Chapter 1: The Bed I Gave Up on My Wedding Night
On our wedding night, I had to give up my bed to my mother-in-law after everyone insisted she was "too drunk" to stay anywhere else.
The following morning, I spotted something clinging to the bedsheet, and when I finally understood what I was looking at, I was left completely speechless.
On my wedding night, all I wanted was a peaceful room, my new husband beside me, and a few hours of rest after an exhausting day of photographs and entertaining guests.
Instead, before I had even finished removing my makeup, the bedroom door swung open and my mother-in-law, Victoria, staggered inside carrying a pillow.
She reeked of alcohol and appeared unsteady on her feet, yet her eyes immediately made me suspicious.
They seemed far too sharp and attentive for someone supposedly so intoxicated that she couldn't make it downstairs.
"Elena, it's too noisy downstairs.
Let me rest here tonight.
Just for a little while."
I turned toward Julian, expecting my husband to explain that our wedding night was hardly the appropriate occasion for his mother to take over our bedroom.
Instead, he hesitated and gave me the familiar apologetic look he always wore whenever Victoria made an unreasonable request.
"Mom's just a little drunk.
Let her stay a while, honey."
I was only twenty-six and had officially been a wife for a matter of hours.
I didn't want to become the bride relatives gossiped about for fighting with her mother-in-law before the reception had even ended, so I buried my frustration and took a pillow downstairs to sleep on the sofa.
Before leaving, however, I glanced back and noticed Victoria watching Julian with an intensity that didn't match her supposed drunken state.
There was something strangely possessive in her expression, almost as though she viewed our marriage not as welcoming another person into the family, but as losing something she believed belonged to her.
I barely managed to sleep, and dawn was already beginning to brighten the windows by the time exhaustion finally won.
Shortly before six, I woke and headed upstairs, intending to get Julian so we could say goodbye to some of my relatives before they left.
The bedroom door had been left slightly ajar, but the moment I pushed it farther open, I froze.
Julian was lying on his back while Victoria was beside him beneath the same sheets I had surrendered only a few hours earlier, much closer to him than I ever expected to find her.
I cautiously moved toward the bed, desperately trying to imagine an innocent explanation for what I was seeing.
Then my attention shifted across the white sheet and landed on a reddish-brown mark near the center of the mattress.
Without thinking, I touched its edge.
Most of the stain had already dried, although part of the fabric remained slightly damp, and whatever had caused it smelled nothing like the alcohol that had been so noticeable on Victoria's breath the previous evening.
My body went cold as questions flooded through my mind.
Before I could make sense of any of them, Victoria suddenly stirred and startled me.
"Are you awake?"
She quickly pulled the blanket higher before flashing me a cheerful smile.
There was something unsettling about how alert and composed she suddenly appeared after supposedly spending the entire night heavily intoxicated.
"Last night I was so tired that I slept soundly!"
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I turned toward Julian, hoping he would finally explain what I had walked into.
His eyes remained shut, but his uneven breathing made it obvious that he wasn't truly asleep...
