The day Stella Jameson was released early from prison for good behavior, my husband Samuel Xenos, who was always so calm and collected, lost control.

He did everything he could to please Stella in her bed.

He said that our marriage was nothing but fake. He never had any real feelings for me.

And that lawsuit, for which he risked his life to win for me three years ago, was nothing but a complete setup.

[Zara, the man you love most is just my dog. He comes whenever I call. He has always been like this. He’s no different from Victor back then.]

That was the message Stella sent me to taunt me.

I wiped my tears and prepared a big surprise for them.

“Zara, this is really important to me. I have to go. Be good and wait for me to come back. Love you.”

Samuel Xenos ran out into the wind and snow after saying that.

I waited for him all night, but he never came back. Instead, Stella Jameson sent me a video to provoke me.

In the video, two people were tangled up in bed.

I saw the red mole on the guy’s lower back clearly. I knew right away it was Samuel.

Stella, who should have looked worn out after just getting out of prison, did not look like she had spent three years locked up at all.

She curled up in his arms and lifted his chin with her fingertip. She was sweet and flirty. Every word she said teased him.

“What’s wrong? Feeling bad now? I told you to have a fake marriage, not to fall for her for real.”

“Babe, I didn’t fall for her. You’re the only one who can make me feel anything.”

He quickly reassured Stella. I had never seen him look at anyone with so much desire and tenderness.

Stella let out a soft huff that grated my nerves.

My mind went blank.

So this “important thing” he talked about was picking Stella up from prison and sleeping with her?

[Zara, the man you love most is just my dog. He comes whenever I call and does whatever I want. He’s no different from Victor three years ago.]

My vision turned blurry.

Three years ago, Stella killed my mother in a drunk driving accident. When my fiance, Victor Jordan, dumped me, Samuel appeared out of nowhere like an angel.

I still remember how I knelt in the rain and tried desperately to gather the broken pieces of the dashcam that Victor smashed. The cold rain soaked my wounds, and all I felt was pain.

I also remember how Samuel stood over me with an umbrella. He said, “I’ll use my life to win you the right to sue her. Will you marry me?”

He knew how hard my life was after my father died. I was an orphan bullied by the Jordan family.

He understood how wronged and helpless I felt when the Jordan family turned public opinion against me and painted me as some evil woman.

When everyone else was too scared of the Jordan family’s power to stand up for me, Samuel worked day and night to gather evidence.

When he gave me the documents, he smiled and said, “This is proof that the Jordan family laundered money. You can use it to take them down and send Stella to prison. The price is that you need to become my contract wife.”

At that time, he was my only savior.

On the day everything ended, Samuel and I got married.

He had a good temper. Even at the beginning of our marriage, when I did not want to sleep with him, he never forced me.

But when Victor stormed into my house and said he would kill me, Samuel stood in front of me and beat him up.

That day, he looked into my eyes. His words were harsh but filled with deep emotion.

“Remember this. She’s everything to me now. If you want to hurt her, you’ll have to kill me first!”

That night, we were wild. I offered myself entirely to him.

In three years of marriage, he cooked for me every day. He wanted everyone to know how much he loved me.

But all of it turned out to be one big setup.

I wiped the tears from my face.

If this was all part of his plan, then there had to be something I did not see.

People did not just change for no reason.

I searched through all of Samuel’s things in the house.

In the end, I found a hidden compartment in his study. Inside, there was a phone and a stack of documents.

The phone’s password was neither my birthday nor the day we met. It was Stella’s birthday.

Inside the phone were clear records of every money transfer.

For 1,095 days, there were thousands of transactions. Each one was proof of his love for Stella and the lies he told me.

[Babe, I’m willing to have a fake marriage with her for you. The pardon letter is hidden under her mom’s cremation certificate. Did I do a good job? Babe, will you reward me?]

When I saw that message, it felt like lightning had struck me.

I dug frantically through the thick stack of documents in the compartment. When I saw that piece of paper, I could not hold myself up anymore and sank to the floor.

On the back of my mother’s cremation certificate, there was a copy of the pardon letter!

Samuel had used my name to help the woman who killed my mother escape punishment.

My hands trembled. I did not even dare to touch that piece of paper.

How heartless did he have to be to put those two things together?

At that moment, it felt like thousands of needles pierced through me. The pain was so deep I could not even make a sound.

His messages kept stabbing at my nerves.

[Babe, are you enjoying your vacation? Even though I have a fake marriage with her, my heart is always yours. You’re not with me right now. Can you reward me by sending me a photo of yourself?]

[Babe, I just invested thirty million more into your overseas company. All the money I make is yours. Can you give me just a little more of your love?]

…

He showed Stella endless devotion and pathetic humility. He was like a little dog trapped in the dark, begging desperately for warmth. His twisted and obsessive need to own her cut into my heart like a dull knife with every word.

So, Stella had faced no punishment whatsoever.

My enemy had been living like a queen for the past three years. Even in prison, everyone had placed her on a pedestal.

I kept wiping away my tears again and again until my heart squeezed so hard that I felt physically sick and almost threw up, my phone suddenly buzzed.

It was Samuel.

[Babe, I’m not coming home today. You’re pregnant, so make sure you get plenty of rest. Don’t worry about me.]

[I’ve left some soup for you in the thermal pot in the kitchen. Make sure to drink it. Love you. Wait for me to come home.]

My eyes shifted between the phone, the pardon letter, and the cremation certificate.

How evil did someone have to be to live such a double life?

He gave all his passion to his crush and acted like a caring husband to his wife.

Samuel, which one was the real you?

I let out a bitter laugh as tears fell down my face. Scenes from the past three years ran through my mind. I saw my mother’s tragic death. I saw Samuel holding out his hand to me in the rain. Everything kept switching back and forth in my head.

In the end, my gaze stopped on the pardon letter signed under my name as her family.

I could not hold it in any longer.

“Ugh!”

I ran into the bathroom and threw up into the toilet. I made a complete mess.

At the same time, my phone kept buzzing.

Stella sent me photos of the hotel. She sent me a picture of the night sky they were looking at together.

[He’s not coming home tonight. Poor thing, can you guess what we’re going to do?]

I kept a blank face. I unlocked my phone and called the hospital.

“Hi, I want to book an abortion appointment.”

When I got back from the hospital, Samuel was in the kitchen making soup for me.

Steam rose from the pot. He turned around and gave me a gentle smile. “Honey, I’m so sorry I couldn’t be with you that day. Do you want to post today’s soup on your social media?”

Ever since I got pregnant, he had been making soup for me every day and asked me to post it on my social media.

I used to think that, as the CEO of Xenos Corp, he cooked for me every day without ever getting tired because he truly loved me.

I foolishly thought he asked me to post those photos to prevent the young women at his company from fantasizing about their handsome CEO and to save him from any pointless trouble.

I also thought he was trying to tell my parents in heaven that I had found someone who truly loved and cared for me, so they would not have to worry.

But on that day, I finally understood it was not because he loved me so much. As the CEO of Xenos Corp, he needed a peaceful family life to maintain the company’s stable stock value.

I forced a smile so he would not notice anything and carefully took photos.

He watched me edit them and waited until I posted them on my social media. Then, he smiled and kissed me. “Honey, work has been so busy lately. Once things calm down, I’ll spend more time with you and the baby, okay?”

He put his hand on my belly. He did not realize there was no longer any life inside.

“Okay.”

I showed a fake smile.

“Honey, can I tell you something? Promise you won’t be mad?”

He crouched down and held my hand. His eyes were full of what looked like endless affection.

But I only felt chills all over. I still could not understand how someone could fake love so perfectly.

“Honey, do you remember Stella? She’s already paid for what she did.

“She’s out of prison now, and she’s the head of Xenos Corp’s biggest partner. She has control over my finances. I can’t keep her from coming to the company’s annual party. Please don’t be mad at me. I’m doing this for the company and our future.”

I teared up. How could Samuel do this?

So this so-called punishment was just three meaningless years in prison for Stella in exchange for my mother’s life?

Because of my “forgiveness,” Stella, who should have been sentenced to life, only spent three years in prison. Other than not being able to go out, she had the best food, clothes, and everything she needed. She never suffered at all.

He actually wanted to use the company’s annual party as an excuse to throw her a grand welcome-back celebration.

My chest hurt so much it felt numb, and I could barely breathe.

“Honey, you need to let go of the past. I don’t want you to keep holding onto it and making yourself suffer.”

He looked at me with eyes full of tenderness.

I did not say anything, so he kept trying to comfort me.

He was waiting for my answer, but I knew I did not have a choice.

He always gaslit me into giving in.

In the past, my love and gratitude for him kept me from thinking the worst of him. But remembering everything that happened made me see the truth clearly.

“Fine. I want to give you a special gift at the party too. To celebrate Stella getting out and to… make peace.”

My eyes turned fierce as I smiled.

Samuel was right. I should not keep holding onto the past and making myself suffer.

I should make the ones who caused it to suffer instead.

When he heard me agree, Samuel was elated. He held me and whispered sweet words.

He stayed with me the entire day, but his phone kept ringing without stopping.

By noon the next day, he finally answered a call from Stella. He said he had to deal with something at the company and left.

But the desire in his eyes that she had stirred up was impossible to hide.

I pushed down the pain in my heart. After making sure he had left, I took out the dashcam that I had kept hidden in a corner and contacted a top restoration team.

Then, I went to the prison where Stella had served her sentence.

By the time I got home, I had already received her prison record on my phone.

She had barely spent any time in prison over those three years.

All those business trips Samuel told me about were just excuses. He had been working to get Stella’s sentence reduced illegally.

For three whole years, in all the moments I could not see, during every night I lay awake waiting for him, the man sleeping beside me was doing everything he could to free the woman who killed my mother.

He was just like my ex-fiance, Victor.

They both loved Stella and treated her like she was the most precious thing in their lives.

Victor smashed the dashcam in front of everyone at the accident scene and left with Stella when I arrived.

Samuel sacrificed his marriage to me and trapped me just so he could make me sign the pardon letter to reduce her sentence.

It was not wrong to love someone, but they should not do it at the cost of me and my family.