Ten Years Loving the Wrong Man

Ten years after Dominick Swanson saved Charlotte Lindsey from severe depression, she decided to divorce him. To everyone around them, Dominick was the perfect husband. They all said no man had ever loved a woman the way he loved Charlotte. And once, that had been true. In high school, Charlotte returned to the Lindsey family, but Evelyn Lindsey, the fake heiress, targeted her relentlessly, pushing Charlotte into depression. At her lowest point, she had walked to the lake and thrown herself in. In the dead of winter, with temperatures below freezing, Dominick had jumped in after her without hesitation and pulled her out. He held her shivering body against his chest and said, "If the world has given you nothing but pain, then let me be the one person who gives you hope." Dominick had always been distant by nature, cool and untouchable to everyone else. But for Charlotte, he had saved every ounce of his patience and tenderness. When her depression got so bad that she dropped from second in the class to nearly the bottom, Dominick helped her catch up, making notes for her, tutoring her over and over without a hint of impatience. "Don't worry," he had told her. "As long as I'm here, I'll get you back to number two." And when a video of Charlotte being assaulted spread all over campus, even Dominick, always composed, finally lost control. He tracked down Evelyn, the one who had leaked it, and forced her to kneel before everyone and apologize to Charlotte. "How are you still alive, when you're this disgusting?" It was the first time Charlotte had ever heard him curse. With Dominick protecting her so fiercely, Charlotte's depression slowly began to ease. They were both accepted into Jivalis' most prestigious university and became the couple everyone envied. The moment Charlotte was old enough to marry, Dominick proposed. "I want you to be the moon that belongs only to me. Marry me?" To prove how much he loved her, Dominick, the brilliant, aloof golden boy who had always seemed too perfect for ordinary life, spent the next ten years cooking for her. Even though Charlotte never had his child, Dominick never complained. He respected every choice she made. He always put her feelings first. Until today, Charlotte believed Dominick loved her. If not for the car accident, she might have believed it forever. Charlotte was an attending surgeon. When the emergency call came in, she rushed straight to the scene. The second she stepped out of the car and ran toward the wreck, she saw her husband. Dominick, who was supposed to be overseas attending a conference, was at the scene with blood on his hands, desperately trying to tear open a car door with his bare hands. And inside the car, Charlotte recognized the woman instantly, Evelyn. The same Evelyn who had driven her into severe depression! Charlotte went cold all over. She told herself it had to be a coincidence. But then Dominick pulled Evelyn out of the wreckage, cradling her blood-soaked body in his arms, and shouted at the doctors rushing over, "Save my wife! She's more than four months pregnant, nothing can happen to our baby!" His voice roared in Charlotte's ears. So did the pounding rush of blood. And suddenly, she remembered the way Evelyn had smirked a few days ago, one hand resting on her stomach. "I'm not like you. Ten years of marriage and still not pregnant." So the baby Evelyn was carrying was Dominick's. Charlotte felt the whole world lose its color and sound. All she could hear was the frozen c***k of her own heart splitting apart inside her chest. She had never imagined that a man like Dominick, someone so righteous, so sharp in his hatred of evil, could ever fall for Evelyn, the woman he had once loathed enough to force her to her knees in public for Charlotte's sake. She forced herself to operate on Evelyn despite the nausea rising in her throat. The moment she stepped out of the OR, Dominick rushed toward her. His face was pale. His voice was strained. "Charlotte... I'm sorry. And thank you. Thank you for putting the past aside and operating on Evelyn." Charlotte looked up at him, fighting to keep her lips from trembling. "When did it start?" Dominick said nothing. Pain flickered across his face. "Say it. We're past pretending." "Five years ago..." Charlotte gave a bitter, almost disbelieving laugh. In a ten-year marriage, he had been cheating on her for half of it. And all the while, he had played the devoted husband so perfectly that not a single c***k had shown. Something in Dominick's expression broke when he saw the disappointment in her eyes. He scrambled to explain, "The first time, Evelyn drugged me. It wasn't my choice..." Charlotte interrupted him, her voice terrifyingly calm. "And after that?" Dominick went silent. Because after that, it had been his choice. After what happened in high school, Charlotte had always been somewhat distant when it came to intimacy. Evelyn, on the other hand, had been all heat and seduction. She gave him a kind of thrill he had never known before. And like a drug, she became something he couldn't stop craving. Charlotte had loved Dominick too long not to know him. Even without hearing the rest, she understood. He had fallen for the excitement and the heat. A dull, crushing ache spread through Charlotte's chest. She looked at him for a long moment before speaking. "Dominick, let's get divorced." Then she turned and walked away, leaving him standing there with the color draining from his face. Back in her office, Charlotte took out her phone and sent a text. Charlotte: Please add my name to the overseas fellowship list for those leaving in 7 days.