Chapter 1 Wedding Night

At night, in the Anderson family's mansion, Ariana Edwards was silently watching the unconscious man lying in bed.

The man was handsome, with a chiseled face and exquisite features. Even though he was in a coma, he gave off the air of someone inherently dignified and strong.

This was the first time Ariana was seeing her husband, Theodore Anderson, the eldest son of the Anderson family.

Tonight was their wedding night.

At this moment, the door of the bedroom suddenly burst open, slamming violently.

Ariana spun around at the noise to see who just entered the room loudly.

The man swaggered in with a bottle of wine in his hand. His white shirt was partly unbuttoned, and his tie was hanging loosely around his neck. He was reeking of the smell of alcohol.

The drunk man who stumbled in was Jasper Anderson, Theodore's half-brother. And before today, Jasper had been Ariana's boyfriend.

"I'm here to keep you company, Ariana. You must be awfully lonely to have to be with a vegetable on your wedding night." Jasper spoke impiously and without respect, completely disregarding Ariana as his sister-in-law.

"Jasper, don't you have any shame showing up here like this? Where were you when I was forced into marriage or when I was tied to the operating table for an IUI procedure? You were in bed with my sister!" The sight of her ex-boyfriend made Ariana feel nothing but burning hatred.

Three months ago, Jasper's eldest brother, Theodore, was involved in a car accident that rendered him in a coma. Despite his vulnerable state, his life was still being taken advantage of. The Andersons wanted to use Theodore's preserved sperm to conduct an artificial insemination before his death, and Ariana was the chosen receptacle for the embryo.

However, Ariana knew nothing of this until this morning when she was deceived into attending the church in the name of a proposal by her ex-boyfriend. Her belief collapsed in an instant.

Moreover, to break Ariana's spirit and make her give up without a fight, Glenda Edwards, her stepmother, even took her to watch Jasper in the middle of sexual intercourse with another woman. At her wedding, in a room across the hall, Jasper and Ariana's stepsister, Brielle Edwards, were having sex unscrupulously!

It was one of the main reasons Ariana decided to complete the wedding and accept undergoing the IUI procedure. She wanted to be approved as an official daughter-in-law of the Anderson family, seize power and property of the Anderson family and take revenge on Jasper!

Jasper didn't expect Ariana to have known everything, but he wasn't that bothered and dropped the act. He pulled his collar and snarled at her with a contemptible expression, "Even if you know the truth, so what? Now that you're part of the Anderson family, you have to listen to me. Theodore is just a dying vegetable. The only person who can protect you here is me. If you're willing to bury the hatchet, we can still secretly be a loving couple."

Ariana sneered, "In your dreams, Jasper. I'm Theodore's wife now, the daughter-in-law of the Anderson family, and your sister-in-law. Nothing more."

Jasper scowled at her in disdain. His eyes trailed from her face and down to her curvy figure and, suddenly, he had an obscene thought.

In the past three years of dating, Ariana had always refused to sleep with him. If he could sleep with Theodore's newly married wife in front of Theodore's bed on their wedding night...

The thought of it excited Jasper. He quickly turned and locked the door, turned off the light, and walked toward Ariana slowly.

Ariana backed away vigilantly. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Theodore is a vegetable now. He's no use. It's better for you to have my baby directly."

With a wicked smirk on his face, Jasper pounced on her. The strong reek of alcohol filled Ariana's nose, and she stepped back quickly, frightened.

This bastard didn't take Theodore seriously at all. He even dared to attempt to rape his sister-in-law in front of his elder brother!

Trembling with fury, Ariana shoved Jasper away and shouted, "Get off me!"

With lust burning in his heart and alcohol in his mind, Jasper pulled Ariana's shoulder roughly, yanking her closer and trying to force her into a kiss.

Ariana couldn't stand it anymore. She grabbed something in hand and raised it in the air, prepared to hit Jasper with it to defend herself. But Jasper suddenly froze, and his expression changed dramatically.

She raised her head, bewildered, and realized Jasper was looking at something behind her. His face was pale and filled with terror as if he had seen a ghost.

"Th-Theodore..."

Ariana turned around to discover that Theodore was sitting up in bed, his sharp eyes staring at them coldly.