A Love Forbidden to Grow Old

: 1

After Ellie died, Ian Sinclair became a devoted family man again.

He stopped having sex with his secretary against the office's floor-to-ceiling windows. He stopped bringing my best friend home to our bed. He stopped forcing me to deliver lingerie to his flings in the middle of the night.

He became the perfect husband, and it was as if we were back in that year when he loved me most.

On my birthday, he booked the entirety of The Azure Sail and filled the city sky with fireworks, all for me.

After we made love seven times that night, he kissed my sweat-dampened hair.

"Sylvia, let's have another child."

I didn't answer. Instead, I opened my phone and pulled up a long list of transactions.

"Actually, for the past six months, I've been dating different men."

"In our bedroom, in the most expensive suite in Riverbend, on a cruise ship... I've tried all the places where you slept with those women."

"See? This is the male model I hired recently. I put them all on your card. Honestly, those men have incredible bodies. You really should start taking better care of yourself."

Ian Sinclair grabbed my throat, the lust instantly draining from his face.

"Why would you do this to me? Why are you destroying our marriage?"

A sudden laugh escaped me, so hard that tears streamed down my face.

"Ian Sinclair, our marriage ended six months ago, when Ellie died."

...

My phone was still open to the photo album. Every picture I tapped on was an intimate photo of me with another man.

There were male models in their early twenties, innocent college students, and even one of Ian Sinclair's own best friends.

I had replicated every single thing Ian Sinclair had ever done.

Ian Sinclair's eyes grew red as he stared at the photos.

He glared at me. "Why? I'm back by your side. What more could you possibly want?"

I clutched my chest and coughed. "How does it feel to be betrayed by the one you love most, right at the peak of your happiness?"

Ian Sinclair's expression was grim.

"Is this your revenge?"

"Sylvia Aveline, you brought this on yourself. Just don't come to regret it."

Not long after Ian Sinclair left, the lights on the top floor of The Paragon, not far away, switched on again. It meant Young Master Sinclair was entertaining another lover.

He had once proposed to me there. Later, he bought the entire commercial building.

He said he wanted that place to be a beautiful, eternal memory for us.

And then later, he filled it with nights of debauchery, the role of hostess passing from me to his countless lovers.

My pillow was soaked with tears, night after night.

My phone screen lit up. For the first time in six months, gossip about Ian Sinclair was headlining the news again.

Immediately after, I received a text from Clara Aveline: "Sylvia Aveline, looks like you've been thrown away again."

She was the Aveline Family's fake daughter, and also one of Ian Sinclair's many lovers whom I'd already dealt with.

When the Aveline Family found me and brought me back, Clara Aveline had already been living in my place as the Aveline family daughter for fifteen years.

At Ian Sinclair's welcome-home banquet, she pushed me onto the dance floor to perform a clumsy dance.

When I fell in the middle of the dance floor, making a complete fool of myself while everyone laughed, Ian Sinclair descended like a god.

He was the only one who applauded, helping me to my feet and away from the jeering crowd.

At that time, Ian Sinclair was in the midst of a critical struggle with an illegitimate son for the inheritance.

Marrying me meant he would receive no support from his wife's family in that struggle.

Ian Sinclair was strikingly handsome, and his private life was clean.

Many daughters from wealthy families wanted to marry him, but Ian Sinclair defied the pressure of being disowned and married me anyway.

He coddled me, shielding me from all the unspoken rules and dirty dealings of the elite.

We had several years of blissful marriage, right up until the day Ellie was born.