Chapter 3

Karly Chandler POV:

Diana called me back later that day, her voice carefully modulated. "Karly, I found it," she said, cutting straight to the chase. "The property in question. It's still in Jackie Reid's name."

A cold certainty settled over me. "And the mortgage?"

"Still active," Diana confirmed. "And here's the kicker. Jerrold Brown is listed as a co-signer. He's not just paying it; he's legally tied to it."

My stomach clenched. A co-signer. Not just a generous ex-husband, but a legal obligation. He had been tied to his past life, financially and emotionally, the entire time he was with me. The implications were immense, heavy.

"What about the initial down payment?" I asked, a new, unsettling thought forming. "Do you have any records of that?"

"Hold on," Diana said, a pause on the line before she continued. "Hmm, this is interesting. A significant lump sum payment was made right when the house was purchased, about eight years ago. Before you two even met, Karly."

Eight years ago. Before our marriage, before Leo. A large sum. It meant he had put his own money, his own assets, into securing Jackie's home. A home he no longer lived in, a home he was still paying for, while I struggled to make ends meet in our rented house. The irony was a bitter pill.

"Karly, are you listening?" Diana's voice broke through my thoughts, tinged with concern. "This is a big deal. Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I lied, my voice tight. "Just... processing." Rejecting her offer to come over, I ended the call quickly. I needed to be alone with this new information.

The cumulative financial contribution. It was astronomical. Not just the $150,000 in monthly payments, but this initial lump sum. How much was it? How much of his wealth had he poured into that past life, all while telling me he was a modest, struggling IT worker?

I let out a hysterical laugh, a sound that was more a gasp than anything. All these years, I had scoffed at my well-meaning friends who suggested Jerrold was still hung up on his ex. I had defended him, rationalized his "guilt." What a fool I had been.

Looking at Jerrold now, every word he spoke seemed tainted. Every gesture, suspect. He wasn't just a dishonest husband; he was a master manipulator, weaving an intricate web of lies that ensnared not just me, but his entire family. He had built his new life on a foundation of deceit.

My phone rang, pulling me from my dark thoughts. It was Jerrold. I almost didn't answer, but something made me. Maybe I wanted to hear his lies again, just to confirm the emptiness.

"Karly? Where are you? Are you coming home?" His voice was laced with a forced casualness.

"I'm with Diana," I said, deciding to use that to my advantage. "Why?"

"Oh, no reason," he said, too quickly. "Just... my parents are coming over. For dinner. They want to check in on things."

My blood ran cold. His parents. The enablers. The co-conspirators in this grand deception. "They're coming over tonight?" I asked, my voice flat.

"Yes, I just told them earlier. They're worried about us." His voice was trying to sound concerned, but it just sounded fake.

"Do they know about your 'obligation' to Jackie, Jerrold?" I asked, my voice cutting him off, sharp and precise.

A beat of silence. "Karly, we talked about this. Yes, they know."

"And what do they think about it?" I pressed, needing to hear it from him, needing him to admit their complicity. "Do they think it's 'honorable' to lie to your wife and child for five years?"

He sighed. "They think... they think it's complicated. They think I'm doing the right thing by taking responsibility for my past."

"Responsibility?" I scoffed, the word a poison on my tongue. "You calling it responsibility is laughable. Do they know how much you initially put into that house, Jerrold? Do they know you covered the down payment too?"

Another pause. A longer one this time. "They... they knew I helped out," he mumbled, his voice tight.

"Helped out?" I laughed, a harsh, brittle sound. "You funded the entire thing! You sank your own money into Jackie's house, not just the mortgage, but the initial purchase. And they thought that was 'honorable'?" My voice was rising now, incredulous. "That's not making things right. That's financial abuse of your current family."

"Karly, you don't understand the full situation," he began, trying to sound authoritative.

"Oh, I understand perfectly," I retorted, cutting him off again. "I understand that you cheated on Jackie, and instead of taking full, honest responsibility, you decided to lie to your new wife and child for half a decade to pay off your guilt. And your parents enabled every single bit of it."

His silence was a fresh betrayal. The fact that his family, his own flesh and blood, had known and condoned this elaborate charade, infuriated me beyond words. It wasn't just Jerrold; it was a systemic deception.

"You know what the real reason for your divorce from Jackie was, don't you, Jerrold?" I asked, a sudden coldness in my voice. The pieces of the puzzle were finally clicking into place, forming a picture of betrayal far deeper than I had initially imagined.

He gasped, a sharp, involuntary sound. "What are you talking about?"

"You cheated on her, didn't you?" I stated, not asked, my voice cold and hard. "You had an affair. That's why she left you. That's why you felt so 'obligated' to pay her mortgage."

The line went dead silent. Too much silence. The kind of silence that confirms everything. A sudden wave of nausea washed over me. All this time, he had claimed she left him because she "fell out of love," because of "irreconcilable differences." A lie. Another lie.

"Karly? Hello? What are you saying?" His voice was a strained whisper, filled with panic.

"Is it true, Jerrold?" I demanded, my voice shaking now, not with anger but with a profound, heart-wrenching shock. "Did you cheat on her? Was that the real reason for your divorce?"

He stammered, "No, Karly, not... not exactly. It wasn't like that. I had... a close relationship with someone else. Emotionally."

"Emotionally?" I laughed, a tear escaping the corner of my eye. "You call that 'emotionally'? You gaslighted me for five years about her, and now you're trying to minimize your own infidelity?"

"It wasn't physical!" he insisted, his voice rising, a pathetic attempt at justification. "I never physically cheated."

"You said she left you because she didn't love you," I continued, ignoring his protests. "You let me believe you were the victim. All while you were the one who broke your vows. You started a relationship with someone else, then you lied to me about it for years. You' re a liar, Jerrold. A serial liar."

"Karly, I was going to tell you," he pleaded, his voice cracking. "I just... I didn't want to hurt you. I've changed."

"Tell me everything, Jerrold," I said, my voice dangerously calm now. "Every single hidden truth. Every lie. Right now, on this phone, before your parents arrive."

He began to speak, his voice a torrent of desperate explanations and half-truths, but I stopped listening. The sound of his parents' car pulling into the driveway, the familiar crunch of tires on gravel, was all I needed to hear.

"Don't worry about dinner tonight, Jerrold," I said, cutting him off mid-sentence. "I won't be there. And your parents? They can cook their own damn meal."

I hung up, severing the connection. The weight of his deceit, coupled with his family's complicity, had finally solidified my resolve. There was no going back from this. No fixing it. There was only moving forward, away from him and his intricate web of lies. My mind was clear, my path, painfully, brutally clear.