Sister stole my husband after I saved her life

For four years, I’ve been a wife, a fool, and nothing more than his second choice.

The photo of a sonogram trembled in my hand. I was supposed to be happy—if only the baby was mine. But the harsh truth—it was Lavinia's—my stepsister and my husband's lover. I stared at it until the edges blurred, until bile threatened to rise in my throat.

He was here, in the room, watching me. Silent. Almost smug. The air between us carried everything I had tried not to see—her perfume on his shirts, his sudden late nights, the way his eyes dimmed whenever they landed on me.

I finally spoke, though my voice sounded foreign, raw.

“How long?”

Trevor didn’t flinch. His expression was flat, almost bored. “Does it matter?”

A crack opened in my chest, and still I pressed on. “Of all people, why did it have to be my stepsister?”

His smirk confirmed what I already knew. He didn’t bother denying. He didn’t even try to soften the blow. Instead, his gaze slid over me, cold and assessing.

“You’ve let yourself go,” he said, tone detached, like he was listing facts. “She’s… different. She makes me feel alive.”

The words cut deeper than if he’d shouted them. Alive. As though with me, he’d been dead.

I held his stare, refusing to let him see me unravel. Inside, my heart was clawing at my ribs, screaming to shatter, but I swallowed the sound. He would not have the satisfaction.

Once, I would have begged him to choose me. Tonight, I chose myself.

I turned, walked to the drawer, and pulled out the envelope I’d been hiding for weeks. My hand didn’t shake as I laid it on the bed.

Trevor’s brow arched. “What’s this supposed to be?”

“Your freedom,” I said, my voice steady though my chest was burning in rage. “Don’t choke on it.”

I left before he could speak again, slamming the door behind me. The echo rang through the hall like the final toll of a bell. For the first time in four years, the air filling my lungs didn’t taste like defeat. I don't deserve this kind of cruelty. I was done and so was my feelings for him.