My Wife Longed for My Foster Brother Chapter 01

My Wife Longed for My Foster Brother Chapter 01 The One She Never Saw
Three years into our marriage, my wife shoved me away for the 999th time just as I was about to enter her. She said she wasn’t interested in that sort of thing, and I had learned to accept it—or so I told myself.
But in the middle of that same night, I was jolted awake by the bed shaking beneath me.
I opened my eyes. Moonlight spilled across the room, and I saw her—her body rising and falling in a rhythm I’d never been allowed to share. Her lips were parted, and she was murmuring a name under her breath—one that belonged to my adopted brother.
“Derek… harder…”
I closed my eyes. I said nothing. I pretended I hadn’t heard.
But later, when my adopted brother had me strung up in a boxing ring, beaten until my face was unrecognizable and my consciousness was slipping away, she stood by and watched. And when it was over, she said this, as casually as if she were commenting on the weather:
“If the Sterling family hadn’t found you and dragged you back, Derek wouldn’t have become the fake heir. You wronged him first.”
Three years of bending over backward for her. Three years of swallowing every insult, every cold shoulder, every time she looked through me like I wasn’t there. And it had all meant nothing.
I picked up my phone and called my sister.
“Stella. I want a divorce.”
She let out a long sigh on the other end. “You finally came to your senses. Come back home and take over the company. Summer Blake has been waiting for you all this time.”
Later, at my grand wedding to the Blake family’s daughter, Cassandra Vance—the woman who had never once shown a flicker of emotion in three years of marriage—finally lost control in public for the very first time.
…
The 999th time I shared a bed with Cassandra, she pushed me away just like she always did.
“Sorry,” she said, her voice flat and rehearsed. “You know I have no interest in this kind of thing.”
I turned over and said nothing. I had heard that line so many times it had stopped hurting.
But in the dead of night, the mattress started moving again.
Before I even opened my eyes, I heard the sounds—soft, broken breaths close to my ear.
“Derek… faster…”
Derek Sterling. My adopted brother.
The moonlight showed me everything I didn’t want to see: Cassandra’s long legs spread wide, her dark hair loose across the pillow, her lips slightly parted, beads of sweat rolling down her pale neck. The bed kept moving beneath us, and I felt so dizzy I could barely hold onto my thoughts.
When she finally let out a satisfied sigh, she pulled something out from beneath the covers and brought it to her lips.
I knew exactly what it was. Not long after we got married, when I was planning a birthday surprise for her, I’d come across her purchase history. She had specified the exact dimensions in the notes—down to the inches—and had even requested that a name be engraved on it.
D.S.
Derek Sterling.
Cassandra came back to herself slowly, got up quietly, and slipped into the study. The door clicked shut behind her, and she didn’t come out again.
I walked onto the balcony, lit a cigarette, and called my sister once more.
“Stella. I’m serious about the divorce.”
She was quiet for a few seconds. When she spoke, her voice was tired but relieved. “I could tell a long time ago. That woman never had you in her heart. She never would.”
“Come back. The company is still waiting for you. And that Blake girl—she’s been waiting too.”
“Yeah. I’ll wrap things up here and come home.”
The study light was still on. Without me lying beside her, Cassandra had no reason to hold back. The sounds of water—shameless, rhythmic—drifted through the closed door.
Two hours later, she came back to bed, her cheeks still carrying an unnatural flush. She saw my eyes were open and gave me the same flat explanation she always did.
“Work emergency. I had to take a call in the study.”
I mumbled a response and turned away from her.
She had to come up with so many excuses. It must have been exhausting for her. Luckily for both of us, it would all be over soon enough.
The next morning, I went into the office and started my resignation process. Word traveled fast. That evening, a few old friends who’d heard I was leaving Ashford dragged me out for drinks.
“What’s with you leaving all of a sudden? You and the wife have a fight?”
Another one laughed and chimed in. “Damn, August, you finally grew a spine. I’m with you, man. It’s about time you ran away from home once and showed Cassandra that you’ve got a temper too.”
I smiled bitterly and didn’t bother explaining.
In three years of marriage, Cassandra and I had never once had a real fight. There was only her impatience, her dismissiveness, her cold silence. Once, I’d accidentally knocked one of her earrings off the vanity table. She didn’t speak to me for an entire month. I found out later that Derek had given it to her for her birthday.
I kept drinking. The glasses emptied one after another.
A young model pressed herself against me, her body warm and far too close. I was just about to move away when I heard a familiar voice behind me—Cassandra’s best friend, laughing.
“Look at that, Cass. Your little lapdog finally made something of himself. He’s cheating on you right in front of your face on purpose.”
I turned around. Cassandra was standing there, looking down at me like I was something stuck to the bottom of her shoe.
She let out a soft scoff. “Don’t bother with this childish act next time. I’m not going to get jealous.”
“And don’t touch me tonight. You’re dirty.”
The mockery in her eyes cut through me like broken glass. I clenched my fist, opened my mouth to tell her I was leaving for good—and then I saw a familiar figure across the street.
“Derek?”
Cassandra’s expression changed instantly. Her cool, graceful mask crumbled, and her palm cracked across my cheek.
“August, do you even know what you’re saying?”
The next second, I saw everyone around us staring at her in shock. Her friend nudged her and pointed across the street.
Under the streetlight, my adopted brother Derek had his arms wrapped around a young woman. His hand had already slipped beneath the hem of her shirt.
Cassandra went pale.
She shot to her feet, all her usual composure gone, and stumbled as she ran across the street. She shoved the girl out of Derek’s arms, yanked a stack of bills from her purse, and threw them in the girl’s face. “Get lost. Now.”
The girl took the money and left, but Cassandra still looked like she couldn’t breathe. Her eyes were red as she looked up at Derek.
“Derek… you can’t…”
Derek lit a cigarette, a lazy smirk spreading across his face. “Cassandra, don’t you think you’re sticking your nose a little too far into my business?”
“I’m not your husband. Who I sleep with isn’t something I need your permission for, is it?”