\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 1\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 1\u00a0<\/p>\n
At 3 AM, my husband\u2019s sleep talking woke me up: \u201c\u2026baby, daddy\u2019s buying you and mommy a new house tomorrow.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hold up-WE DON\u2019T HAVE KIDS.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I shook him awake: \u201cWhat did you just say?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He just rolled over: \u201cJust a nightmare, go back to sleep.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Something was OFF. Like, majorly off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But I didn\u2019t push it. Instead, I quietly grabbed his phone-\u00a0<\/p>\n
Clue #1: His Venmo showed a fifty-thousand-dollar transfer from three months ago, with a note: \u201cDown payment.\u201d Recipient: Rain Sullivan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Clue #2: I searched that name on Instagram. Same day as the transfer, she\u2019d posted an ultrasound photo with the caption: [Little angel is already three months along! Daddy says we\u2019ll live in a big house.]\u00a0<\/p>\n
I immediately screenshot everything and sent it to my dad: [Dad, your precious son-in-law didn\u2019t just cheat-he\u2019s got a bastard kid on the way. I\u2019m gonna make him leave with NOTHING!]\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dad texted back almost instantly:\u00a0<\/p>\n
[That son of a bitch! Don\u2019t you worry, sweetheart. I\u2019m calling our attorney\/right now. Nobody crosses the Hartwell family and lives to tell about it!]\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fighting back nausea, I kept scrolling through Rain Sullivan\u2019s feed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One month ago: [Picked out our love nest today! The location is chef\u2019s kiss! Thank you babe for giving me and our little one such a perfect home.]\u00a0<\/p>\n
The photo showed her arm-in-arm with Marcus at some fancy real estate office in Westchester. She was wearing a form-fitting dress that showed off her bump, beaming at the camera.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marcus had his arm around her waist, looking at her with a tenderness I\u2019d never seen before.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two months ago: [Babe says me and baby are his whole world, and he\u2019s gonna give us everything. This steak is divine!]\u00a0<\/p>\n
The picture was from some upscale steakhouse-the kind of place that serves Wagyu beef I could never justify buying.\u00a0<\/p>\n
09:55\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hot Shower, Cold Heart: How Water Temperature Exposed My Military Husband\u2019s Affair\u00a0<\/p>\n
7.7%\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 1\u00a0<\/p>\n
I remembered that exact night. I\u2019d suggested we celebrate my promotion at that same restaurant, but Marcus had grimaced and said it was too pricey. We ended up ordering DoorDash instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Three months ago: [Two pink lines! Baby, your timing is absolutely perfect-Mommy and Daddy are so ready for you!]\u00a0<\/p>\n
The photo showed her and Marcus\u2019s hands intertwined over her still-flat belly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every single image felt like a knife twisting in my chest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I cried silently in the dark, tears soaking into my pillowcase.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Next to me, Marcus slept peacefully with a slight smile, probably dreaming about his perfect little family again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Looking at his lying face, every ounce of love I\u2019d felt transformed into pure hatred.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Marcus, you really thought you could pull this off?\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not some pushover you can just screw over.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I slipped out of bed and padded to the home office, firing up my laptop.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As heir to Hartwell Industries, I had resources he couldn\u2019t even imagine!\u00a0<\/p>\n
First, I needed to know everything about Rain Sullivan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Through a private investigation firm, I got her complete background within hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rain Sullivan, 23, recent graduate from some no-name state school in Ohio, working as a receptionist at Marcus\u2019s\u00a0<\/p>\n
company.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lower-middle-class family from Cleveland-both parents work blue-collar jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Classic gold-digger trying to social climb her way out of mediocrity,\u00a0<\/p>\n
What really pissed me off was her start date at Marcus\u2019s firm: exactly six months after our wedding.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So she\u2019d targeted a married man from day one.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That conniving bitch!\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2661 (0)\u00a0<\/p>\n
(0)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Joseph King is an editor and storyteller who ensures every chapter is clear, polished, and engaging for readers.<\/p>\n
Hot Shower, Cold Heart by Mark Twain 10 \u00a0 Chapter 1\u00a0 Chapter 1\u00a0 At 3 AM, my husband\u2019s sleep talking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-giving-my-husband-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22878\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}