Secret Marriage: The CEO's Pampered Wife

The Sheridan Group offered great employee benefits, even for interns.

There was a fifteen-day annual leave, and Nancy Hughes bought a ticket, preparing to go back to her hometown.

She hadn’t been back home since she left.

If her mother hadn’t begged her to come back on the phone this time, she really wouldn’t have wanted to go.

That house could be anyone’s home, but it could never be hers.

Her home had vanished the day her mother remarried.

Nancy Hughes’s hometown was in a small, rural village up north.

There were no high-speed rails, no bullet trains, no modern, bustling skyscrapers.

Only muddy paths and boundless fields.

She took an overnight train, arrived at the station early in the morning, and then rushed to catch a bus home.

The bumpy ride mirrored the desperation she had felt when she was trying so hard to escape.

Before coming back, she had deliberately bought many gifts.

No matter how much she disliked it, she had to keep up appearances.

This new home was just as it had been before—old and dilapidated, with a small courtyard.

Just as she reached the entrance, she heard a burst of barking. Behind an iron gate, a black dog was barking right at her.

Nancy Hughes had been bitten by a dog as a child, so now the sight of a vicious dog made her skin crawl.

The loud barking brought someone out from inside the house.

"Blackie, what are you barking at!"

Her mother, Zoey Zane, came out of the house wrapped in a thick, padded jacket.

They hadn’t seen each other in three years, and Zoey Zane had changed a lot. She looked much older, her complexion sallow and listless.

"Mom, it’s me, Nancy!" The last word caught in her throat, turning into a sob.

"Nancy, how did you get back so fast!" Zoey Zane exclaimed, happily running to the door.

She opened the gate and welcomed Nancy Hughes into the house.

"Shoo, shoo!" Zoey Zane waved the dog away and took Nancy Hughes’s hand. "You rascal, you finally decided to come back!"

Nancy Hughes didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything affectionate, nor could she act cute and spoiled with her mother.

Ever since her mother remarried, she hadn’t acted that way with Zoey Zane.

"Mom, I bought these for you. They’re things you can’t get here." Nancy Hughes quickly took out the items, showing them to Zoey Zane one by one.

"You just needed to come back, why buy all this stuff!" Zoey Zane said as she looked at the things Nancy Hughes had bought.

The packaging was exquisite, and they looked expensive at a glance. "This must have cost a lot, right?"

Nancy Hughes paused. "No, it wasn’t expensive!"

Zoey Zane was a housewife who spent her days doing chores.

Her stepfather, Julian Caldwell, did manual labor, and the little money he earned was just enough for the family to get by.

Nancy Hughes had returned very early, so no one else was up yet.

Nancy Hughes took Zoey Zane’s hand and spoke to her. "Mom, where are you feeling unwell? I’ll take you to the hospital tomorrow."

"It’s nothing serious. I just get chest tightness often, and sometimes I feel dizzy."

"Have you been to the hospital before?"

"No, where would we get the money for that!" Zoey Zane said, her hands busy. "You know it’s hard for your dad to make money, and with this whole big family to feed, where would we find the money for a doctor’s visit?"

Riley Caldwell was still young and in school, while her stepsister, Lana Caldwell, just lazed around at home all day doing nothing.

Lana Caldwell was a few months younger than her. She had casually attended a vocational high school and, after messing around outside for a while, had come back.

Now she just freeloaded at home. Julian Caldwell doted on this daughter and was willing to support her, so Zoey Zane couldn’t say much about it.

Nancy Hughes and Lana Caldwell didn’t get along. Lana had a terrible temper and often got into fights with other girls.

When Lana Caldwell saw her, she sneered, "Well, if it isn’t the college student. Finally decided to come back, huh!"

Nancy Hughes just smiled. "This is a gift for you."

Hearing she had a gift, Lana Caldwell immediately tore it open happily. Seeing it was just a cheap-looking watch, she said with disappointment, "Just a watch? I thought it would be something good!"

Although she said that, she kept looking at her new watch.

That evening, after Julian Caldwell came home from work, Nancy Hughes suddenly spoke up. "Mr. Caldwell, I’d like to take my mom to the hospital tomorrow."

As soon as she finished speaking, Julian Caldwell’s expression soured. He sullenly took a gulp of his drink.

Zoey Zane quickly nudged Nancy Hughes’s hand. "Eat more. Look how skinny you’ve gotten out there, you’re just like a monkey!"

Nancy Hughes wanted to say something more, but a look from Zoey Zane silenced her. She sullenly picked at the rice in her bowl.

’If she feels sick, she should go to the hospital. What’s wrong with that?’

’The poorer people are, the more reluctant they are to spend money on doctors. That’s how minor illnesses turn into major ones.’

After dinner, Nancy Hughes and Lana Caldwell were to sleep in the same bed.

Lana Caldwell said angrily, "This is so annoying. I was perfectly fine sleeping by myself."

She plopped down on a chair. "This bed is already small. How are two people supposed to sleep in it!"

Nancy Hughes was laying out the bedding when she suddenly stopped and turned to her. "Um, why don’t I just sleep on the floor?"

"Fine, you said it!" Lana Caldwell suddenly jumped up from the chair and dove into her quilt.

So Nancy Hughes slept on the floor. The floor was cold, and the house had no heating. The chill woke her up several times during the night.

She turned over and put her clothes on top of the blanket, but it was still cold underneath.

’I really do have self-destructive tendencies, always doing things to make myself suffer.’

For the past three years, she had always worked in restaurants, welcoming the new year soaked in sweat.

This year, she was finally reunited with her family, but it wasn’t the happy reunion she had imagined.

Zoey Zane cooked a lot of food—killing a chicken, a duck, and a fish—and the family sat down to eat together.

Riley Caldwell and Lana Caldwell bickered while watching TV, and Zoey Zane was in the kitchen tending to the soup, leaving only Julian Caldwell and her at the table.

She didn’t talk much with Julian Caldwell. Nancy Hughes quietly watched TV until he suddenly spoke up from beside her, "How’s life in the big city?"

"It’s okay."

"Do you make a lot of money in the big city?"

"It’s okay."

Julian Caldwell asked Nancy Hughes many questions about life in the big city, as if he intended to go there to work.

Nancy Hughes wanted to dissuade him. Although you could earn more in a big city, the cost of living was also high, and you couldn’t save much.

"Mr. Caldwell, I think it’s better for you to work here at home. Lana and Riley need you to take care of them, and my mom’s health isn’t good. If you’re not here, there will be no one to look after her!"

Julian Caldwell let out a dry chuckle and took another sip of his drink.

Nancy Hughes forced a smile and lowered her head.

She had never liked watching shows like the Spring Festival Gala.

After dinner, she went to bed early.

But she couldn’t sleep and kept looking at her phone.

She scrolled through many well-wishing text messages, one by one, but there was none from Zane Lennox.

’Today is New Year’s Eve. He must be busy celebrating with his family.’

Lana Caldwell came back in the early hours of the morning, flipping on the light and waking Nancy Hughes.

"So sleepy!" Lana Caldwell yawned, got into bed, and turned off the light.

Nancy Hughes didn’t say anything. Suddenly, she heard her phone vibrate from under her pillow.

Another text message came in, from an unsaved number.

Unlike the other flamboyant well-wishes, this message was just three simple words: Happy New Year!

Normally when she received a message like this, she would assume it was a wrong number and ignore it.

But perhaps because she was feeling so lonely tonight, she found herself, as if by some strange impulse, texting back.

"Wrong number?"

"Maybe."

Nancy Hughes replied with an "Oh" and put the phone back under her pillow. ’They probably won’t write back,’ she thought.

However, to her surprise, the phone vibrated again just as she put it down.

It was another text from the same unknown number. "What are you doing?"

’Could this be someone just as lonely as I am?’

Nancy Hughes thought for a moment and replied, "Getting ready for bed."

"Did I disturb you?"

"No, I was having a little trouble sleeping, actually."

"So I caught you at just the right time?"

Nancy Hughes didn’t know why she was chatting with a stranger, but she felt a little touched. She replied with a simple "Yeah."

The person on the other end replied again, "Then I’m very lucky."

’Is talking to me considered lucky?’

’I don’t think anyone has ever said that to me before!’

"It’s New Year’s Eve tonight. Aren’t you watching the fireworks?"

"There are no fireworks here, so I can’t." Nancy Hughes looked at her text, then added, "What about you? Are you watching them?"

"No."

Before Nancy Hughes could ask why, a second message popped up. "Their beauty is fleeting, but what I want is forever."

’What kind of answer is that?’

’Fireworks are never forever.’

Although she didn’t know who was on the other end of the phone, she felt they must be a person with a story.

’Maybe a woman, maybe a man. Maybe an elderly person, or maybe someone working far away who couldn’t go home.’

For some reason, she found she had a lot to talk about with this person; they always had a new topic to bring up.

They chatted until two in the morning, when she could no longer fight off sleep and drifted off.

After she fell asleep, her phone vibrated twice more and then went silent.

She had gone to bed late the night before, so she woke up late the next morning.

As soon as she woke up, she saw two unread text messages.

One said, "Are you asleep?" The other, sent ten minutes later, read: "Good night. Happy New Year."

Reading them filled her with a warm feeling.

She sent a text back. "I don’t know who you are, but it was really nice to meet you. Happy New Year!"

Lana Caldwell saw her smiling foolishly at her phone. "In a relationship, are we? What’s your boyfriend look like?"

’A relationship? As if!’

Nancy Hughes gave an awkward smile and put her phone away in her pocket.

However, she never got a reply to the message she sent.

The Caldwell Family had many relatives, most of whom Nancy Hughes didn’t know.

Nancy Hughes wanted to go back to the Hughes Family home. It had been a long time since she’d seen her own father.

Julian Caldwell didn’t say anything, but Zoey Zane gave her a string of reminders. "Be careful on the road, and come back early!"