"Show us your identification, please. We need to check it." The two men glanced around the room.
The two red thermoses, the enamel basin and mug, and the large 'Double Happiness' character pasted on the wall all suggested that the couple here had only recently married.
Just then, the sound of a baby crying came from the bedroom.
Ivy White grew flustered and instinctively looked at Caleb Forrest.
Caleb Forrest remained relatively calm. "The baby was just recently born. He gets very fussy at night."
"Aren't you going to go check on the baby?"
Ivy White nodded and hastily entered the room.
The two men didn't feel it was appropriate to follow her inside, so they remained standing outside.
One of them looked at Caleb Forrest. "Get your identification papers out. We need to make a record."
Caleb Forrest nodded.
Just as he was about to head into the room to get his papers, a sound came from the front door as it started to open.
The next moment, the door opened, and Grace Winslow appeared in the doorway, looking pale, haggard, and weak.
The younger official recognized her at a glance. She was the woman in the photograph with Caleb Forrest.
Grace Winslow was leaning on her sister-in-law for support.
Seeing the two strangers in her home, she looked surprised. "Honey, we have guests?"
Her calling him "Honey" nearly scared Caleb Forrest out of his wits.
He stood frozen in place.
"You're his wife?" The expressions of the two officials turned grim, and their voices took on a cold, interrogating edge.
Grace Winslow looked frightened and leaned against her sister-in-law, Lily Callahan. "I... I'm his wife. We've only been married for three months. All the neighbors know... W-what's going on?"
"Hah. If you're his wife, then who's the woman in the bedroom feeding a baby?" the younger official demanded, his sharp gaze landing on Caleb Forrest.
Caleb Forrest went rigid. He glanced at Grace Winslow, a flicker of surprise in his eyes. "Why are you out of the hospital? They said you had pneumonia and needed to stay for a few days, didn't they?"
Grace Winslow managed a strained smile, looking pale and fragile. "I was worried about Mom being here alone. You're too clumsy to take proper care of her. I thought it over and over, but I just wasn't comfortable leaving you two at home. Luckily, my sister-in-law came to the hospital, so I asked her to bring me back."
"Did something happen at home?"
"What did this gentleman mean just now? What was that about feeding a baby in the bedroom? Do we have a guest?"
Grace Winslow looked utterly bewildered.
Caleb Forrest let out a slow breath. 'I've really been overthinking things,' he thought.
'How could Grace have been the one to deliberately report Ivy, landing me in this impossible situation?'
"It's nothing. It's Ivy White," Caleb Forrest said, shaking his head.
Seeing the two officials glaring at him with suspicion, he rushed to explain, "She is the widow of a comrade-in-arms. He died for our country a while ago—a martyr, a hero. He left behind a widow and child with nowhere else to turn, so they came to me for help."
"If she's your comrade's wife and that's his child, then why did you just claim they were your own wife and child?"
"Are you sure you're not hiding something?" The younger official didn't believe a word Caleb Forrest said.
He glanced at Grace Winslow. 'Considering the way Ivy White was dressed,' he thought, 'and the fact that she's staying in the master bedroom... it doesn't look like she's just here seeking refuge. It looks more like she's moved in to force out the real wife.'
'His own mother had been driven to her death by his father's mistress in the very same way, so he had a visceral hatred for this kind of situation.'