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You Never Saw Me
Novelix
Completed
"I’d been married to Ethan Cole for three years, and he still hadn’t told anyone. “Workplace relationships get complicated,” he always said. “I’ll make it public when the timing’s right.” Then, on the day I went into labor, my water broke while I was home alone. My parents were out of town. I was in so much pain I could barely stand, so I tried to video-call Ethan, who was at a company retreat. Victoria Shaw, the woman he’d once loved, answered with a smile. “Who is this? You’ve called more than ten times tonight. Are you his girlfriend or something?” I breathed through a contraction and spoke quietly. “Ethan, I think the baby’s coming. Can you come home and take me to the hospital?” On-screen, Ethan glanced at Victoria. “Don’t make things up, Chloe. Everyone from work is here. You’re just our receptionist. There’s nothing between us.” “I already approved your maternity leave. You can come back after the baby’s born. The company won’t fire you.” My face burned. I hung up and called 911. After I was discharged, I went to stay with my parents. Ethan came after me and praised me in front of my mother. “I’ve been buried in a project lately, so I haven’t been able to take care of Chloe. She’s so understanding. She went through labor without bothering me at all.” My mother gave him a cutting smile. “That’s right. My daughter is very considerate. She hates being a burden.” “That’s why the baby doesn’t have your last name.”"
Chapters (3)
第1章
I’d been married to Ethan Cole for three years, and he still hadn’t told anyone.
“Workplace relationships get complicated,” he always said. “I’ll make it public when the timing’s right.”
Then, on the day I went into labor, my water broke while I was home alone.
My parents were out of town. I was in so much pain I could barely stand, so I tried to video-call Ethan, who was at a company retreat.
Victoria Shaw, the woman he’d once loved, answered with a smile.
“Who is this? You’ve called more than ten times tonight. Are you his girlfriend or something?”
I breathed through a contraction and spoke quietly. “Ethan, I think the baby’s coming. Can you come home and take me to the hospital?”
On-screen, Ethan glanced at Victoria.
“Don’t make things up, Chloe. Everyone from work is here. You’re just our receptionist. There’s nothing between us.”
“I already approved your maternity leave. You can come back after the baby’s born. The company won’t fire you.”
My face burned. I hung up and called 911.
After I was discharged, I went to stay with my parents.
Ethan came after me and praised me in front of my mother.
“I’ve been buried in a project lately, so I haven’t been able to take care of Chloe. She’s so understanding. She went through labor without bothering me at all.”
My mother gave him a cutting smile.
“That’s right. My daughter is very considerate. She hates being a burden.”
“That’s why the baby doesn’t have your last name.”
…
For three years, whenever Ethan introduced me, he called me one thing.
“Our receptionist.”
I’d been about to take his arm. When I heard him, I quietly pulled my hand back.
I even called him Mr. Cole along with everyone else.
His coworkers tried to set him up with women, and he never said he was married.
When people asked whether my boss had a girlfriend, I shook my head too.
“I have no idea.”
When we first got married, Ethan told me that a CEO dating someone who reported directly to him had to be disclosed. He’d also need to change the reporting structure.
“If we go public now, people will think I’m giving you special treatment. It’ll affect the whole team.”
I agreed to keep our marriage private for a while.
Three years passed. I never got promoted. My bonus was the same as every other receptionist’s.
There was always something more important in Ethan’s life: funding, the IPO, a new project.
The day he’d promised to tell people kept getting pushed back.
At home, though, he treated me well.
Whenever I tried on a dress, I’d say it looked bad before anyone else could.
He’d cup my face.
“Who says that? My wife’s the most beautiful woman in the room.”
If I woke him in the middle of the night because my stomach hurt, I always apologized first.
He’d carry me downstairs and say, “I’m your husband. You’re not a burden for asking me for help.”
Little by little, I started believing I deserved to be loved.
When I was eight months pregnant, Ethan rubbed my belly and promised, “I’ll tell everyone before your maternity leave starts.”
“We can’t have the baby here while you’re still telling people his dad’s out of town.”
I asked him twice, “You mean it?”
He smiled and kissed me. “I do.”
I bought a box of wedding favors to bring to work.
For the first time, I wore my wedding ring to the office without hiding my hand.
A week later, Victoria came back from abroad.
She’d dated Ethan in college. She was also the girl next door who’d bullied me as a child.
When I wore a new dress, she’d ask in front of everyone, “Chloe, your waist is so wide. Why would you wear pink?”
After that, I stopped wearing dresses.
When our school chose students to host an assembly, Victoria imitated the way I stuttered when I was nervous. The whole class laughed.
The next day, I quit and gave her my spot.
She went on to become the school’s star host. I graduated without ever managing to finish a sentence at the front of a classroom.
Now she had a degree from an elite university, an impressive international résumé, and a vice president’s title at Ethan’s company.
Ethan picked her up from the airport himself. He carried her luggage and draped his coat over her shoulders.
The first thing Victoria said when she reached the reception desk was, “Chloe, after all these years, you still look down when you get nervous?”
My cheeks burned.
Ethan laughed. “She’s always been like that.”
They sounded like the ones who knew each other best.
At lunch, Victoria sat beside the reception desk and flipped casually through my delivery log.
“The smallest team I managed overseas had projects worth eight figures.”
“You’re still signing for packages?”
She smiled as if she were being kind.
“It’s fine, I guess. No thinking required. No responsibility. It suits you.”
A coworker praised her.
Victoria waved it off. “It’s nothing. Ethan asked me to come back several times before I finally agreed.”
“He said he wouldn’t trust anyone else with this project.”
She raised her coffee.
“It’s been six years, and he still remembers I take half-sweet.”
Then she looked at the wedding ring on Ethan’s hand.
“You’re married? You never told me who Mrs. Cole is.”
Her gaze shifted to my hand.
“Oh. Chloe’s ring looks like a match for yours.”
第2章
My heart started pounding.
The wedding favors were in my desk drawer. All Ethan had to do was acknowledge me, and I could hand them out.
But Victoria laughed first.
“Wait. Is Chloe Mrs. Cole?”
“Then I should apologize for asking her to get me water.”
Someone from admin joined in.
“Come on, Victoria. The boss’s wife wouldn’t sit at reception signing for packages.”
“Chloe can barely use the printer. Why would Mr. Cole pick a pretty little ornament like her as his wife? What could she talk about at a business dinner?”
“Packages?”
The laughter got louder.
I stood frozen, stealing a glance at Ethan.
He’d heard every word. He’d seen me waiting for him to say something.
Instead, he closed his folder.
“Don’t discuss my personal life at work.”
“Chloe, lunch is over. Everyone, get back to it.”
My hand slipped under the desk.
Victoria laughed and smoothed things over. “You guys, stop. Chloe’s always taken things too seriously.”
“When we were kids, I told her I liked one of her dresses and she wore it every day.”
That wasn’t what happened.
But I didn’t dare correct her.
After lunch, I went straight to Ethan’s office.
“You promised you’d tell everyone before my maternity leave.”
He closed the door.
“Victoria just got back, and the project just launched.”
“If I announce that the CEO secretly married the receptionist, everyone will be talking about that instead of working.”
“They were laughing at me.”
“It was a joke.”
His voice sharpened. “Are you really going to make a scene at work because Victoria came back?”
I stared at him. “I’m not upset because of her—”
“Chloe, we used to date. That’s all in the past.”
“She came back for the project.”
He looked me in the eye and spoke slowly.
“I’ve been honest with you. You see us at work every day. What do you think is going on?”
I clenched the hem of my shirt.
“She’s been picking on me since we were kids.”
“Do you think that matters more than an eight-figure project?”
He cut me off. “Victoria’s talented, and she knows how to behave. Don’t let your insecurities turn every word she says into an attack.”
I opened my mouth, then closed it again.
At last, I asked, “If they say I’m not good enough for you again, could you at least defend me?”
Ethan picked up his folder.
“Don’t bring our relationship problems into the office.”
“If I don’t want to make our marriage public, just go along with it.”
I lowered my head. “Okay.”
Back at reception, I took off my wedding ring.
Then I pushed the box of favors to the back of my drawer.
That evening, a storm rolled in.
Ethan pulled up to the entrance and lowered his window.
“Chloe, get in.”
I’d just stepped off the curb when Victoria came up behind me.
“Ethan, are you always this considerate with the receptionist?”
She glanced at my belly, smiling faintly. “Or is Chloe special?”
I looked at Ethan. He said nothing.
I opened the passenger door for Victoria.
“Take Ms. Shaw home first.”
“My husband’s coming to get me.”
Ethan knew I was lying.
He only said, “Be careful on your way home.”
Victoria settled into the seat and smiled at me.
“Chloe’s still as considerate as she was when we were kids.”
“She always knows when to give someone else her place.”
第3章
After the car drove off, I opened the rideshare app.
There were more than forty people ahead of me.
I waited half an hour. My stomach kept tightening, so I finally walked through the rain to the bus stop.
By the time I got home, my shoes were soaked.
Ethan was on the couch, listening to a voice message from Victoria.
“Did Chloe’s husband pick her up?”
“She’s always been stubborn. No one’s coming, but she still tells people someone is.”
Ethan looked up when I came in.
“Victoria asked if you had a crush on me.”
I twisted my wet sleeve. “What did you tell her?”
“I told her you’ve always known how to please your boss.”
I stood by the door for a long time.
He acted as if the matter were settled and picked up his phone again.
“Take the pregnancy cushion out of my car.”
“Victoria’s riding with me to project meetings this week.”
“If she sees it, she’ll start making assumptions.”
I took the keys downstairs.
The rain was still coming down.
I removed the cushion, then searched between the seats and gathered every prenatal appointment slip I could find.
Before my last prenatal appointment, I’d just picked up my bag when Victoria placed a dry-cleaning ticket on the desk.
“Pick up my suit and grab me breakfast.”
I checked the time. “I’m on prenatal leave this morning.”
Her smile faded.
“Being pregnant means you can pass your work to someone else?”
“You used to fake being sick in gym class so you could skip. You’re still doing that?”
My face went pale. “My doctor told me to keep my appointment.”
Ethan stepped out of the elevator. He’d approved my leave, but he only glanced at the ticket.
“Take care of Ms. Shaw first.”
“She has a client meeting at ten. Your appointment can wait.”
I tightened my grip on my bag. “But the hospital booked—”
“Chloe.”
His voice went cold.
“Don’t use your pregnancy to demand special treatment at work.”
I lowered my head and took the ticket.
The dry cleaner didn’t open until nine. The breakfast line was long.
With my eight-month belly, it took me forty minutes to go back and forth.
By the time I returned, the food had gone cold.
Victoria took a bite and frowned in front of several managers.
“It’s cold.”
“Chloe, you can’t even run an errand properly. No wonder you’re still at reception after all these years.”
I tried to explain that the line had been long.
Her eyes filled with tears first.
“I know I can’t say anything because you’re pregnant. You’re in a more vulnerable position than the rest of us.”
“Ethan, maybe I shouldn’t eat.”
He took the food from her immediately.
“I’ll have someone bring you something else.”
Then he looked at me. “Apologize to Ms. Shaw.”
I stared at Ethan and said nothing.
Victoria smiled. “Forget it. Not everyone can be as dedicated as I am. Don’t make things harder for a pregnant woman, Mr. Cole.”
That night, I watched Ethan’s accusing expression across the table.
I gathered my courage.
“Victoria’s always liked making fun of me in front of people.”
“She did it on purpose today.”
Ethan set down his fork, impatient.
“Victoria again?”
“Can you stop acting like you have a problem with her?”
I opened my mouth, but the words I’d been ready to say disappeared.