When Evelyn Foster brought a man home for the ninety-eighth time, I still thoughtfully placed two cups of tea on the nightstand along with three boxes of condoms in different flavors.

Seeing how meek I looked, the man let out a scornful snort. "No wonder women all want to marry men like you. Only men like you can put up with this kind of humiliation."

I smiled and said nothing.

I lowered my head and looked at the message my foster sister Claire had sent five minutes ago.

[The family's financial crisis has been resolved. You don't need to sacrifice yourself anymore. Once you divorce Evelyn, we'll get married.]

I replied with a single word.

[Alright.]

Then I had my lawyer draft a divorce agreement and send it to where Evelyn and I lived.

I just forgot to tell my foster sister one thing.

I would divorce Evelyn.

But I would not marry her, either.

When the divorce papers arrived, the passionate embrace in the master bedroom had also just ended.

A moment later, my phone rang, and Evelyn's lazy voice drifted into my ear. "Come upstairs and clean up."

I said a calm "Sure," in response, then knocked on the master bedroom door.

Evelyn's new boyfriend opened the door. He had nothing on but a towel around his waist, and his abs were streaked with red marks that said exactly what had just happened.

He looked at me and sneered. "Ms. Brook said you're stiff as a board in bed. I guess I'm the one who can actually satisfy her. Next time, you can stand there and watch. Learn how to please a woman."

I didn't even look at him, brushing past him as I entered the room.

My indifference must have enraged him as he raised his hand to hit me. "I'm talking to you! Are you deaf?!"

A slender hand suddenly caught his wrist.

Evelyn appeared behind him and shot him an icy look. "Get out!"

His eyes reddened at once as he started whining. "Ms. Brook, I..."

Evelyn's face darkened.

The man instantly shrank back in fear, grabbed his clothes, and ran. Meanwhile, I started cleaning up the room as if nothing had happened.

But Evelyn suddenly grabbed my hand, her voice icy. "Robin Shaw, how long are you going to keep up with this act?"

I stopped. "I'm not sure what you're talking about."

Evelyn let out a cold laugh, contempt in her eyes.

"Back then, you did whatever it took to force Julian away so you could marry me. And now, you let me bring other men home again and again just to stay by my side. Robin, do you love me that much? To the point that you're willing to humiliate yourself like this just to be with me?"

I froze for a moment and finally understood what she meant.

Evelyn had always misunderstood me. She thought I had agreed to the arranged marriage because I loved her.

In truth, I had only done this to ease my foster sister's burden. Of course, I wasn't the one who drove Julian off.

Before I could respond, Evelyn shoved me onto the bed and pinned me beneath her. "Since you're so starved for love, I'll satisfy you."

The smell of another man on her filled my nostrils, and my stomach churned.

Evelyn stopped when she was halfway tearing my clothes off. She frowned, displeasure flashing through her eyes. "Are you disgusted by me?"

I shook my head. "I'm not..."

Evelyn did not give me a chance to explain. She dragged me into the bathroom and pushed me straight into the tub. Freezing water swallowed my whole body, and I started shivering.

When I looked up, I met Evelyn's eyes. There was no warmth in them at all.

Her eyes clearly read, 'Take a good look at yourself! Who says you have the right to be disgusted by me?'

Just then, her phone rang and her assistant's excited voice came through. "Ms. Brook, Mr. Lane is back in the country! We've stopped him outside the airport."

Evelyn's eyes lit up at once, and her voice trembled slightly. "Send me the address. Don't let him get away."

After the call, Evelyn changed as fast as she could and headed out.

I quickly climbed out of the tub and staggered after her, blocking her way. I held the divorce agreement out in front of her.

"Sign this before you go."

Evelyn didn't even look at it. She shoved me aside and tried to leave. "Move!"

I gritted my teeth and forced the words out through humiliation.

"Your mother kept asking me when we're going to have a baby. If you don't want her to know you've been taking pills after every time, then sign it."

Evelyn stopped. She narrowed her eyes at me, as if she had not expected someone as meek as me to threaten her back.

She signed her name with a few quick strokes, then threw the document into my face. "Happy now?"

My heart tightened and I nodded.

She let out a scornful snort and left.

I held the agreement tightly and finally let out a sigh of relief.

From the first day of my arranged marriage to Evelyn, I had known she hated me and was always finding new ways to torment me.

But that was fine. She would be free very soon. This divorce agreement was my gift to her.

After that, Evelyn vanished for fifteen days.

I didn't ask what she was doing the way I used to. Instead, I just quietly packed my things and bought a plane ticket to leave the country fifteen days later.

Even though I had lived in this house for five years, Evelyn and I did not have a single photo together. To humiliate me, she burned our wedding photos on our wedding night and hung Julian's picture above our bed.

She even pressed Julian's photo onto my face before climbing on top of me and made me pretend to be him all night. She said I had forced Julian away, so she would make me live in his shadow forever.

Evelyn's mother suddenly called me. "Robin, I haven't seen you and Evelyn in a long time. Come to our place today. Let's have dinner together."

That was what she said, but I knew what she really wanted to do was to urge us to get a child soon.

After I hung up, I called Evelyn.

Instead, a strange man answered. "Hello?"

Evelyn hated anyone touching her things, so the only person who could be answering her phone was Julian, the man she had been thinking of all this time.

I pushed my feelings down and answered calmly. "I'm Evelyn's husband. Please pass her the phone."

The moment he learned who I was, he let out a sneer. "So, you're Evelyn's husband? She doesn't even have your name saved on her phone. She's in the shower right now, so she can't answer. Tell me what it's about and I'll pass it along."

My grip tightened around the phone as I repeated Evelyn's mother's message to him exactly, but Julian said in a provoking tone, "Sorry, but Evelyn's having dinner with me tonight. You can go back to the Brook Residence by yourself."

That night, I had no choice but to go to the Brook Residence alone.

What I didn't expect was that my foster sister Claire was there, too. She was sitting there chatting with Evelyn's mother, Dana.

When Claire saw me, she raised a brow. "Why are you here alone? Where's Evelyn?"

My fists tightened a little. I kept my voice as steady as I could. "Evelyn still has work at the office, so she can't make it."

The next second, the door opened, and Evelyn walked in holding Julian's hand.

Dana's face went pale and angrily asked, "You two...! How did you two get together?!"

Evelyn wrapped an arm around Julian's waist, her voice firm. "We were supposed to be together from the start. If you hadn't forced Julian away back then, he would've been the Brook family's son-in-law. Now that he's back, I'll give him every single thing that belongs to him back."

As she said that, her gaze fell on the antique watch on my wrist. Then, she said coldly, "That watch is an heirloom from my family. It belongs to Julian now. Give it back to him immediately."

I took off the watch without hesitation and put it on Julian's wrist. "It was never mine to begin with. I'm giving it back to you."

My quickness seemed to catch Evelyn off guard. She let out a cold laugh. "You really have no dignity at all when it comes to wanting to please me, do you? You're even willing to be a homewrecker as long as you can stay by my side?"

Before I could answer, Dana hurled a cup to the floor at Evelyn's feet, shattering it. "This is outrageous! Robin is the only son-in-law in this family that I recognize. I won't accept anyone else! Take Julian and get out right now!"

Claire stood up to calm Evelyn's mother, then looked at Evelyn in a helpless way. "Evelyn, your mother isn't in good health. Stop upsetting her like that."

Evelyn frowned. "I already followed your arrangement and stayed with Robin for five years, and I still didn't fall in love with him. If you keep forcing me to stay with him, it'll only make me hate him more!"

Dana was so furious, her face went pale. Her voice shook as she snarled, "What kind of spell did Julian cast on you? How can you love him this much? I'm telling you right now. Either me or him will stay in this family! Choose!"

But Evelyn still held Julian's hand tight. "Julian is the only one I have ever loved. He's the only one I want!"

Her open declaration of love humiliated me openly, even though I was her original husband.

Julian looked at me smugly, as if he had taken the most precious thing in the world from me. However, I felt nothing at all.

Evelyn left with an arm around Julian's waist.

Dana had never expected her daughter to go this far for a man. She collapsed from anger right there on the spot.

-

While Dana was being treated, Evelyn refused to answer any of my calls.

Claire stood nearby with her eyes lowered. "Stop calling. She won't answer."

I opened my mouth, wanting to say something. In the end, I stayed silent.

By the time I pulled myself together, Claire was leaning against the wall, watching me with a dark look in her eyes. "Do you still have hope for her?"

I clenched my fists. "That's none of your business."

She shoved me against the wall and leaned in close to my face. "How is it none of my business? You're about to marry me. How can you still be thinking about another woman? Do you want to turn me into the laughingstock of the whole city?"

I let out a quiet laugh and tossed the question back at her. "Have you ever heard of a younger brother marrying his older sister?"

That casual line seemed to bring Claire back to her senses. She let go of me and frowned.

"I know you're still mad about what happened five years ago, but I did it for the Shaw family too. Can't you try to understand me?"

But how was I supposed to give her any more of my understanding?

Five years ago, Claire came to me, her foster brother, when the Shaw family ran into financial trouble. She said that if I agreed to a marriage arrangement with Evelyn, the Shaw family would survive the crisis. She also said that if I stayed by Evelyn's side for five years, she would marry me.

I had fallen for Claire the first time I saw her, so when she made that promise, I agreed without hesitation.

That was, until a month ago.

After I secured a major project from Evelyn for the Shaw family, I went to find Claire and shared the good news. But outside the door, I overheard her talking to her best friend.

"The five-year promise is almost up. You're not actually going to marry your foster brother, are you? Another woman has already had him for years. Aren't you afraid people will laugh if word gets out? The Shaw family had only just got back on its feet. You should marry a man who can help the family. What good would it do to marry your foster brother?"

My heart pounded so hard, I did not dare make a sound. I bet my last shred of hope on Claire.

Yet she only puffed out a mouthful of smoke and said, "I only said I would marry him back then to trick him into agreeing to the marriage arrangement. How could I possibly marry him for real?"

At that moment, the last bit of hope that kept me alive shattered.

In her eyes, I had never been anything more than a tool she could use to get what she wanted.