Tenth Wedding Anniversary, I Received Intimate Photos of My Husband and My Sister

The day of our tenth wedding anniversary.

The gift I received was a set of photos of my husband, Nicholas Morton, in bed with my sister, Erica Simmons.

Ten years of marriage, and this wasn't the first time Nicholas had cheated. But it was the time that cut deepest.

Let's get divorced.

When I pulled out the divorce papers and asked him to sign, Nicholas was still on a video call with Erica.

"Be good, sweetheart. Wear that little outfit tonight and wait up for me."

He hung up, glanced at me with a contemptuous little smile, and signed his name on the divorce agreement like it was a dare.

"Wife, ten years in, you really should have learned to be smarter by now."

"You think if I set you free, you'll actually be able to leave?"

A black card came sliding toward me along with the divorce papers.

"Enough. Don't be difficult."

"This time's the same as always. Even if she is your sister, I'll play with her a month at most."

"After a month, I'll come back to the family."

"After all, you're the one I love most. And we have a son together."

What he didn't know:

This time, I wasn't going to wait anymore.

The black card got thrown back at Nicholas.

I took only that signed divorce agreement, turned, and walked away.

"Stop right there!"

There was a thread of panic in Nicholas's voice.

He stood, came around in front of me, gripped both my shoulders, and let out a soft sigh.

"Jealous?"

"Because I slept with Erica? Hm?"

I said nothing. I didn't cry either.

Every last tear had dried up the moment I received those lurid, obscene photos.

Erica was my own sister.

We were twins. From the time I was small, the poor kid who had to grow up early, I'd swallowed every bitterness life could serve.

But she'd always lived like a princess. Fine clothes, rich food, spoiled rotten.

Mom and Dad favored her, going so far as to say they regretted not strangling me at birth.

That way Erica would have been the only child, more precious still.

Teachers doted on her, saying such a fine girl had the misfortune of a worthless, ignorant sister, too shabby to deserve being their student.

Classmates and so-called friends bullied me for her, again and again.

They threw cold water on me.

Forced me to eat spoiled food.

Made me kneel on the concrete and kowtow to Erica.

I lived in her shadow for twenty years.

And then I finally met Nicholas, whose eyes held no one but me.

Now Nicholas liked her too.

"Wife."

Nicholas held me, patting my back gently, his voice warm.

"Didn't we agree on this? I give you my one and only love, my soul, for this whole life. But you can't keep demanding my body be faithful too."

That said.

He spread his hands, gesturing for me to take in the lavish, opulent office.

"Look. I'm the heir of the Morton family of Shengjing."

"I've got the looks, I've got the money. I can't spend every single day playing some Cinderella love game with you, can I?"

"You're a mother now. Be realistic."

"I swear, the position of Mrs. Morton is yours forever. Isn't that enough?"

I looked at Nicholas, and for a moment I found it genuinely funny.

"Nicholas, you don't actually think I care about being Mrs. Morton, do you?"

Nicholas's mother was vicious and cruel.

From the day I married into the Morton family, she'd looked at me like an enemy, never willing to grant me a shred of the dignity or the rights a Mrs. Morton should have.

That empty title was good for nothing, except giving her an excuse to mistreat and grind me down.

Nicholas's eyes narrowed, his tone turning cold all at once.

"But you need to stay Mrs. Morton, baby."

"Your father owes so much money. Without me paying it down every month, someone would have chopped his hands off a long time ago."

"Your mother's health is poor. It's the Morton family's medical team keeping her alive."

"Lindsay Simmons, isn't it precisely because you became Mrs. Morton that you're lucky enough to have your husband clean up your messes?"

Watching Nicholas say it without a shred of shame,

I couldn't stop myself from closing my eyes.

Right.

I was lucky.

I was so incredibly lucky.

If I hadn't overheard what he said to my parents that day, maybe I'd have gone on being this lucky for the rest of my life.

I walked out of the Morton Group building.

Standing on the sidewalk below, I turned and looked up at this landmark of Shengjing.

Ten years ago, before we were married, the Morton family wasn't yet the richest family in Shengjing.

Back then the richest man in the city was some nouveau riche developer.

He'd taken a fancy to me.

He named me by name and told the Simmonses he wanted to marry me.

My father was on the verge of agreeing.

It was Nicholas who knelt outside the Simmons house for three days and three nights before my father relented and gave him two more years.

Two years. Overtaking the richest man in the city was nearly impossible.

I thought about it all night, then sold the herbal formula I'd poured my heart into developing for fifty million dollars and handed every cent of it to Nicholas.

And he delivered.

In less than six months, he'd earned the right to marry me.

It drizzled on our wedding day.

The cold, damp weather made the knees he'd ruined kneeling ache unbearably.

But he lifted me into his arms, his pale face full of joy.

"Lindsay, from now on I'll protect you. No one will ever bully you again."

That was the first time in my life anyone had ever cherished me.

So this was what it felt like to be loved.

But...

Could a love carved that deep into the bone really change too?

Like dew.

Like a flash of lightning.

In the end, ten years passed, and I could rarely find any trace of the man who had once loved me in Nicholas.

There was only cheating, betrayal, and lies.

The first time Nicholas cheated, I asked for a divorce.

The next day, my father's creditors showed up at the Simmons house.

Thirty million dollars owed.

Pay it back, or they'd cut off his hand.

My father, who had never much liked me, knelt on the floor with his hair gone white, clutching my hand and weeping.

"Your dad's old. One hand's no great loss. Don't get involved, sweetheart. Just live a good life, and I'll rest easy."

Nicholas stepped in to help without being asked.

"Honey, your herbal formula gave me fifty million back then. This thirty million, I'll pay it gladly."

"But I can't come up with all of it at once. Don't file for divorce. Let me pay it off month by month. All right?"

Only thirty million.

With what Nicholas was worth now, there was no way he couldn't produce it.

It was nothing but a tactic to force me to stay married.

I agreed.

He was my father, after all.

Even if he'd treated me badly, when I was little he'd once let me ride on his shoulders to watch fireworks and reach for the stars.

The second time Nicholas cheated, I asked for a divorce again.

The next day, my mother fell ill.

The Morton family's medical team had her admitted for treatment that very day.

Erica was away on business overseas for work, so the entire responsibility of caring for my mother fell on my shoulders.

Nicholas sat up through the night at my mother's bedside for me, his eyes gone bloodshot, and still he held my hand and comforted me.

"Honey, let me take care of Mom. You're not well, you need your rest."

In the quiet hospital at midnight, he held me, his voice very soft.

"Lindsay, when you're old, I'll sit at your bedside just like this. And if you go first, I won't go on living."

"You suffered so much as a child. That's why heaven sent me to love you."

The divorce came to nothing.

For my parents, and for that laughable little hope for love still buried in my heart,

I swallowed his betrayals, one after another.

Until the thirtieth time.

When his mistress showed up at my door and ground my face beneath her heel, I truly couldn't bear it any longer.

Before I could even bring up the divorce, my son wrapped his arms around my leg.

He looked up at me, eyes brimming with tears.

"Mommy, please don't divorce Daddy, okay?"

"I don't want to be an orphan kid with no mom."

Nicholas had gotten one thing right.

Even if he set me free, I couldn't leave.

My parents depended on the Mortons.

And a boy couldn't be left without his mother.

But he'd miscalculated one thing.

That day, in my mother's hospital room, while they plotted out how to keep stringing me along, I was standing right outside the door.

Inside, my father was beaming, his face flushed with satisfaction.

"I kept up this fake debt for so long, of course she'll stay put and play the dutiful Morton daughter-in-law."

My mother chimed in. "And there's me too."

"I was never sick at all, forever camping out in a hospital bed. Have I ever complained?"

My son, sitting on Erica's lap, sounded downright resentful.

"I've always wanted Auntie to be my mom, obviously. Dad, why'd you make me pretend I couldn't bear to lose her?"

"Wouldn't it be better if you two just got divorced? Auntie's way better than Mom. She never nags me about anything."

"Grandma says so too. Mom's already a hen that can't lay eggs. Only Auntie can give me a little brother."

Outside the door, the pain in my chest was so sharp I could barely breathe.

Because of Nicholas cheating on me, again and again.

The Mortons had become a laughingstock in Shengjing's high society.

My mother-in-law blamed me for failing to hold onto my man, and made me kneel out in the snow one winter night in Shengjing.

An entire night.

I slipped into unconsciousness, and when I woke I had not only lost the baby just beginning to take shape inside me, I had lost the ability to ever bear a child again.

My parents nodded eagerly at his words and urged Nicholas on.

"Exactly. Son-in-law, why not make the switch? Lindsay was never as good as her sister growing up. She doesn't deserve the Mortons as they are now."

Nicholas said nothing.

He reached out, hooked his arm around Erica's neck, kissed her on the mouth, and drank her in greedily.

"Why would I switch?"

"Who else could ever be as spineless as Lindsay?"

"I give her a scrap of love, you put on your pitiful little act, and she swallows my cheating one time after another."

"A woman this stupid, you really couldn't find a second one."

I was pretty stupid, all right.

On the way back, I clutched the signed divorce papers, tears dripping down one after another.

But surely a person doesn't have to be stupid their whole life.

I picked up my phone and booked a flight out of the country three days from now.

And while I was at it, I posted the photos of Nicholas and Erica in bed online.

No fun keeping the joy to yourself.

Once that was done, I went and got my hair done and had a facial.

Everything at the mall I'd always liked but never let myself buy, I bought it all.

Only then did I go home to the Mortons, cheerful as could be.

The moment I stepped through the door, Hilda hurled a crystal cup straight at my face and split my forehead open.

The pain at my temple was so sharp it brought tears to my eyes.

Warm blood slid down and dripped onto the carpet beneath my feet.

She acted as if she hadn't seen a thing, holding Dean in her arms, glaring at me with pure venom.

"Look at what kind of mother you are. Dean went to school today without even a jacket. Are you trying to freeze my grandson to death?"

This was Dean's usual trick for framing me.

Faking a nightmare in the middle of the night, saying my daytime scolding had terrified him.

Refusing to eat on purpose, starving himself until he fainted, then telling Grandma I abused him.

Every time, it gave Hilda a reason to grind me down and teach me a lesson.

Whether it was a slap across the face or being forced to kneel.

Dean would just watch, grinning, and once in a while pipe up.

"Mommy, you're really so useless. Auntie would never be like this."

This time was nothing more than the same old trick.

When we left the house this morning, I'd put his jacket on him with my own two hands.

Dean looked at the blood on my forehead and took a photo with his phone.

I knew what he was doingsending it straight to Erica again.

Slap!

Without a word, I stepped forward, knocked the phone out of Dean's hand, pulled him over my knee, and gave him a hard spanking.

Before Hilda could lose it, I raised my hand and pointed at the security camera.

"This morning, I put his coat on him right under that camera. The boy lied, Mother. So tell medo I, his mother, have the right to discipline him?"

My fist clenched, and I looked ready to swing at Hilda any second.

Her lips moved, but in the end she said nothing.

Even so, my punishment came fast.

That night.

The bedroom door was kicked open with brutal force.

Four hulking men knocked me out cold before I could react.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in an unfamiliar hotel room.

Nicholas's face was black as coal. He grabbed my wrist and nearly hauled me off my feet.

"Lindsay, have you lost your mind? Who gave you the nerve to pull this?"

I fought against him with everything I had.

The harder I struggled, the tighter he gripped, until my wrist felt ready to snap.

Fighting through the pain, I looked at him and gave a cold laugh.

"Nicholas, funnyI never saw you care this much about Dean before."

Dean was eight this year.

Nicholas couldn't even tell you what day his birthday fell on.

And now, just because I disciplined the boy, he wanted to turn on me?

"Dean?"

Confusion crossed his face, then hardened again into something vicious.

"I'm asking how you dared to post Erica's photos online."

"What Dean? Lindsay, quit playing dumb!"

Hah.

So that was what this was about.

Made sense.

One afternoon was more than enough time for those photos to catch fire online.

Young billionaire cheats with rising young model.

That kind of story always went over well with people online.

"Oh, those photos?" I gave a small smile. "Not flattering enough?"

"You let Erica send me her bedroom pictures as an anniversary gift, just to taunt me. I figured the two of you had no shame left at all."

"Lindsay!"

His eyes went red. "She's your own sister, the most promising model in the countryyou've ruined her!"

I ruined Erica?

I twisted free of Nicholas, lifted the hem of my dress, and showed him the ugly scar down my thigh.

"Back then, the agency picked me."

"Erica was jealous. She dumped an entire brazier of coals over me. That's how she made her own opening."

Nicholas had known about this scar for years.

The first time I told him about it, he'd kissed every inch of the scar, aching for me.

"It must have hurt so much back then," he'd said, almost choking on the words.

"It doesn't hurt anymore." He'd held me and sworn it. "Lindsay, it'll never hurt again."

But now Nicholas just turned away, impatient to the bone.

"How many more times are you going to keep dredging up this ancient history?"

"Lindsay, you've been too disobedient. Looks like I'll have to teach you a lesson today."

He pinned me down and forced a full glass of drugged water down my throat.

He watched as the flush crept over my face, bit by bit.

Nicholas stroked my cheek, gentle now.

"Don't worry, Lindsay. I'm only going to take some photos."

"As long as you can be good like beforeno fighting, no grabbing, and just stay by my sideno one else will ever see these pictures."

My whole body had gone limp, and I looked up at him, my eyes begging.

But Nicholas acted as though he didn't see it, slowly changing me into a flame-red nightgown.

He arranged me into one pose after another.

The shutter clicked again and again, without pause.

When the last click ended, Nicholas dressed me, tucked the blanket over me, and pressed a soft kiss to my forehead.

"Sleep now, wife. Goodnight."

The door closed, and Nicholas was gone.

Ten minutes later.

Erica walked in with the four hulking men who'd kidnapped me, and stood over me.

"Sister, since you made me suffer such a huge loss, I have to treat you to something nice too."

She waved the four of them forward. "Take her together. Do whatever you want."

My eyes went wide.

The strength I'd barely clawed back was only enough for one scream.

"Help!"

As the cry faded, a man rushed in, dragged the brute off me, and drove a fist into him.

His eyes turned cold, and he barked out low, "All of you, get out!"

This manI had seen him before.