Chaise Lounge Indoor の小説・ストーリー

To help my fiance pay off his gambling debts, my father and I worked day and night hauling freight. One night, while driving through the dark, my father got into a car accident. When I rushed to the hospital with the compensation money, all that remained was the final voice message on his phone. "This should be enough to clear Derrick's debts. He really wants to live a good life with you, but it's just that his ex-girlfriend keeps pestering him. Once you pay his debt, take him far away from those people." Holding my father's memorial portrait, I planned to place the five hundred thousand he had earned in front of Derrick. But when I arrived at a private club lounge, I overheard his friends laughing. "Did she actually believe you were drowning in debt? She brought over that much money in one go. What are you going to do next?" Derrick's ex-girlfriend, Jessica Nesley, laughed and chimed in, "Derrick, don't you think the fake debt collectors I hired were pretty convincing? What's next? Are you going to test whether she really wants a future with you?" Derrick flicked ash from his cigarette and replied, "Yeah. The final test is to see whether she's the kind of woman who only cares about money. If she finds out I'm the president of Waterson Group, doesn't resent me for setting up her father, and still agrees to marry me, then I'll believe she truly loves me." Hearing those words, I stared at my father's photo while my whole body trembled. 'Father, this was the honest man we both trusted. Derrick, this wedding is over.'

I've been married to billionaire CEO Christopher Hayes for two years, and only now does my ex, Benjamin Clarke, decide to propose. The rumble of engines echoes as a fleet of black trucks lines up neatly outside my private estate. The drivers unload box after box of gifts—luxury watches, fine jewelry, couture gowns, and even a grand piano. Standing proudly among the shower of rose petals, he announces, "Sienna, I told you—the only reason I had a child with my sister-in-law was because my older brother died in an accident, and she wanted to keep our family's bloodline alive. "The baby just turned a month old. I've fulfilled my promise to her, and now I've come to marry you!" I lounge in the heated pool, having just finished my postpartum recovery exercises, and I can't even be bothered to look at him. He knits his brows, and his tone turns patronizing. "I know you're upset, but you're the heiress of the Grant family; you have everything you could ever want! Why can't you show a little compassion for a widow who just lost her husband? "I know it was selfish of me to make you wait for two years, but I'm back now! Our wedding will be held in three days. I can tell you still care about me. If not, why would you greet me in such a revealing bikini?" His overconfidence makes me chuckle. "Guards, get him out of here! I'm trying to swim here." What a joke. I've just welcomed the heir of Hayes Group into the world, and Christopher has been insisting that I take our baby home to visit my parents. Yet, somehow, I end up running into this idiot.

My father is the First Warrior of the Moonflash pack. He often takes me to all kinds of banquets, and I always look forward to them. Today, he brings me to a banquet hosted by Judy. I take a bite of raw meat on my plate and immediately spit it out. I once ate raw meat when I was younger, and my stomach hurt for several days. I nearly died. The healer later told me that I'm allergic to the protein in raw meat, and that experience left a lasting impression on me. Judy looks hurt when she sees my reaction. "I went to the forest myself to catch that reindeer," she says. "I killed it just this morning. I didn't cook it so that I wouldn't ruin its freshness. I didn't expect Ray would turn her nose up at it." Dad is angry about how rude I am, so he chases me out of the banquet and locks me up in a cramped lounge. The lounge is hot and stuffy, and I soon start finding it hard to breathe. A sharp pain twists in my stomach like a knife. I want to find Dad, but no matter how much I bang on the door, he refuses to open it. Through the window, I can see Dad and Judy standing in the center of the hall. They're conversing happily, but no one even looks in my direction. I'm suffocating, so I lie on the floor. I want to shout for Dad, but I can't make a sound no matter how hard I try. Then, I realize that I'm standing up and can walk through the door. But why is my body still lying on the floor? That's when it hits me. I'm dead.

In the world of crime family, Don Damian and I were known for two things: him for running wild, me for standing by him. Everyone knew I was crazy about Damian. It started when we were kids. I was born with a congenital heart defect. My parents couldn't afford the surgery and chose to walk away. Back then, Damian was just a street-level errand boy whose father had gambling debts. He had no standing, no money, nothing. But to raise cash for my surgery, he volunteered for the most dangerous work the Coronelli family had, the kind where each job was a gamble with his life and every payday came in blood. He clawed his way up. The Don eventually took him in as an adopted son, and I became his wife, just like I'd always hoped. But ten years into our marriage, Damian stopped coming home. I'd sit alone at a table of cold food, calling him over and over. Sometimes a woman's voice would answer in the background. He had a private lounge at the family's club, and there was never a shortage of company. My best friend Vincent couldn't understand it. "Is it worth it? He doesn't love you anymore." I just smiled. "He gave me my life. I know he still loves me." Then Vincent forwarded me an encrypted video. A girl in a hospital gown sat on a hospital bed. At the edge of the frame, a hand with sharp-knuckled fingers reached into the shot, a hand wearing the family crest watch. Their fingers were intertwined. The caption read: [My hero promised to marry me once I'm better!! yay!!] I stared at the screen for a long time. That watch. I knew it cold. It was the one I'd fastened it onto his wrist myself more times than I could count, and there was no way I was wrong.

The day I won the eight-million-dollar East Harbor renovation bid, I handed the lead role to Grace Whitman, Ethan Hale’s childhood sweetheart. Ethan thought I had finally learned to be sensible. He happily told me he was taking me to the Maldives for our wedding anniversary. Grace found out that night. She pretended the pressure from work was too much and cried uncontrollably. Ethan panicked so badly that he canceled a board meeting, stayed with her for three days, then called our anniversary trip an emergency client visit and gave Grace the second ticket. When he called me, his tone was still calm, almost entitled. “Sofia, we can talk about emotional stuff later. The company comes first right now. Grace has never handled a project this big on her own. I need to be there with her.” “You’re my wife. You should understand.” I sat alone in our empty apartment and looked at the photo Grace had just posted. In the private airport lounge, Ethan had draped his jacket over her shoulders. Their knees almost touched. Her caption read, [Some people never have to say love. They just show up first, every time.] I didn’t question him. I didn’t cry. I only replied, [Okay.] Ethan probably thought I had finally learned my place. Satisfied, he promised that when he came back, he would give me an even better anniversary. What he didn’t know was that I had already submitted my resignation to Hale Creative. And he didn’t know that the document he had signed three days ago wasn’t a project authorization form. It was our divorce agreement. By the time he realized what he had lost, I was no longer Mrs. Hale. I was Sofia Bellandi again. And Bellandi women do not beg for seats at tables they built.

My girlfriend, Kiara Sommer, gets one of her legs crippled in order to save me. Her adopted younger brother, Cain Fullton, suffers from heart failure after shielding us from harm. Since then, his heart becomes extremely weak, and he has to rely on the expensive imported medication just to survive. In order to gather enough money for their surgical bills, I take on a body-casting job in the black market. Not only are my limbs encased in scalding hot silicon, but I also have to endure it whenever a few female perverts cop a feel of me. I can't even move an inch when I'm doing my job. After all, I'll have to compensate for the damages if I ruin the mold. I can only grit my teeth and endure the agony, only to get slapped a few times in the face afterward. "You already have the guts to take on a job like this, and yet you're frightened of getting groped?" As I withstand the humiliation and the burning pain, I return to the hospital with the money in hopes of buying more medicine for Cain. When I walk past a VIP lounge, I hear familiar laughter erupting from within. "Kia, this is the 998th test, right? Once Shane passes 999 tests, are you really going to marry him?" Kiara frowns slightly at the question, though she soon replies coolly, "Yeah. The tests stem from my family's rules, and you're ordered to serve as the supervisor. But still, don't go overboard, yeah? Shane is the only one meant to be my husband." So, Kiara lies to me and torments me to this point just so she can marry me? As I stare at my broken and bruised reflection in the mirror, I feel my lips curling into a smile all of a sudden. With trembling hands, I dig out the old phone that I haven't used for the past two years. My eyes slowly redden as well. Then, I draft a text message. "I regret everything now, Winona. Please take me home."

On the day Christian Starr held his celebratory banquet to celebrate his company going public, I was forced to return to the country. I couldn’t afford my rent abroad anymore, so I had no choice but to take a job as a food delivery rider. Every single eye in the luxury private lounge snapped toward me. It wasn’t until the man sitting right in the center raised his head and his eyes met mine that someone broke the silence with a playful, mocking sneer. “Well, look who it is. Isn’t this Nova, Christian’s little sister who used to follow him around all day long?” “Back when Christian hit rock bottom, she took all her family’s money and fled abroad to live it up. I guess she got tired of the good life and came back to experience how the other half lives, huh?” The room erupted into a chorus of laughter. Feeling completely out of place, I nervously set the gastric medicine I had delivered onto the table and turned around, wanting nothing more than to leave. “Nova.” The deep and familiar voice rang out, forcing my footsteps to a sudden halt. “If you walk out that door right now, I will leave you a one-star review.” One bad review, and my three days’ worth of food delivery was practically for nothing. I could handle starving if I didn’t have money for food, but if I couldn’t pay my rent, I wouldn’t even have a roof over my head. I clenched my fists tightly and forced myself to meet Christian’s eyes once again. “Is there anything else you need, sir?” The corners of his mouth curled into a smirk. With his long, slender fingers, he casually knocked over a glass brimming with wine. Then, he pulled out a black card and tossed it onto the table. “Didn’t you always love money? Clean up all the spilled wine on this table with your mouth, and all the cash on this card is yours.”

In the seventh year of my long-distance relationship, I quit my job behind my boyfriend, William Harrington's back and travel more than 600 miles to Frostmere. I do all that just so I can give him a nice surprise and get married to him. When the receptionist hears that I'm looking for William, she wears a bemused look. "Mr. Harrington is in the middle of a meeting. Please wait for a moment." I'm secretly surprised by her response. Willian has never told me about the fact that he got promoted. When I video-called him last week, he was even complaining to me how stressful work had been for him. Getting a promotion seemed like an impossible dream at this point. As soon as I turn around, I hear the receptionist whispering to her colleagues. "This must be Mr. Harrington's mistress, right?" "Wow… She really is bold to have found her way to the company like this." "Since Mr. Harrington is having an affair, doesn't this mean Mrs. Harrington will kick up a fuss when she finds out about it?" I want to turn around and tell the ladies that they've mistaken me for someone else. William isn't married yet, and I'm his actual girlfriend of ten years. But before I can open my mouth, the spinning door reveals a woman in a high-end attire walking into the company's lobby. The receptionists quickly shut their mouths. Then, they address the woman respectfully as "Mrs. Harrington". Alexandra Rowland is in the middle of a phone call. Her voice is sickly sweet as she speaks on the phone. "Darling, I've reached the lobby. Hurry up and pick me up! I don't care! You have to attend the prenatal check-up with me today!" A crystal-clear deep, masculine voice that carries a hint of doting drifts over Alexandra's phone speaker. "Got it, Lexi. The meeting will be over soon. You can wait for me in the lounge for the time being." I've listened to that voice for the past seven years, so I'm extremely familiar with it. That voice belongs to my boyfriend, William…

"Strip for me," he commanded, his ice-blue eyes devouring her. "Tonight, I take what's mine." I thought I knew betrayal when I caught my fiancé's balls-deep in another woman. I thought I'd hit rock bottom when that woman turned out to be my TWIN SISTER. But the real knife in my back? He was her boyfriend first. For eight months, she fed him every secret about me—my fears, my dreams, my insecurities—so he could seduce me, make me fall in love, and destroy me when it hurt the most. Why? Because she's always hated that I'm successful. That I'm respected. That people love me for who I am, not what I look like. So there I was—promoted, engaged, happy—walking into my fiancé's apartment to celebrate... only to find him f*cking my sister against the wall while she smirked at me over his shoulder. "Surprise, sister. He was always mine." I should've gone home. I should've cried. Should've been the victim they wanted me to be. Instead, I walked into the most exclusive bar in New York and caught the attention of the most dangerous man in the city. Dante Ashford. Billionaire. My ex-fiancé's boss. Sex personified. And currently getting pleasured by a beautiful blonde in the VIP lounge—while staring directly at ME. He said my name while another woman's mouth was on him. Then he dismissed her with one cold word: "Leave." When I demanded to know how he knew who I was, he smiled like the devil making a deal. "I know everything about you. Your cheating fiancé and backstabbing sister. I know exactly how to make them pay." His offer was simple: Marry me. Destroy them. I'll give you power, wealth, and revenge. My response shocked us both: "I'll marry you. But first... take my virginity. Tonight."

After my birthday party, I got far too drunk and made a mistake I could never take back. I slept with my friend's daughter and got her pregnant. To make things right, I handed over more than half of my company shares as compensation. I promised him I would marry his daughter, Nancy Cooper, and give her the grandest wedding possible. After the wedding, I willingly stepped into the role of a househusband. I cooked, cleaned, and kept the home running. However, Nancy spent less and less time at home. Her business trips grew more frequent, and even our son began to look down on me, as if I were nothing more than a man circling the kitchen all day. At my mother's funeral, I noticed Nancy was nowhere to be seen, not even greeting the guests. I went looking for her around the venue. Just as I was about to return to the lounge to call her, a familiar voice drifted out from inside. "Easy… Don't let him find out. I won't be able to explain it when I get back." "Relax. He's an idiot, so easy to fool. Your dad set him up on purpose and drugged him because he wanted his family's assets. And you…" The man chuckled softly. "You made him play the role of our kid’s father. The whole trap was so obvious, yet he still didn't see it. What makes you think he'd notice us sneaking around at his own mother's funeral?" "He's just that stupid," Nancy said lightly. "He believes everything I tell him. Gilbert, just wait a little longer. Once I deal with those stubborn old shareholders, I'll rename Lawson Group to Shaw Group. Then, you can finally enjoy being the one in charge." I stood in place, frozen. It felt like the blood in my veins had turned to ice. This was the ugly truth. Every bit of it, every promise, every sacrifice, had been nothing but a carefully staged lie. Something inside me went cold and quiet. Whatever hope I had been holding onto was shattered completely. I decided then that I would disappear. Not just leave, but vanish. I would stage my death and make a clean break. I would erase myself from Nancy’s world forever. However, after I left for good, she lost her mind, telling the world she loved me and begging me to come back.