Chapter 3

Corinne seemed to have misunderstood. She thought I was selling the house we'd moved into as newlyweds.

I couldn't be bothered to explain, so I just went along with it. "Last night, you slept with Silas in this house. I can't get past it, and I don't want to live here anymore. Is that a problem?"

Corinne froze for a second, then smiled.

"Of course you can. If you don't like this house, I'll give it to your brother and buy you another one next door," she said. "But you can't hold it against me, because I only slept with your brother for your sake.

"I'm a very traditional woman. I could never be with two men. But I love you so much that I was willing to sacrifice myself to help make your brother's wish come true... I've gone this far for you. You should be thanking me. How can you hold it against me?"

It was so outrageous I almost laughed. She'd betrayed me, and I was supposed to thank her?

She was the one who'd wanted to sleep with Silas, yet she was acting like she'd sacrificed herself for me. Did she really think I was so stupid I couldn't see right through her?

Just then, the kitchen door swung open again, and Silas walked in shirtless.

His body was covered in hickeys and scratches, especially his back.

I looked away. I didn't want to see it. But Silas deliberately goaded me. "Emmett, look what your wife did to me. I can't even show my face in public like this."

Corinne instantly turned red. "Don't talk nonsense in front of your brother!"

She was scolding him, but when she saw the scratches all over his back, she couldn't help feeling bad for him. She went upstairs for the first-aid kit, pulled Silas over, and began carefully treating his scratches.

Every so often, their laughter drifted in from the living room. They were horsing around on the couch as if I didn't exist.

I didn't say anything. I wolfed down my breakfast and headed upstairs to start packing. I was leaving the country in three days.

But Corinne suddenly called after me. "Emmett, Silas is hosting a class reunion here today. He's already sent out the invitations. Go change. Everyone will be here soon."

Silas chimed in. "Emmett, I'm throwing this reunion just for you. That whole crowd from high school always mocked you and bullied you. Now that you've married a gorgeous heiress, you have to invite them all over and rub it in their faces."

He made it sound nice. But wasn't the only reason I'd been bullied in high school that he'd hidden in the girls' restroom, filmed our classmates, and framed me for it?

So why was he pretending to be the good guy now?

Before long, our old classmates started arriving. When they found out Corinne and I had just gotten married the day before, everyone was stunned.

"Corinne, did you actually marry Emmett?" someone said indignantly. "Sure, he's a genius—he was ranked first in our grade all through high school—but his character is awful! He hid in the girls' restroom and filmed girls using the bathroom! Isn't that just plain sick?"

"Exactly. Corinne, you're gorgeous and you come from a great family. Why would you marry a creep like Emmett?"

"Honestly, you'd have been better off marrying his brother, Silas. They look exactly the same anyway."

Listening to the chatter, Corinne and Silas exchanged a look. A flirtatious smile lurked in both their eyes.

They were too busy flirting to say a single word in my defense.

Even though they both knew perfectly well I wasn't the one who'd hidden in the girls' restroom filming those girls...

A chill spread through me. At this point, I had no intention of taking the blame for Silas anymore.

So I raised my voice. "The one who hid in the girls' restroom and filmed those girls was Silas, not me. I've been taking the heat for him all these years, but I'm done!"