Chapter 1
I was 16 years old when my mother died by suicide after being tormented by my father's mistress. I had nowhere else to go, so I ended up living at the Lambert residence.
Jasper Lambert, who had just been a teenager back then, listened to my account of the terrible actions my father's mistress and her illegitimate daughter, Isabella Stone, did.
As he clenched his fists in anger, he had declared, "You can rest assured that when I come across that wretched mother-daughter duo, I'll make them regret it!" He was even more upset than I was.
In the end, Jasper did end up meeting Isabella. In fact, they even got together and were all over each other in bed. He seemed to have completely forgotten the anger he'd held on my behalf.
He slowly tidied his disheveled clothes and looked at my bloodshot eyes, saying, "Your sister looks pretty similar to you, but she's way more of a flirt. You could stand to learn from her."
It was only then that I realized the teenager who had been with me all this time had turned corrupt. All the while, I hadn't even noticed.
It was during my wedding to his uncle, Christian Lambert, that Jasper tearily pulled me aside and demanded, "You're supposed to be my fiancée, Madison! Why are you marrying someone else?"
…
It was the third time this month that I'd caught my stepsister, Isabella, sitting on my fiancé's, Jasper's, lap.
I could hear Isabella's flirtatious laughter from the partially open office door. "You see, all my roommates are bringing their boyfriends along. You should come with me, Jasper."
Jasper sounded impatient as he replied, "Why would I go with you when I'm not your boyfriend? And besides, I'm too busy with work right now. How could I possibly find time to go on a trip?"
Isabella shyly said, "But it's Miraluna, Jasper. You've always said you wanted to see me in a bikini, haven't you?"
With a suggestive laugh, Jasper said, "I'm more interested in seeing what's beyond the bikini."
After that, it wasn't long before ambiguous sounds echoed from within the office.
I walked right in on them while they were in the middle of a heated make-out session.
Jasper had his eyes closed as he was enjoying the kiss, but when he saw me, he immediately shoved Isabella away. With a panicked expression, he said, "It's not what it looks like, Madison."
I merely stared at him with a deadpan expression. After all, they'd left little to interpretation—his collar was all crumpled, there was a definite bulge in his pants, and there was a lipstick smear on his lips too. What was there to misinterpret about this situation?
Isabella, on the other hand, was lying on the floor with her clothes in disarray. She nervously shifted her gaze as she put on a delicate act, weakly and timidly asking, "What are you doing here, Madison?"
Her question was utterly ridiculous since I'd always attend the company meeting on Mondays. It seemed pretty obvious that she had timed her visit to find Jasper precisely because she knew I would be at the company. She was simply trying to taunt me while also putting on an innocent act.
After Jasper dismissed the disheveled Isabella, he walked over and pulled me into an embrace. With a remorseful look, he said, "I'm so sorry, Madison. I really couldn't help myself this time. It was just a one-time thing, and it was only because Isabella kept coming on to me.
"You see, she resembles you so much, and since you wouldn't give it to me, I had to find someone else to satisfy myself. You can rest assured that she's merely a stand-in for you. I was just messing around with her—"
I slapped Jasper before he could even finish his sentence. Everything he said was a complete insult—not just to Isabella, but to me too.
Jasper's head jerked to the side from the slap. He pressed his tongue against the inside of his cheek before he broke into a contemptuous laugh. "You're really pushing it, aren't you, Madison? Haven't I already apologized to you? What more do you want from me?"
I immediately questioned him back, "Did you really think I didn't know about that university student you were involved with last year? Or that model you brought back to the apartment earlier this year?"
Jasper, with his pretense stripped away, was completely unbothered now. He leaned back on the couch and said with a sneer, "Then I'll drop the act since you already know everything.
"You ought to know that successful men face a lot of temptations in life, and the fact that I can guarantee that I won't have an illegitimate child like your father did proves just how much I really love you, Madison.
"You should just stop being so prudish. You're going to be my wife one day anyway. You should give me what I want now, and maybe I'll stop cheating on you, Madison."
I immediately delivered another slap to his other cheek.
Thus, with those two slaps, our relationship was officially over.