Chapter 1 The Fairytale

Amber Hargrove gripped her phone tightly and stepped onto the house’s balcony, her voice trembling with frustration as she spoke into her cell phone.

“No, you’ve called a wrong number. I’m not named Amy. You’re not listening to me. My name is Amber. Amber Hargrove, and I can’t be the mistress you speak of because I’m a married woman, do you understand?”

The words had barely left her lips when a hand suddenly snatched the phone from her grasp.

She turned around, her heart instantly sinking to the pit of her stomach at the sight of the middle-aged woman behind her.

Julia Clark, her mother-in-law, stood glaring at her with cold eyes, while a younger woman stood by the side.

It was Greta Foster, her husband’s younger sister and she stood, twirling Amber’s phone inbetween her fingers for some seconds before pressing it against her own ear.

“What church rat are you now? Is this Amber Hargrove having an affair with you? Amy? That’s what she told you her name is?”

“This shameless woman, even though she’s married to my brother, still dares to see other men behind his back.”

“It must be because she knows she’s so pretty and shouldn’t belong to only one man. That’s also surprising because this same woman shamelessly clung to my elder brother’s side until he married her. So tell me, are you the pathetic excuse of a man she’s been seeing?”

“S-sister-in-law, mother-in-law, that’s not what you think. He just called the wrong…” Fidgeting with her fingers in front of them, Amber’s eyes darted between the two women as she tried to defend herself.

But Julia’s face immediately clouded over hearing her daughter’s presumptious words and she angrily cut her off with a wave of her hand.

She had never approved of this woman her son married.

If not for Old Lady Foster, her mother-in-law, who insisted this disgusting orphan married her son, she would’ve had a more impressive daughter-in-law.

Just thinking about how she was stuck with such a loser while her friends always boasted about the marvelous daughter-in-laws they had, made her blood boil with rage.

So, without a word, she scrunched up her nose and stormed toward Amber.

The next second… she raised her hand and brought down her palm on her face.

Amber’s face whipped to the side from the impact of the slap.

Just as she regained her senses, a sharp pain tore through her scalp from her hair being yanked forcefully. The next second, Julia kicked and pushed her onto the floor.

Pointing her freshly manicured finger at Amber’s nose, her nostrils flared.

“You speak in that tiny little voice, sounding so meek as you pretend to be fine with your duties, but the servants have heard you cussing me out in your mind behind my back!”

“You wish me ill and think of me as a terrible mother-in-law just because I’m trying to do what’s best for my son, don’t you, you conniving little witch?!”

Despite being slapped and pushed to the floor, Amber didn’t care about the ringing in her ears and struggled to kneel up, her lips quivering slightly as she hurriedly shook her head.

“M-mother, I would never do such a thing. I love Aaron. I love your son so much. How could I hate you, the woman who birthed the man I love?”

The words were barely out of Amber’s mouth when the woman lashed out again.

“I’m not your mother, you spineless idiot!”

Meanwhile, Greta ended the call when the person on the other end said nothing after everything she said.

Then she began scrolling through Amber’s contact list and sucked in her teeth.

“You have a lot of blocked numbers. So you’re clearly not just seeing one man. And to think I almost believed you just now.”

“Greta, it’s not what it looks like. Those are simply the numbers of…” Amber panicked, trying to explain they were numbers of marketers who persistently kept calling, but Greta hissed.

Lowering the phone, she made air quotes with her fingers and mimicked Amber childishly. “‘Greta, it’s not what it looks like?’ Are you calling me dumb?”

Then she paused to leer at Amber resentfully.

Just like her mother, she hated not having an impressive sister-in-law, but most importantly, she loathed how this woman, who only saw the walls of highschool had better diction than her and knew surprisingly intelligent things.

Many times more than she could count, Amber would politely correct her whenever she mispronounced words or used them in the wrong sentence.

Each and everytime, she always turned out to be right, thus, she was successfully gaining more admiration amongst her friends.

Pushing back Amber’s head with a finger, she sneered, “If I wasn’t cheated out of it, I would’ve easily attended an Ivy League school. But you, who didn’t attend any, dare to tell me I wouldn’t understand? You must have lost your mind!”

Amber smiled forcefully.

Though they hurled harsh words at her, she didn’t let it bother her because at the end of the day, she was content with her husband coming home to her at the end of the day.

As Greta made to say something else, the door to the house suddenly swung open and two people stepped inside.

One was a tall, broad-shouldered man wearing a black raincoat.

Seeing him, Amber’s dull eyes instantly lit up with relief seeing the familiar silhouette of her husband.

But just as she made to hurry toward him, a smaller, brunette woman came in after him, her left palm clasped into his.