A Husband’s Sins A Wife’s Reckoning

Chapter One “You need to be patient with me. Risana will be dying soon. Her insurance will be ours. When the mist clears, I’ll marry you, and then we can finally be together.” Risana froze at the sound of her husband’s voice, her body stiffening as the words left his lips. He was on the phone, his back turned toward her, his tone soft, full of hope as he spoke to another woman. Her heart pounded painfully against her chest. The same man she had believed loved her genuinely for ten years was planning a future with someone else. “I’m pregnant,” she whispered, her voice barely audible, trembling with disbelief. She had married him despite his past mistakes, despite the pain he’d caused her. And yet here he was making promises to another woman. He turned sharply, his cold eyes locking on hers. “You’re back, you slut. I heard rumors about you, how you go around with men. I thought they were lies, until I saw this.” He hurled a pile of photographs at her face. They scattered across the floor, images of her in different rooms with different men. All of them were fake, They both knew it. She usually doesn't step out of the house without his permission. “Where have you been? You said you were pregnant, didn’t you? I’m not the father of that bastard you’re carrying.” Her lips parted in shock. Ten years ago, she should have thrown her wedding ring at him, right after catching him in bed with her stepsister, only hours before their wedding. “What do you mean you’re not the father of our child?” she asked weakly. She had been a virgin when he married her. He was the only man she had ever kissed and ever loved. “I have to pick one, not two,” he said darkly, raising his hand. His face twisted with anger. One? Two? What did he mean by that when she was pregnant with just one child–a baby boy? “What do you mean by two?” she asked, her lips trembling, tears spilling down her cheeks. Was the woman he’d been whispering to earlier also pregnant? Or—was Cecilia, her late stepsister, not truly dead after all? “Izora can’t be pregnant and neither can you be!” he barked. Risana’s breath hitched. Izora. Her best friend. Pregnant….with her husband’s child? It felt like the ground was ripped out from under her. Her stepsister wasn’t enough for him now her best friend? “You’ve been sleeping with my best friend?” she gasped, her voice cracking under the weight of betrayal she fought herself not to crack in front of him. Her knees buckled, and she collapsed on the cold floor. Everything made sense now. Izora was the woman he had been talking to. Izora was the one he had promised to marry. “Yes, I have,” he admitted shamelessly. “I need children, and you’re barren.” “But you’re denying mine now! I’m pregnant with Nevan—after ten years!” she cried, a broken smile tugging at her lips. After a decade of a loveless marriage, he still couldn’t accept his own son growing inside her, unaware, or perhaps fully aware, that her life was slipping away. “You’re in the final stage of gastritis. You have just three months to live,” the doctor’s voice echoed painfully in her mind. Three months. That was all she had left. She was three months pregnant and would never live to see her child’s face. “God, why wasn’t I careful with the pills like last time?” he muttered, loud enough for her to hear. What pills was he talking about?” She thought, staring at him helplessly. Her stomach twisted. “What do you mean, you bastard?” she shouted weakly through tears. “Oops,” he said with a smirk, “I didn’t realize I said that out loud.” He crouched beside her, the cruelty in his smile chilling. “I’ve been giving you pills for ten years, but you were too stupid to notice.” Her eyes widened, her breath caught in her throat. Ten years. Ten years of pain and emptiness. Ten years of thinking she was broken, when all along, it had been him. “You monster,” she whispered. “I can see how ungrateful you are, Risana. I did you a favor. You’ll end up just like your poor mother,” he sneered, his laughter dripping with malice. Her mother, who had died miserably after years of torment from her father’s wife. “You can call me anything you want. In just three months, you’ll be gone for good.” He brushed invisible dust from his pants and stood. He had asked to see her test results, just to mock her. “ You must be feeling weak to yell at me, I know that. Who gives birth to a child they’ll never see?” he said cruelly. Risana’s tears fell freely now. She had three months to live, and her child seven. What had she been expecting? Love from a contract marriage? Love from a man she had been forced to marry? Her father, the man who ruined her life, was already dead. “You know I was never going to marry you,” her husband continued. “Izora has always been my lover, even before your greedy father pushed me into this nonsense.” Her heart clenched. Raymond Hayden—her father had been one of New York’s most powerful billionaires. She was his illegitimate child, his only surviving daughter after her step-siblings had died in a plane crash. The marriage had been nothing but a deal, a proof of loyalty before he handed his empire to her. “You should have called it off the moment you couldn’t continue,” she said bitterly. “But sleeping with my best friend? That’s unforgivable.” He laughed coldly. “Do you expect me to beg for forgiveness? Think of all the times I needed you, Risana, but you were too busy with your father’s business too busy proving yourself to him.” It was clear now—he had been cheating on her for the past ten years, and he didn’t even care. “Let’s call this marriage off,” she said, her voice steady though her heart was breaking. “You have no right to call this marriage off,” he replied darkly. “You need to prove to Papa that you can run his company after he’s gone.” His laugh was low, venomous. A wolf in sheep’s clothing. “Oh, I must have forgotten to tell you,” he added mockingly. “Your father is dead. I’m sorry you couldn’t prove yourself to him. According to his lawyer, his will is being read tonight.” A faint, sad smile curved her lips. Finally, something she could use. She would make sure her unborn child was cared for, even after she was gone. Then, a voice broke through the silence. “Babe, are you still there?”