All Chapters of Husband Asked Me To Share Him With His Sisters-in-Law: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

10 Chapters

Chapter 1

"Anna, how can you just sit there?"Selena steadied herself against the table's edge and pushed to her feet. The wine glass had shattered on the marble floor, sending shards skidding in every direction. One had caught her hand, leaving a thin cut across the back, blood trailing down her pale wrist and dripping onto the agreement spread out below her.Last time, I'd been shaking with rage. I'd slapped Selena across the face right there on the spot.This time, I just set down my cup, pulled a napkin off the table, and held it out to her."Selena, you've hurt your hand. Let me have someone drive you to the hospital."Selena went still. Her lips parted, but nothing came out. Across the room, Vivian froze where she stood, the agreement crumpling in her grip, her arms slowly dropping to her sides. They hadn't been waiting for me to agree. They'd been waiting for me to explode.Last time I'd exploded, said every vicious thing I felt, and walked straight into the trap they'd dug for me. I wasn

Chapter 2

"The agreement from back then is all here."A thick stack of papers, every page drawn up by the lawyers my father had retained. Three of the Calloway family's shipping routes had been contributed as equity stakes, amounting to fifteen percent of the Hartley family's territorial holdings. In my last life, every bit of it had ended up in Marcus's pocket after the divorce."Get Garrett in here."Garrett, the treasurer, arrived quickly and stood before me with his eyes shifting around the room. Five years managing the family accounts, and five years in Marcus's back pocket."My fifteen-percent stake, starting this quarter: I want all the returns deposited directly into my personal account."His expression shifted. "The returns have always been pooled and managed collectively by the family.""That stake came from my father's equity contribution. It's not a shared family asset. The returns are mine to direct, and it says so in the agreement, word for word."He forced a smile. "I'd have troub

Chapter 3

The message went out that night. Ryan registered an anonymous account, sent the documents to my father's old friend, and had him relay everything to my father on the other end.The next morning, I went to Garrett's office to look at the ledgers. He wasn't there. But Selena was.Her hand was still wrapped in gauze. She kept her eyes low, projecting the image of someone utterly fragile, until she saw me, and then the tears started."Anna, please don't blame me for what happened yesterday. I was devastated. I lost control.""My husband is gone. Died in that fight. I've been a wreck, and all I want now is somewhere quiet to get through the rest of my life. If Marcus is making me his mistress because of some obligation to continue the bloodline, honestly, I'd rather not. That kind of talk gets out, and it makes your position as Donna impossible too."I watched her twist and cringe through the whole speech while knowing exactly who she really was, the woman who'd had me destroyed in my last

Chapter 4

It rained on the day of the burial.The two caskets were carried out. Selena and Vivian followed behind, weeping. Marcus led the procession with an attendant holding a black umbrella over him. I walked at the back of the line. Nobody had given me an umbrella, and I stood in the rain until I was soaked through.When we got back to the estate, I was drenched to the bone. Ryan went to the kitchen to get me something warm to drink and was turned away at the door.That night Marcus came by, didn't come in, and just stood on the other side of the door. "Tomorrow the family is convening. The alliance agreement needs to go through. Just sign it.""What about my assets?"Silence on the other side of the door. Then: "What's yours stays yours.""I want to take back control and manage them myself.""Anna." His voice went cold. "Do as you're told."Through the gap in the door I could see Selena at the far end of the hallway, a gray coat draped over her shoulders, watching quietly. Marcus caught her

Chapter 5

The whole room went quiet.The man who had spoken to me like I was selfish, not ten minutes ago, now sat without a single word to offer.My father took his time looking around the table, then his gaze dropped to my bare feet and the bruises Garrett's men had pressed into my wrists, and finally it settled on the hand Marcus still hadn't let go of.Marcus released me immediately. He put on a thin smile and greeted my father like they were old friends. My father didn't respond. Even so, Marcus pressed forward with a nervous laugh: "There's been a misunderstanding. Just a misunderstanding."No one in the room dared breathe. The elder who had thrown my family's name in my face was now folded so small in his chair you'd barely know he was there.My father spoke. His voice wasn't raised, but every word landed like something thrown at the table. "Marcus, my daughter didn't have shoes on. What were you making her sign?"Marcus swallowed. "With respect, this is a Hartley family matter.""A Hartl

Chapter 6

I collapsed before we even made it home.That was when my father realized I had a fever. I was running hot and everything in my body felt like it was failing at once. They helped me back to my old room, which looked exactly as I'd left it. The magazine I'd been flipping through was still pressed under the pillow. No one had touched anything.The family doctor arrived quickly. After a brief examination, he straightened up and exhaled slowly. "Don, the fever itself was brought on by getting caught in the rain. But her heart rate, her blood pressure, she's severely depleted. She needs complete rest."My father's expression darkened. "Make sure she gets it."After the doctor left, my father sat on the edge of my bed for a long time without saying a word. I lay under the covers, shivering even though the thermostat was set to eighty."Dad.""I'm here.""How did you know?"He was quiet for a moment."You used to send me ten messages a day when you were away, every little thing you saw, every

Chapter 7

Selena came in with the bandage already gone from her hand, just a faint scar left, nothing like the bleeding wound from before. She wore a plain white dress and carried no trace of threat about her, on the surface.She sat across from me and sighed. "Do you know why he's really pushing for this alliance? It's not about bloodlines. It's about money. The inheritance from both brothers, combined with your dowry: have you ever actually added that up?""I have."She blinked. "You did?""Selena." I had the blanket wrapped around me, my voice easy and flat. "Was that cut on your wrist really from the day of the funeral?"She hesitated. "Of course it was. You saw it yourself.""No." I cut her off. "That wound was there before that day. Ryan saw you putting bandaging tape on near your room before any of this was ever brought to the table."Selena's face changed."You knew in advance that Marcus was going to propose the arrangement. You staged the whole scene, hurt yourself, put on the show. Y

Chapter 8

Marcus didn't come. What came instead was a divorce filing.On the third morning, a lawyer showed up at the Calloway estate. Marcus was citing "willful damage to family reputation by a spouse, and collusion with outside parties to fabricate allegations against the family" as grounds for dissolution.My father read through the documents and threw his cup against the wall. "He has the nerve to come at us first."I looked through the complaint. Every charge was worded precisely: my deliberate refusal to sign the agreement, my open defiance of the family elders, my alleged cooperation with the Calloways to fabricate false evidence of death with intent to destroy the Hartley family's reputation.Calculated, surgical, every word a weapon. This had been the script last time too. It just came a little later this time because I'd held my nerve, and that had slowed them down."Dad. Don't waste your anger on him."He let out a short, hard sound. "Divorce is the best thing that could happen. The C

Chapter 9

Once word got out about the divorce filing, the whole of Sicily's inner circle lit up.The Hartley heir filing for divorce, the Calloway daughter shown the door: that kind of story traveled fast in any world. Within three days it had made the rounds of every dock, every street corner, every card table.People said I was jealous, that I'd refused to let my husband honor his fallen brothers. People said I'd used the Calloway family's muscle to push the Hartleys around and gotten what was coming to me. Some added their own embellishments, that I'd conspired with my father to plant evidence and bring down the entire Hartley operation.I sat out in the courtyard of the Calloway estate in the afternoon sun. Ryan stood beside me and read them off one by one."All of this...""Is that the last one?""There's one more. It says you wanted a divorce because you...""Because I what?""Because you'd fallen for someone else."I paused. Then I started to laugh.I had spent every waking moment of my l

Chapter 10

The investigation moved faster than anyone expected.Both bullets had come from the same man, a longtime member of Marcus's inner circle named Jack. Security footage recovered at the scene showed him walking out after the shooting and exchanging an easy, familiar greeting with the men stationed at the door. The whole thing had been arranged in advance.By the time the family representatives went to bring Jack in, he was already dead, found in a back alley by the port. The cause of death was listed as drowning, but there was bruising around the neck.The news reached the Calloway estate while I was eating breakfast. My father dropped the report on the table."They silenced him."I glanced at it. "One down. One left.""Who?""Selena."He frowned. "She may have been in on the whole thing from the beginning. Why would she testify for you?""She won't testify for me. She'll testify to save herself. Jack is dead, and she knows who's next. She's not stupid."I picked up my phone. "Dad, get me

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