My husband asked me to let my sister be his “wife” for one night. He said it like he was asking me to pass the salt. 009
PART 3
The question landed like shattered glass.
“How long have you been sleeping with her?” Jackson asked.
The ballroom went silent so fast I could hear the faint clink of silverware from the far side of the room.
Damen’s face hardened instantly. Not shocked. Not offended.
Cornered.
“Don’t start acting righteous,” he snapped at his brother. “You don’t know what’s going on.”
Jackson folded his arms. “Then explain it.”
Nikki stepped in before he could answer, her voice sharp and trembling at the same time. “This is insane. Carissa brought you here to humiliate us.”
Us.
Not him.
Us.
That tiny word cut deeper than everything else.
I looked around the ballroom. People were pretending not to stare, but every head had tilted in our direction. Damen’s former classmates—the people he’d lied to for years—were openly watching now.
And for the first time since this nightmare started, I realized something important.
I wasn’t embarrassed anymore.
They should be.
I held up the receipt between two fingers. “Why was there an engagement ring bought for my sister eight months ago?”
Damen scoffed too quickly. “It’s not what you think.”
“Then what is it?”
He opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Because there are moments when liars finally run out of room.
Nikki suddenly grabbed his arm. “Say something.”
That desperation told me more than any confession could.
Jackson exhaled slowly, disgusted. “Jesus Christ.”
Damen’s eyes flashed toward him. “Stay out of my marriage.”
Jackson laughed once—a cold, humorless sound.
“You brought your mistress to a reunion and introduced her as your wife. I think we’re way past the point where this counts as a marriage.”
A woman near the buffet actually gasped.
Damen turned toward the crowd immediately, slipping into performance mode. “Everyone calm down. This is just a misunderstanding between family members.”
There it was.
The charm.
The same polished voice he used every time rent was late, every time he quit another job, every time he needed someone else to carry the consequences for him.
For years, I’d mistaken manipulation for confidence.
Now I could see the machinery working underneath it.
One of his old classmates frowned. “Wait. So who’s your actual wife?”
Damen hesitated.
And in that hesitation, his entire fake life cracked open.
I smiled politely and extended my hand.
“Carissa,” I said. “The woman who’s been paying his mortgage.”
Several people looked stunned.
One man muttered, “No way.”
Another woman glanced between Nikki and me like she was trying to solve a puzzle.
Then someone asked the question I hadn’t even needed to ask.
“Why would you lie about which sister you married?”
Damen looked trapped now.
Because there was no answer that didn’t expose him.
Nikki suddenly straightened beside him, anger replacing panic.
“You all need to mind your business,” she snapped. “Relationships are complicated.”
I looked at her carefully.
“No,” I said quietly. “Betrayal is complicated. This is actually very simple.”
Her face flushed.
For one second, I saw the little girl she used to be—the one who stole my clothes and cried when she got caught. Only now the stakes were bigger. Adult-sized damage. Adult-sized selfishness.
But still the same pattern.
Take.
Cry.
Get rescued.
Except this time no one was rescuing her.
Jackson stepped closer to me. “We should go.”
But before we could move, Damen grabbed my wrist.
Not hard enough to bruise.
Hard enough to remind me who he thought I belonged to.
“You’re not leaving after pulling this,” he hissed.
The room shifted again.
People noticed.
I slowly looked down at his hand until he released me.
“You know what’s funny?” I asked calmly. “You spent years pretending I didn’t exist. And now you’re upset I stopped acting like your wife.”
His jaw tightened.
Then Nikki said the one thing she should’ve kept to herself.
“You never acted like his wife anyway.”
Silence.
I turned toward her.
“What does that mean?”
She crossed her arms, clearly deciding she had nothing left to lose.
“It means you treated him like a project,” she said. “You paid bills and corrected him and made him feel small all the time.”
I blinked slowly.
“You mean I supported him.”
“No,” Nikki shot back. “You controlled him.”
Damen didn’t interrupt.
That hurt more than if he’d yelled.
Because he agreed.
After everything I’d carried for him, after every overtime shift and sacrificed weekend and carefully managed emergency, he’d rewritten me into the villain so he could live with himself.
Jackson looked genuinely revolted now.
“You let her support both of you financially while you were sleeping together?”
Again, neither of them answered.
And that was answer enough.
A man near the bar shook his head. “That’s low, dude.”
Another classmate muttered, “Insanely low.”
Damen snapped.
“You all think you know me because of one dramatic scene?” he barked. “Carissa has always been impossible to live with. She’s cold, judgmental, controlling—”
“Oh, stop.”
The voice came from behind us.
An older woman with silver-blonde hair stepped forward holding a wine glass.
I recognized her immediately from old reunion photos.
Professor Lydia Bennett.
One of Damen’s former mentors.
She looked him dead in the eye.
“You used to tell everyone your girlfriend was supporting your career while you ‘found yourself,’” she said. “You bragged about it.”
Damen went pale.
“And now,” she continued, “you’re standing here humiliating the same woman publicly because you think another woman makes you look more impressive?”
The room became painfully still.
Lydia turned toward me.
“My dear, you should leave this man.”
My throat tightened unexpectedly.
Not because of the advice.
Because it was the first time someone older had ever defended me instead of asking me to be understanding.
Damen saw the room slipping away from him.
That was when he made his fatal mistake.
He pointed at Nikki.
“She pursued me first.”
Nikki stared at him.
The betrayal on her face was immediate and raw.
“You asshole.”
“You know it’s true,” he fired back.
“Oh my God,” Jackson muttered.
And suddenly they were fighting.
Not like secret lovers.
Like co-conspirators turning on each other under pressure.
“She was miserable with you!” Nikki shouted at me. “You treated him like a child!”
“Because he acted like one!” I snapped before I could stop myself.
Damen laughed bitterly. “See? This is exactly what I’m talking about.”
I stared at him.
“You know what’s amazing?” I said softly. “You drained my savings account, lied about your jobs, cheated with my sister, and somehow you still think you’re the victim.”
His expression shifted.
Not guilt.
Fear.
Because I’d said savings account.
Jackson noticed too.
“What savings account?”
I looked at Damen.
He looked away.
A terrible feeling crawled up my spine.
“What did you do?” I whispered.
Nobody spoke.
Then Nikki said quietly, “Damen…”
That one word confirmed it.
My stomach dropped.
I turned fully toward him. “What did you do?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “I was going to fix it.”
Every nerve in my body went cold.
“How much?”
“Carissa—”
“How much?”
His silence stretched too long.
Jackson stepped forward. “Answer her.”
Damen finally muttered, “Forty thousand.”
The ballroom disappeared around me.
Forty thousand dollars.
The down payment fund.
The account I’d been building for years.
I could barely breathe.
“You stole from me?”
“I borrowed it,” he snapped defensively. “I was investing.”
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