I Chose Not To Get Divorced And Stay Together

After the 100th failed fertility treatment, my husband, who had been previously diagnosed with a low sperm count, spoke coldly.

“Lucy is very fertile. She gets pregnant after our first time, unlike you. You just can’t conceive.”

Lucy was my adoptive sister. While holding her hand, he laid out three options for me.

I could either ignore their affair and retain my title as the CEO’s wife, take the ten million dollars and disappear, or walk away with nothing at all.

The whole town knew how proud I was. They also knew how deeply I loved him.

They surely expected me to be mad with jealousy and choose honor over compromise.

But I neither cried nor made a scene. I calmly slid the check back across the table.

“The child will call me Mom. I’ll stay and be Mrs. Carter.”

After all, this was my third time to live such a life.

The first time, I chose to leave with nothing but my dignity. The second time, I took the money, but had to live in shame. Both decisions ended in tragedy.

For the third time, perhaps three of us could just... make it work.

My husband, Arthur Carter, stared in disbelief. His face froze in shock.

“Cadence, do you truly have it in you to accept another woman having my child?”

I raised my hand to straighten his disheveled shirt collar. My gaze never left the stiff expression on his face. I smiled gently.

“I’ve endured the pain and injections of IVF treatments for years. It was always so you could have a child, wasn’t it?

“Now that Lucy is carrying your child for me, why would I say no?”

Lucy Lark was my adoptive sister. Her beautiful face turned pale. Her gaze filled with anger as she bit her lower lip.

She had probably imagined me becoming hysterical, but she never expected me to celebrate.

“Cadence, I thought you’d be furious. I never expected that you’d be okay with it. People might think you don’t even love Arthur anymore.”

Arthur’s sharp gaze returned to me.

I laughed and patted her shoulder.

“Oh, don’t be silly. If you love someone, you love everything that comes with them. That’s still love.”

The first time I returned to the past, I had not hesitated and chose to leave with nothing.

I had been too proud. I had made up my mind to die poor rather than take his tainted money.

But as a housewife who had been disconnected from society for years, I could not find a decent office job.

I survived on cold canned beans in a cheap rental. I lived a miserable and wretched life.

Even then, Lucy had refused to let me go. She had staged a car accident to finish me off.

The second time I returned to the past, I learned my lesson and accepted the ten million dollars.

I believed it would be the capital for a fresh start.

It was difficult to start a