My son married a woman who already had four children. She’s eight months pregnant now, and earlier today he left for a work trip.

At around three in the morning, I was jolted awake by a call from his wife. She was crying and said, “I’m not okay. Please take me to the ER.”

I refused and hung up. I know that sounds heartless, but just yesterday, I discovered that both she and my son had lied to me about their relationship.

My son had told me they were married eight months ago while they were abroad, right after finding out she was pregnant. But that wasn’t true. Their relationship had been on and off when she got pregnant, and they didn’t actually marry until much later.

What hurt even more was learning that while she was seeing my son, my daughter-in-law had also been secretly seeing her ex-boyfriend—the same man who fathered her two youngest children. My son knows about it. He married her anyway, even though he isn’t sure if the baby she’s carrying is his. But I can’t be that forgiving.

I’m not proud of my reaction, but I couldn’t bring myself to help her after learning all that. The betrayal was just too much.

Still, I didn’t want to leave her completely on her own. I called her stepmother and asked her to take her to the ER, even though she lives quite far away. Thankfully, they got there in time. She and the baby are both stable—it turned out to be a false alarm.

Was it cruel of me not to go? Maybe. But I can’t get past the feeling that this child isn’t my son’s—and that I’ve been deceived by them both.