Because of Doctor Nivianne Sloane and her stupid bet, my father almost died. She once bragged to her colleagues that she could clip a ruptured brain aneurysm with one hand. One hand. Of course, she failed. She said she got a bad headahe and dropped the scalpel right there in the operating room then ran out like a coward.
And my father… my poor father… he never woke up again. He’s lying there like a vegetable, his machines screaming every hour, and I can’t do anything but press the bell over and over. No one comes. No one helps.
Mark, my brother, tried to fight back for us. He sued her. He was so sure, he worked day and night because he believed justice was still alive. But in just two days, his license as a lawyer was stripped, and he was sent to prison. They said perjury, bribery, defamation. Lies. All lies. And they sentenced him to ten years like it was nothing. His name, his information, everything was leaked. And now the world spits on him even his colleagues and friends.
And behind all of this?
It was Wilbert Chambers. My husband. The man I’ve been married to for five years. The man who controls the whole city. The man who is supposed to protect me.
That day, while I was pressing the bell like a madwoman and no doctors came, Wilbert walked in. Perfect suit, perfect shoes, calm face. He handed me my phone like it was some kind of gift and said, “The police now dropped the case. Record a video. Apologize. Do it publicly. If you do, your dad gets surgery. Vegetative or dead, you choose.”
My hands shook. My whole body trembled. I couldn’t stop my tears. I looked at him and whispered, “W-why?”
Why him? Why would my own husband help Nivianne? Why betray me?
And for the second time since I’ve known him, I cried in front of Wilbert. The first time was at our wedding because of happiness... But now? Shame on him.
“Stop cyrying, Anika...”
His eyes flickered like something in him didn’t want to see me cry, like maybe for half a second he cared. He even lifted his hand, like he wanted to wipe my tears, but then he stopped. He pulled back like my pain disgusted him.
“Anika, Nivianne and I grew up together. That surgery was an accident. Even if she didn’t use one hand, maybe your father wouldn’t survive anyway. The media is eating her alive now. Be good. Record the video. Explain it clearly. Then this will be over. The doctors are waiting, Anika... And after that, I’ll bring your brother out. Okay?”
He made it sound like he was asking, but his eyes… they told me I had no choice.
Do I have the right to refuse? Can I even say no? If I disagree, will I end up in prison too? Or will I end up like my father?
My heart felt like it was breaking.
I thought Wilbert loved me. For five years he gave me everything. Every gift, every whim, no matter how expensive, he made it appear for me. He never raised his voice at me, never scolded me. I thought he was my safe place.
But since my father’s failed surgery, I begged him over and over to help me, and all I saw on his face was hesitation. And now I finally know. He was never my safe place. He was the one holding the knife.
At first Wilbert said it was inconvenient for him to step in. He acted like it wasn’t his business. But the moment he found out the person involved was Nivianne, everything changed.
“If you don’t agree, then your father will not survive today. And your brother will stay in prison forever. Anika, don’t blame me for being cruel. Nivianne grew up with me. She was the one who pulled me out of the car accident before. I promised her I would protect her forever. So even if it’s you, you can’t stop me.”
The words had barely left his mouth when my dad’s body started convulsing on the hospital bed. The alarms blared. Doctors rushed in and wheeled him away without even looking at me.
“Dad!” I screamed. I tried to run after him, but Wilbert grabbed me by the arm.
“Record the video, and your dad can have the surgery,” he said.
I looked at him like I was staring at a stranger. “Wilbert… are you still even human?”
He shoved my hand away. His brows were sharp, his whole body pressing down on me like a wall I couldn’t escape. “Thirty seconds. That’s all you get,” he said.
And right there I felt cold inside. For the first time I was truly scared of him. I realized maybe all those years of love were just an illusion. Maybe they never existed at all.
I used to be his secretary.
I remember the way he chased me. He wrote one hundre ninty nine letters and sent me nine hundred ninety-nine bouquets of flowers just to make me smile. After two years of dating, he did everything to hold on to me.
I was mocked by rich heiress for being poor, and he stood up for me. He bought every auction item just so no one could laugh at me. He called me his woman in public. He would drop billion-dollar projects just to stand beside me when someone harassed me. He would fly thousands of miles just to take care of me when I was sick.
My family was poor, and the Chambers family hated me for it. They wanted me gone. They told him to marry Nivianne Sloanne instead, the perfect daughter from their circle. But Wilbert fought them. He fought hard. He was locked up, sent abroad, but he still didn’t give up. He even gave up his identity as heir just so he could marry me.
After all the pain, the Chambers family finally gave in, and we got married. I thought that was the end of our struggles. I thought we were untouchable. I thought we’d grow old together.
But then last year, Nivianne came back from abroad. And that's where everything changed…
She’s spoiled and arrogant, yet he started handling her life like it was his duty. Her work, her problems, her failures. When her surgeries failed, he worried about her so much that he drove her every day and every night. And then one day he didn’t even ask me. He just brought her into our home and let her stay one of the guest room.
That was the day I knew. I was no longer his choice. I was just his wife on paper, and Nivianne… Nivianne was the one he had chosen in his heart all along.
