The Truth Before Midnight

Synopsis

At eighteen, I was taken back into the Shelton family by my biological parents. But even after I returned, the one who had come before me never left. Martha Shelton was still their little princess. And I—well, I was treated like the adopted one, unwelcome at every turn. Through it all, Maurice Montgomery stayed by my side. He coaxed me out of my silence, made me laugh, and went to college with me. We were inseparable. He walked me to class, brought me home, and carried me through the hardest years of my life. Until, six years later, we were getting married. The night before the wedding, I overheard him at a bar, celebrating his last night of freedom with his friends. "If I hadn't kept her sweet and kept her fooled," he said lightly, "she would've found a way to push Martha out. Martha's fragile, and she's like a sister to us. We grew up together. How could we ever let her be hurt?" One of his friends laughed. "Aren't you afraid Adelaide will find out? What if she turns on you and forces Martha out anyway?" Maurice scoffed. "She's just a hotel lobby manager now. After all these years leaning on me, treating me like her salvation, even if she makes a scene, how far could she really go?" "Maurice, you're always so good to me. Thank you." Martha practically melted into him, her whole body leaning close. Maurice flushed, trying to hold himself back, yet he couldn't even bring himself to meet her eyes. I had never seen him like that before. Because with me, he had never been restrained. Desire had always burned hot and relentless. Night after night, he clung to me as though it would never be enough. And yet, in front of another woman, he played the innocent. How laughable. He thought he had been deceiving me all along, keeping me under his control. What he never realized was that I had been doing the same.