Vows Beneath The Moon Clown Chapter 06
The next morning, Lucia Bennett held an online press conference with me.
When the camera opened, I sat before a white wall.
I looked terrible, but my voice was steady.
“My name is Ava. I am Adrian’s legal wife.”
I held our city hall marriage certificate up to the camera.
“For the past five years, he refused any intimate contact with me, citing PTSD. I respected him, cared for him, and never forced him.”
Then Lucia presented the evidence one by one.
Adrian’s chat records.
His own admission that he “could not accept his wife’s closeness.”
Transfer records showing that I paid for his therapy and recovery expenses.
Veronica’s prenatal records from Adrian’s so-called recovery period three years ago.
The child’s birth certificate.
Veronica’s signature as the birth companion.
And the recording from the cafe, in which Veronica threatened my father’s hospital bed and my brother’s scholarship.
By the end, the comment stream exploded.
“This isn’t just cheating. This is fraud.”
“Using trauma as a shield to deceive your wife for five years is disgusting.”
“Can the De Luca lawyer be disbarred for threatening family members like that?”
“And she countersues for defamation? Does she have no shame?”
Just when everyone thought the press conference was ending, Lucia opened one final document.
Trauma Partner Observation Sample Authorization.
The signature field held my name.
Lucia enlarged the preliminary handwriting analysis.
“According to an initial comparison by a professional examiner, the authorization signature differs significantly from Ms. Moretti’s handwriting.”
On camera, I heard my own voice go cold.
“I never authorized anyone to use my marriage, my sick father, or my family privacy as a sample in a charity project.”
“I never knew that my five years of endurance had become Adrian’s bargaining chip for resources.”
That was the true explosion point.
The tabloids and street rumors doubled instantly.
Adrian was no longer merely unfaithful.
He had become a charity fraud who consumed trauma, forged authorization, and deceived the public.
Less than an hour after the press conference, Veronica’s family law firm released a statement.
Her position as chief lawyer was suspended pending investigation.
The Mafia Commission also responded, saying it had received the complaint and opened a review.
Adrian’s charity foundation deleted all promotional material related to him.
The persona he had built on “fear of intimacy” collapsed overnight.
I thought he would hide.
Instead, that afternoon, he appeared at the door of my cheap apartment.
He had lost weight. His hair was messy. He held a box in his hands.
The moment I opened the door, he knelt.
“Ava, I brought your things back.”
I looked down at him.
Inside the box were the silver medal and the ring.
The medal’s black leather cord had grown old.
The date engraved inside the ring was still there.
I picked up the silver medal. My fingertip touched the cold metal, and my eyes stung.
Not because of him.
Because of my mother.
When I gave that piece of silver to Adrian, I truly thought I had found someone to share my life with.
Adrian looked up at me, tears covering his face.
“Ava, I know it’s too late for anything I say now. But I really didn’t plan to deceive you from the beginning.”
I said nothing.
He cried on.
“When I first married you at city hall, I really was afraid of intimacy. But then Veronica appeared. She understood psychology and knew how to make me relax. I don’t know how it reached that point.”
It sounded absurd.
“So after you were cured, you kept making me live like a widow?”
His face went white.
“I was afraid you couldn’t accept it. I was also afraid the Blackwood family would find out I cheated. After the child came, I was even more afraid to say anything.”
“You were afraid to say it, so you let me keep paying your therapy bills?”
He choked.
I took out the divorce agreement.
“Sign.”
His hand shook as he took the pen, but he did not write.
I looked at him.
“Can’t let go?”
He cried and shook his head.
“No. I just… Ava, can we really never go back?”
I said calmly, “Adrian, five years ago, you trembled in a corner, and I was so heartbroken I couldn’t sleep all night. Three years ago, when you went away for recovery, I was afraid something would happen to you. Every day I checked the weather, hospitals, and treatment side effects.”
“On your birthday, I wanted to hug you once. You said it made you sick. I stood in the kitchen for half an hour, then threw away the cake.”
“When my father had his first chemo session, I had no money for a cab and walked seven kilometers to the hospital. That day, you messaged me and said your treatment needed another five thousand dollars. I still sent it.”
The color drained from his face.
I listed those old memories one by one, not to make him feel guilty.
I did it so I would remember.
I had tried.
He simply did not deserve it.
Adrian finally signed.
When the pen moved across the paper, he cried so hard he could barely hold it.
After signing, he handed the agreement to me.
“Ava, can you not sue me? I’ve already lost everything.”
I looked at him.
“You still have Veronica.”
He shook his head hard.
“She doesn’t want me anymore.”
Apparently, after the scandal erupted, Veronica immediately distanced herself.
She said Adrian had hidden his marital status and deceived her as well.
As for the child, she said she would respond after a paternity test.
I nearly laughed.
“This is the person you chose.”
Adrian covered his face and sobbed until his shoulders shook.
But my heart did not move at all.
He knelt for a long time, then finally held the wall and left.
At the stairwell, he looked back at me.
“Ava, will you ever think of me again?”
I closed the door.
I did not answer.