Chapter 1 Woke Up Painfully From The Huge Deception

With a practiced smile, Arabella Curtis waved off her friend's story about seeing her husband, Brenton Curtis, acting intimately with a woman at a hotel.

Without missing a beat, she dismissed the possibility that Brenton would ever cheat on her. After all, sharing thirteen years of history and a bond forged in childhood, their connection felt far too deep for betrayal.

She still remembered that on her recent birthday, Brenton had rented the city's largest screen just to broadcast his love for her to all of Ouismont.

Moreover, the two of them were already in the middle of trying for a baby.

Clutching her fresh medical report, Arabella hurried to the company, desperate to tell Brenton she was in good shape for pregnancy.

Stepping out of the private elevator leading straight to the top floor, she found her path to Brenton's office suddenly blocked by a young woman in a yellow dress.

"How did you get up here? If you don't have an appointment, you're not going in."

Studying the young woman before her, Arabella found the woman both charming and strangely familiar.

The young woman raised her hands and locked eyes with Arabella, her face filled with pure arrogance.

Intervening quickly, Cade Reid, Brenton's assistant, rushed over to pull the young woman back. "Sallie, this is Mrs. Curtis. Show her due respect and apologize to her right now."

Recovering from her shock, Sallie Murray bit her lip and tilted her head back defiantly. "Hello, Mrs. Curtis. I'm a student sponsored by Mr. Curtis. I'm grateful he let me intern here. I didn't see your name on his schedule, so I followed protocol just now. I'm sure you'll understand and not hold it against me."

Beneath her gentle expression, her tone carried a subtle edge.

Offering no response, Arabella dropped her gaze to Sallie's fingernails. "That's a very nice shade of polish."

Gazing at the shimmering blue, Arabella realized it was the exact same color she'd seen on Brenton's pinky just yesterday. Last night, while cooking their dinner together, confronted with her curious question, he'd claimed it was just an ink smear. At the time, she hadn't given it a second thought.

Tucking her hands behind her back, Sallie looked away, clearly trying to avoid Arabella's stare.

Spotting a dark bruise behind Sallie's ear, Arabella noted the faint tooth marks of a deep, aggressive kiss.

Knowing Brenton for four years, Arabella was all too familiar with his intimate habits.

Many times, in moments of passion, Brenton would often leave a trail of kisses behind her ear, his voice hoarse from suppressing his desire. "When are you going to be ready for me, honey? I'm reaching my breaking point here..."

Battling fragile health for years, Arabella lived with the grim reality that her past uterine injuries turned any potential pregnancy into a gamble with her life.

Brenton was constrained by his condom allergy and a grueling career; the couple had remarkably never consummated their two-year marriage.

Watching Brenton retreat to a cold shower to kill his desire, Arabella always felt a heavy mix of guilt and deep affection.

That was why, when he suggested they start a family and urged her to quit her job and stay home to focus on the preparation for pregnancy, she complied without protest.

Enduring six months of foul-tasting medication, she had kept her heart full of anticipation for the family they would build together.

Anticipating tonight as their long-overdue milestone, she had even gone as far as buying lingerie that she would've been too embarrassed to even look at normally.

Yet, realizing the sick truth now, Arabella finally saw that Brenton hadn't been restraining his desires at all; he had long strayed. The weight of her friend's warning pressed on her, and the blow of Brenton's long-time betrayal left her standing completely frozen in the hallway.

"Mrs. Curtis, your husband is currently in a meeting with Mr. Rogers. Please go on in," Cade said before ushering a sulking Sallie away.

Walking with leaden feet, Arabella approached the massive doors of the CEO's office.

Pushing the door ajar, she caught the low murmur of voices drifting through the small opening.

"Keeping a girl on the side is one thing, but bringing her to the office is just reckless. You can't afford to let Arabella catch wind of this and turn it into a disaster," Archie Rogers warned.

Standing rooted to the floor, Arabella felt a bone-deep chill that made her teeth chatter uncontrollably. Discovering that even her own brother was helping hide Brenton's affair, the betrayal felt twice as sharp.

"Relax, Archie. Bella is completely wrapped around my finger. She's too sensible to make a scene, and frankly, she's too busy playing house and getting ready for a baby to notice a thing."

Brenton's voice was low and magnetic, full of confidence.

Hearing that familiar tone now felt like a poison seeping through the door, destroying everything she believed in.

"Fair point. Ever since Brinley hired those thugs to stab Arabella-nearly destroying her uterus-everyone in Quismont knew she was damaged goods. If you hadn't taken care of her, proposed to her, and then whisked her abroad, we never would've had the time to cover up Brinley's crime."

"If Brinley actually goes to jail because of what happened with Arabella, her future is over."

"Your feelings for Brinley run deeply. But she is way too proud to tolerate you finding substitutes that resemble her. Brinley is nothing like Arabella, who is basically just a puppet you can control."

"I'm just having some fun with that intern. I'll take care of everything once Brinley finally comes back."

"Fine, as long as you know what you're doing."

Arabella felt her hand shaking violently as she gripped the doorknob, and a cold chill ran up from her feet. It felt as if an iron hand was squeezing her heart so hard that she couldn't breathe or even stand up straight.

Born as a Rogers and having gone missing when she was a kid, she hadn't been found until she was seventeen.

Yet, even after reconnecting with her blood family, regardless of how hard she tried to please, her parents and brothers always chose the daughter without blood ties, Brinley Rogers, over her.

Luckily, she had her grandmother, the only person in the entire family who truly loved and cared for her.

When Arabella turned eighteen, her grandmother gave her a precious family heirloom-a bracelet. Brinley was so jealous of the gift that she cried and made a scene until their parents bought her a villa worth fifty million dollars just to appease her.

Not long after Arabella entered adulthood, a group of thugs attacked her while she was walking home one night.

Those thugs dragged her into a dark alley, where she fought back as hard as she could until she was stabbed twice.

Looking at all the blood, the thugs got scared and ran away, leaving her to crawl out of the alley to find help.

Doctors worked hard to save her, but due to the delayed treatment, she almost lost her ability to ever have children.

Her misfortune didn't stop there. News of the attack made headlines, creating a huge stir, with the gossips maliciously against her.

"Did you hear the news? Arabella was assaulted, and her uterus was damaged beyond repair!"

"Then she can't have babies now. Already inferior to Brinley, she's just a useless burden to her family now."

"I wonder how many guys have ever touched her. Ugh! If that happened to me, I'd have ended my life a long time ago."

Mockery and vicious rumors about her were all over the place during those darkest days of her life.

Throughout that entire painful period, Brenton stayed by her side and took care of her. While everyone else scorned her, he ignored the ridicule directed at her and told her that he truly loved her.

He even organized a massive and beautiful ceremony to ask eighteen-year-old Arabella to be his wife. Later on, taking her on a vacation, he acted like he was slowly healing her broken heart.

Since the day Brenton saved her from drowning when they were kids, Arabella had started developing feelings toward him and followed him everywhere like a shadow.

Excited by Brenton's declaration of his feelings toward her, she ignored the Rodger family's angry warnings and chose to be with him, his lack of money not bothering her in the slightest.

Helping Brenton start his company, she lived with him in a tiny basement and never complained about the hardship. Following their original plan, the two of them officially got married two years later. After their marriage, he remained gentle and considerate, and they were as loving as ever. They even started trying to have a baby together.

Arabella had once felt that Brenton was the lighthouse amid her darkest days and the best thing that had ever happened to her. However, she never guessed that the person Brenton actually loved this whole time was Brinley.

Now, it finally clicked for Arabella that the odd sense of familiarity when she laid eyes on Sallie stemmed from the woman's resemblance to Brinley. Everything-from Brenton's declarations of love and proposal to their wedding-was just an act to buy time and cover Brinley's crimes. Brenton's devotion to Brinley really astonished her.

Letting out a self-ridiculing smirk, Arabella wondered if she was just a tool to be sacrificed for Brinley and Brenton's great love story. And it seemed her blood family treated her just as a pawn in their plan to protect Brinley from any consequence.

Mockery filled her thoughts as she wondered if she should actually thank them for lying so well to her.

"Who's there?" a freezing voice called out inside the room.

Sitting at his desk, Brenton stared at the cracked door and abruptly rose to his feet.

His long legs strode forward, his presence sharp as he yanked open the heavy double doors, his gaze piercing.

However, the hallway was empty.

Frowning in confusion, Brenton watched as Cade came running toward him.

"Tell me exactly who was just standing at this door," Brenton demanded with a scary look in his eyes.

Cade, unsure of what had happened during his absence, answered honestly, "Mr. Curtis, your wife was here a moment ago. She had a run-in with Sallie and seemed a bit upset. Didn't you see her?"

"Wait, Arabella was actually here?" Archie asked as he walked up, his expression shifting.

Tightening his eyebrows, Brenton felt an unfamiliar feeling of panic start to grow in his chest. He glared at Cade and barked, "Go and check the surveillance cameras right this second!"