Brian at school.”

“Benson has asthma,” Noelle said quietly. “You have no idea how much effort it takes to raise a child like him. I’ve spent more nights in hospitals than I can count.”

“I had to watch everything he ate, make sure his school environment was safe, check every little thing that might trigger an attack.”

Noelle looked at Silas, and with conviction, she said, “I love my son with everything I have. So you have no idea how hard it is for me to even think about letting him go… just like that.”

“But,” Silas said quietly, “like sand in your hand, the tighter you try to hold on, the faster it slips away.”

Noelle gulped. She looked away and said, “I know that too. I just had to try.”

“But are you done trying?” Silas asked.

Noelle closed her eyes, recalling the video of Benson greeting Gwen. Softly, she answered, “I think I’m done trying.”

But letting go of one’s child is never easy. Noelle would later learn that a mother’s love never truly fades… just not in the way she once believed.