Chapter 9 — Long-term Contract Marriage

Co Dien Chau put down his glass. "Regardless of whether he was planned or not, in the past five years, he chose to protect her. That's the truth. You can understand his situation at that time, but there's no need to relieve him of responsibility. He made a mistake to you, this is also true." "I know." I said: "I just want to find someone to talk to tonight. Nothing else." "Okay." He leaned against the back of the chair, looking at the scenery outside the river. “You say it, I listen.” That night, we sat until very late, talking about a lot of endless things. From the first time we met at a party abroad, to him being bullied by me for a meal, then to the agreement as thick as a book that he gave me when signing the contract. I asked at that time, weren't you afraid that I would trick you? He said I didn't look like someone who could fool others. "As a result, I didn't look for you for two years. Now I've lost everything in one go." he said. I laughed: "Regret it?" “No regrets.” He drank the last sip of lemonade. "What you want to do has been done, you won't regret it." A week later, my mother's condition was stable enough to temporarily return home to recuperate. I went to Khuong's old house to get things for her, and by the way completed all the procedures at the rehabilitation center. When I entered, the living room was filled with people. But this time is different. Khuong Van Nhu sat on the ground crying. Grandfather sat in the chair, his face pale. My father stood next to me, wiping sweat from his forehead. Luc Nghien Tu leaned against the wall and lowered his eyes. On the tea table is a DNA report. Seeing me enter, my grandfather raised his stick and pointed at Khuong Van Nhu: "You came at the right time. Look at this report for yourself. You are absolutely not the child who was hugged by mistake! Your father secretly had you outside. When he brought you home, he made up a story about hugging you by mistake, fooling the whole family for more than ten years!" I was stunned. Unexpectedly, they took the investigation to this step. Khuong Van Nhu cried: "Grandpa, I don't know either... I always thought I was hugged by mistake... Dad, say something!" My father's lips trembled for a long time, then with a "thud" he knelt down. “Dad… that year I had no other choice… Van Nhu's mother died early, leaving a child with no one to care for, I could only…” “Can you only lie to me and your mother for more than ten years?!” Grandpa banged his stick on the ground. "You lied to us that the hospital held the wrong child, so that we could take that child home and raise it as our own! All these years, how much your wife has loved her, it's not like you didn't see it! You forced her biological daughter to leave her for five years!" My father knelt on the ground, bowed his head without saying a word. Khuong Van Nhu cried as she got up and grabbed Luc Nghien Tu's sleeve. "Nghien Tu... I don't know, I don't know anything... I believe you..." Luc Nghien Tu lowered his head to look at her, retracting his sleeve. “I know.” Khuong Van Nhu's hand stiffened in mid-air. “I know I am my father's only child.” His voice was very light, without any fluctuations. "Before she passed away, my mother told me. When I was fifteen, I already knew." The living room was as silent as death. Khuong Van Nhu's face was bloodless, her lips trembled, she couldn't utter a word. “I always knew.” Luc Nghien Tu continued, his voice calm as water. "I intentionally approached you, planning what would happen that night. After I got pregnant, I forced you to marry me. You said the baby wouldn't survive, and if you didn't have a name, you wouldn't be able to live. I married you. But the night before we got married, you said with your own mouth that you knew everything." Khuong Van Nhu collapsed to the ground, her whole body shrinking into one block. I looked at that scene, the string that had been tight for more than ten years in my heart gradually relaxed, then tightened little by little. Relax because the truth is finally revealed. Tighten because behind that truth there is so much suffering. Grandpa waved at me: "Nguyen Nhu, come here." I stepped forward. He looked at me, his old, cloudy eyes slightly red. "Over the years, you've suffered a lot of resentment." “No resentment.” I said: "It was my own choice to leave for five years. But there is one thing, everyone must give my mother an explanation. All these years, she did not know the truth, treating Khuong Van Nhu as a

My biological daughter, I truly love her. Everyone must make it clear to her themselves.” Grandpa nodded: "That's the right thing to do." Khuong Van Nhu was about to say something, but was scared back by her grandfather's "Shut up" sound. She squatted on the ground trembling, wrapping herself with a shawl, like a frightened bird. Luc Nghien Tu left the wall and stopped in front of me. “Nguyen Nhu, I have already investigated what happened that night. I also received the recording.” I looked at him: "Who sent it?" “I don't need to know.” He lowered his head to look at me, his eyes seemed tired but very clear. “About that year, I owe you an apology. I trusted the wrong person, and I also disappointed you. How drunk he was that night, what she planned after that, he already knows. But the marriage of the past five years and the responsibilities I have shouldered, I cannot pretend it never happened." “What are you going to do?” "Divorce." His voice was light but clear.