Chapter 2
850 Words
I didn’t even have time to think.
The moment I looked around at this house that used to be filled with traces of my love with David, the tears fell first.
He knew exactly how much I was looking forward to this cruise.
Back on Christmas Eve, when David told me the Brown family always held an annual gathering on that day, my mood had instantly crashed.
He’d noticed my disappointment and smiled as he comforted me.
“You can plan whatever you want for after the gathering.”
So, I went all out. Night after night, I lay awake imagining our date.
My phone screen finally went completely dark. In the black reflection, my pale face and bloodshot eyes were starkly clear.
All those comforting words had been a lie; what he’d really been planning was his date with Sarah.
I clutched the edge of the table until my knuckles went white, a sour ache rising in my chest.
David had first met Sarah at our wedding.
I’d known long before the ceremony that she was coming, but I hadn’t wanted her on my wedding day.
Her dazzling looks, the aura she carried—she always, always crushed me without even trying.
But I couldn’t go against my father’s orders.
The day before the wedding, I cried as I told him how much I hated Sarah.
All those ugly memories from the past were ripped open and laid bare.
He’d stroked my hair gently then, kissing my forehead.
“Jessica, I’ll always stand by your side. I swear I’ll be your shield.”
But after just one meeting with her, he changed.
The next time I tried, in a roundabout way, to tell him how uncomfortable Sarah made me, his expression was still gentle, but I could sharply sense the impatience underneath.
“Sarah is your sister. How can you think about her like that?”
At that moment I realized it: I would never be able to compete with Sarah.
But I still couldn’t accept it. Every time I thought about the picture of them two curled up together, all close and intimate, I wanted to tear everything apart.
Two hours later, David stormed back home.
He walked through the door and immediately threw a fit on me; his tone ice‑cold.
“Jessica, why did you cancel the tickets? Do you have any idea how embarrassed you made Sarah and me?”
I drew in a deep breath, swallowing down the metallic taste of blood in my throat.
“You promised you’d be with me after the family gathering.”
I tugged on his sleeve, trying to pull back the heart that was already walking away from me.
When he saw my tears, something in David seemed to soften. He sighed and pulled me into his arms.
“Jessica, it’s not what you think.”
“Sarah doesn’t come from some noble family, and your father is forcing her to marry an old man. She had nowhere else to go but me.”
“You’re her sister. You don’t really want her to go through that, do you?”
It was the middle of summer, but I felt freezing, my body trembling uncontrollably.
I wanted to tell him:
What did you mean “my” father? He was always only ever been her father.
She was lying to you. He loved her so much he’d never force her to marry some old man.
Please didn’t throw me away. You were my everything.
But the words of defense were stuck in my throat.
It was like some part of me already knew how this would end, yet I still clung to a tiny shred of hope.
“I can help her find a job, and I’ll talk to my father. Just… stay out of it, okay?”
He pressed his lips together and fell silent, the long night stretching on while my heart kept sinking.
In the end, he gently pried my fingers off his sleeve, guilt flickering in his eyes.
“I can’t just abandon Sarah. If I don’t help her, your father will ruin her.”
He sounded like he’d finally made up his mind. He avoided my gaze, his tone firm.
“Jessica, let’s get a fake divorce. I’ll have a fake marriage with Sarah.”
“That way she can stay here legally and escape the arranged mating.”
“Once everything is stable for her, we can get back together, okay?”
As I listened to him, all the tension in my body drained away.
I just felt exhausted, like I was a cruel joke.
It was all so painfully obvious, yet I still hadn’t given up on making a fool of myself.
“Fake” divorce? “Fake” marriage?
If everything is fake, then what in this relationship is real?
I guessed I was really “lucky.”
At our wedding, my husband fell in love with my own sister at first sight.
And a year into our marriage, he was asking me for a fake divorce—for her.
- Writer
