Marrying my secret admirer after my husband's fake death novel Chapter 1

Oh, easy, Bennett, I can’t take it anymore, oh, god…”

The sultry voice from the next room, mingled with the rhythmic thudding of the headboard against the wall, drilled into Edith’s ears.

Her hands clenched into fists, fingernails biting so hard into her palms it hurt.

But nothing hurt as much as the ache in her chest.

It came in crushing waves, each one stealing her breath, threatening to suffocate her.

Today, of all days, was the one she’d chosen to end her own life.

Forty–nine days ago, the Vance family had received devastating news: the plane carrying her husband, Beckett Vance, and his older brother, Bennett, had crashed. Bennett made it home. Beckett didn’t–he died in that tragedy.

That night, Edith cried herself hoarse and eventually passed out from grief.

After Beckett’s memorial, Edith had lost all will to live.

She’d spent more than a month stockpiling sleeping pills, but every time she thought of dying alone in the Vance mansion, without Beckett, the loneliness pressed in too hard.

So she’d planned to take the pills to Beckett’s grave, to die beside him. That was her reason for leaving the house that day–until she overheard her mother–in–law and Bennett talking in the garden.

“Beckett, it’s been over a month now, and Salome’s still not pregnant. Do you think there’s something wrong with her too? She doesn’t even try to fight for anything! What are we going to do? Your first wife couldn’t give us a child, and now this… What did the Vance family do to deserve this kind of fate!”

In that moment, Edith nearly fainted right there among the rosebushes. She gripped the edge of the flower bed, stunned, as if struck by lightning, unable to process what she’d just heard.

Her mind spun, and she clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming.

Beckett hadn’t died after all.

It was Bennett who had perished in the crash. And because Edith hadn’t been able to bear children in their years of marriage, the Vance family had orchestrated this sordid charade?

She couldn’t believe it.

She knew Beckett–at least, she thought she did. He wasn’t that kind of man.

Was it his mother, desperate to preserve the Vance line, who had pushed him into this?

But then Beckett spoke, shattering her last hope.

“I’ve taken Salome to the doctor. There’s nothing wrong with her–it just takes time to get pregnant. I’m doing everything I can.”

Everything he could? In the past month, he hadn’t spent a single night apart from Salome.

At first, Edith had thought it was just the passion of a couple grateful to have survived a disaster together.

Now, she saw it for what it was–utterly revolting.

Beckett went on, “Mom, please don’t say things like that here. If Salome overhears, she’ll be devastated. She’s always been fragile and timid. If she found out about Bennett, she might not make it either.”

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