Venus, So Close Yet So Far

Everyone in the city's elite circle knew that the most eligible bachelor in the city loved me like his life depended on it.

To marry me—a woman living with HIV—Michael Dalio deliberately destroyed his own reputation. Night after night, he paraded through clubs, bedding forty-nine women in a row. He even went so far as to force himself on his widowed sister-in-law, whose husband had just died.

Finally, he pushed the Dalio family patriarch into giving in. The old man, holding his tongue in reluctant acceptance, allowed me to enter the family.

To give Michael a child, I humbled myself before my sworn enemy, kneeling to beg for a secret medicine.

Just as I was about to share the good news with him, I found him hard at work on his widowed sister-in-law's body.

"Nancy, you're finally mine. She has HIV—she won't last long. The only woman I'll ever love is you."

Turned out I was nothing more than a convenient cover for Michael to marry Nancy.

Tears streamed down my face as I pressed send on the message.

[I agree to your terms. See you in three days.]

The sound of ragged breathing from inside made my whole body tremble. Each muffled gasp felt like a blade driving straight into my heart.

"When Venus dies, I'll make it up to you with a grand wedding," Michael murmured, his arm wrapped around Nancy's waist as he moved with increasing force.

"Okay… okay…" Nancy answered between broken breaths.

By the time I came back to myself, two streaks of tears had already dried on my face. So it had all been nothing more than a performance—an act staged just for me.

The thought left me suffocating, my body shaking as I swallowed back sob after sob.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps behind me made me jump.

"Madam, why are you here?"

The Dalio family's longtime housekeeper had appeared without warning.

The two inside the room clearly heard the noise as well. The intimate sounds stopped abruptly.

Flustered, I explained, "I came back to get something."

Under the housekeeper's watchful gaze, I raised my hand and knocked on the door.

"Come in." Michael's voice was utterly devoid of emotion.

I pushed the door open. The half-hidden lipstick mark on his neck and the lingering flush on Nancy's face were proof enough of what had just happened here.

When Michael looked at me, there was a trace of disgust in his narrowed eyes.

"Didn't you say you were going out? Why are you back so soon?"

My throat tightened, each word scraping out like a blade. "I forgot my medication."

I looked at the man who had sworn to love me for a lifetime—only to turn around and sleep with his widowed sister-in-law.

Their cruel words echoed again and again in my mind, and tears spilled uncontrollably from my eyes.

Michael's gaze remained fixed on Nancy, barely sparing me a glance.

"If you're sick, go to the hospital. Don't come crawling over here