I Married Her to My Twin

On our wedding night, my wife, Corinne, suddenly said, "Emmett, let Silas take your place with me tonight." I froze, sure I'd heard her wrong. Then she said, "I don't want this either, but Silas is dying. The only thing he wants before he dies is to find out what it's like to be with a woman. "You two are twins anyway. You look exactly alike. Just let him stand in for you tonight. "Don't worry. I'll be thinking of you the whole time." My parents were standing at the bedroom door too, their eyes full of tears as they begged me. "Emmett, just say yes! It's Silas's last wish!" In that moment, a flood of memories came rushing back. Chapter 1 Because my twin brother, Silas, had been sickly from the day he was born, my parents always favored him. On our birthday, they'd buy two cakes, but Silas blew out the candles on both of them, and Silas cut both of them too. My parents would crowd around him, put the party hat on his head, and sing "Happy Birthday" to him... while I sat off to the side like a stranger who didn't matter. It wasn't just my parents. Even Corinne Devereux—my childhood sweetheart, the girl our families had always planned for me to marry—paid special attention to Silas. At school, she'd bring him lunch, take notes for him, and tutor him. And whenever Silas felt unwell and went to lie down in the nurse's office, Corinne, who never skipped class, would walk right out of the classroom just to keep him company. Sometimes I got jealous and asked her why she was so good to him. She'd always smile. "Because he's your brother. You two look exactly alike. Taking care of him is just part of loving you." But Corinne never skipped a single class for me. Even when I was burning up with a fever over a hundred and four, so out of it I could barely think, all she said was, "The teacher's going over some really important problems in math today, Emmett. You can get yourself to the nurse's office." And the moment I showed even the slightest hint of resentment, the accusations came pouring in from every side. "Emmett, if you hadn't stolen Silas's nutrients in the womb, he wouldn't have been born so weak! You owe him. Is it really so hard to let him have something?" My parents said the same thing. "Silas has been seriously ill since he was little. We're his parents. Isn't it only right that we pay him a little more attention? "Emmett, can't you stop being so selfish? You already got the healthy body. Why do you still have to fight him for everything?" With all of them saying it, I started to doubt myself. Was I really that selfish? So I started stepping back. I stopped fighting and stopped competing. Whatever Silas wanted, I handed it to him. Senior year, my near-perfect scores got me into Westbridge University, the school I'd always dreamed of. Silas had missed so much school that his scores were dismal. The best he could manage was a community college. But Mom said, "Emmett, let Silas go to Westbridge. You can take his place at the community college. The degree will have your name on it in the end anyway. Silas just wants a taste of what it's like at a real top university." I refused, because Corinne and I had promised each other we'd go to Westbridge together. But when Corinne heard I'd said no, her face went cold. "Then I won't go to Westbridge either. I'll go to community college with Silas! "You get all kinds of people at a place like that, and Silas is so frail. He won't be able to handle it. Emmett, forcing him to go there is practically signing his death warrant!" In the end, with all of them pushing me, I had no choice but to switch schools with Silas. And because Silas skipped so many classes, he never even graduated. The elite degree I'd earned was thrown away right along with him. Things like that happened more times than I could count. From the moment I was born, I'd been backing down. And now they wanted me to give my wedding night to Silas. I looked at my wife and asked, slowly and deliberately, "You really want to sleep with my brother tonight?" "I don't want this either." Corinne lowered her eyes. "But Silas is seriously ill. He doesn't have many days left. This is his only wish, and I don't want him to die with regrets." A tearing pain ripped through my chest, but I smiled. "If you don't have a problem with it, then neither do I." With that, I turned and left. Then I got in my car and drove to the city clerk's office. When I got there, I took out our marriage certificate and handed it to the clerk. "Hi. The information on this marriage certificate is wrong. The man who married Corinne Devereux yesterday was my twin brother, Silas Carlisle, not me. "Could you please correct the name? I'm about to leave the country for school, and I really don't want to take the wrong marriage with me." No one knew that three months earlier, I'd been accepted to Ravenmoor University, one of the Ivy League schools. I'd planned to tell Corinne the good news after our wedding night, then take her with me. But now, there didn't seem to be any point. Once the certificate was corrected, I drove back home. I'd meant to go upstairs and rest, but as I passed the bedroom that was supposed to be ours, I heard Silas's hearty laughter coming from inside. "Ha! I can't believe that idiot brother of mine actually thinks I'm dying! The truth is, not only am I not dying, I don't even have a serious illness. There's just something off with my vagus nerve, so I pass out more easily than other people." "I always knew you weren't sick." Corinne laughed. "But what about your parents? Do they know?" "They didn't at first. Back then I was little. Whenever I got worked up, I'd faint, and the doctors couldn't find anything wrong, so they thought I was seriously ill and wouldn't live long," Silas went on. "But when I was about seven, the doctors figured out it was nothing serious. By then, though, my parents were used to giving me whatever I wanted. Even after they found out I wasn't sick, they kept spoiling me." Inside the bedroom, Silas laughed without a care in the world. Outside it, I felt like I'd been plunged into ice. I was cold all the way through. So Silas had never been sick at all. Everyone knew. Everyone except me. They'd all teamed up to lie to me and made me Silas's doormat and scapegoat for over a decade! Chapter 2 Every time Silas fainted when we were kids, my parents scolded me. They said it was my fault for stealing the nutrients that should've gone to him in the womb, and that was why he was born so sickly. They said it so many times that eventually I believed it too. I really thought it was all my fault. So I grew up drowning in guilt and bent over backward to be good to Silas. Anything he wanted, I saved up to buy for him. Every time he got into trouble, I quietly took the fall. In middle school, Silas stole money from the school bully. After class, the bully showed up with a whole gang to corner us. The second Silas realized things were going south, he pointed at me and shouted, "My brother took the money! It had nothing to do with me!" Then a dozen guys jumped me. The bully had them pin me down and brought a metal pipe down on my arm, snapping the bone. Even then, I gritted my teeth and never told anyone the truth. In tenth grade, Silas hid in the girls' restroom and secretly filmed our female classmates on his phone. When it all came out, he was afraid of being punished, so he pinned it on me too. I got a formal disciplinary mark on my record and was publicly reprimanded in front of the whole school. The humiliation was the least of it. For the rest of high school, every girl except Corinne treated me like a pervert and spat at me whenever they saw me. The guys despised me too. They called me the scum of the earth, and every few days they'd corner me in the bathroom and rough me up... But I still didn't say a word. I clenched my jaw and took the blame for Silas. Because Silas had said, "Emmett, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it. I've been sick my whole life, and no girl has ever liked me. I was just too curious. That's why I went into the girls' restroom and filmed them. I didn't mean any harm. "Why does it have to be me who's sick? If I weren't sick, I could date and fall in love like a normal person..." Every word out of his mouth was like a sharp knife driven deep into my heart. The more he talked like that, the guiltier I felt. I thought it was because of me that he was in so much pain. So my whole life, no matter how unforgivable his mistakes were, I was willing to take the blame. But it turned out he'd never been sick at all! Inside the bedroom, Silas pressed Corinne down beneath him and laughed suggestively. "Come on, Mrs. Carlisle. Wedding nights don't last forever. Let's not waste a second." Corinne didn't push him away. The sounds of the two of them spilled out through the crack in the door, and by then, tears were streaming down my face. I didn't sleep at all that night. Early the next morning, Mom came to wake me. "Silas wore himself out last night. His health is delicate—he can't take that kind of strain. Hurry up and go make him some bone broth so he can get his strength back." How ridiculous. Silas had slept with my wife, and I was supposed to get up early and make him broth so he could recover? In that moment, I really wanted to ask her: Did she even think of me as her son? If she did, how could she be this biased? I'd always been the most devoted son. Why had she and Dad never once seen me? I gave her a long look but said nothing. I just turned and went to the kitchen. Once I was there, I pulled out my phone and dialed a number. "Hello, is this Silver Pines Senior Living? I'd like to sell the private residence I bought for my parents last month." Corinne was the only child of a family with old money and serious power. Money was the one thing they'd never run short of. So before the wedding, I'd spent every penny of my savings on my parents. I'd bought them a private residence at the most expensive senior-living community in Crestholm, then set aside the rest to catch up on their retirement contributions and buy them top-tier health insurance, so they could spend their golden years happy and healthy. But now I was done being the sucker. If they loved Silas that much, Silas could take care of them in their old age! "Sell it within a week, and I'll give you an extra ten percent on your commission," I said flatly, then hung up. The moment I ended the call, Corinne appeared in the kitchen doorway, as sexy and alluring as ever. "Emmett, what's this tantrum about now? We just got married, and you already want to sell our home?" Chapter 3 Corinne seemed to have misunderstood. She thought I was selling the house we'd moved into as newlyweds. I couldn't be bothered to explain, so I just went along with it. "Last night, you slept with Silas in this house. I can't get past it, and I don't want to live here anymore. Is that a problem?" Corinne froze for a second, then smiled. "Of course you can. If you don't like this house, I'll give it to your brother and buy you another one next door," she said. "But you can't hold it against me, because I only slept with your brother for your sake. "I'm a very traditional woman. I could never be with two men. But I love you so much that I was willing to sacrifice myself to help make your brother's wish come true... I've gone this far for you. You should be thanking me. How can you hold it against me?" It was so outrageous I almost laughed. She'd betrayed me, and I was supposed to thank her? She was the one who'd wanted to sleep with Silas, yet she was acting like she'd sacrificed herself for me. Did she really think I was so stupid I couldn't see right through her? Just then, the kitchen door swung open again, and Silas walked in shirtless. His body was covered in hickeys and scratches, especially his back. I looked away. I didn't want to see it. But Silas deliberately goaded me. "Emmett, look what your wife did to me. I can't even show my face in public like this." Corinne instantly turned red. "Don't talk nonsense in front of your brother!" She was scolding him, but when she saw the scratches all over his back, she couldn't help feeling bad for him. She went upstairs for the first-aid kit, pulled Silas over, and began carefully treating his scratches. Every so often, their laughter drifted in from the living room. They were horsing around on the couch as if I didn't exist. I didn't say anything. I wolfed down my breakfast and headed upstairs to start packing. I was leaving the country in three days. But Corinne suddenly called after me. "Emmett, Silas is hosting a class reunion here today. He's already sent out the invitations. Go change. Everyone will be here soon." Silas chimed in. "Emmett, I'm throwing this reunion just for you. That whole crowd from high school always mocked you and bullied you. Now that you've married a gorgeous heiress, you have to invite them all over and rub it in their faces." He made it sound nice. But wasn't the only reason I'd been bullied in high school that he'd hidden in the girls' restroom, filmed our classmates, and framed me for it? So why was he pretending to be the good guy now? Before long, our old classmates started arriving. When they found out Corinne and I had just gotten married the day before, everyone was stunned. "Corinne, did you actually marry Emmett?" someone said indignantly. "Sure, he's a genius—he was ranked first in our grade all through high school—but his character is awful! He hid in the girls' restroom and filmed girls using the bathroom! Isn't that just plain sick?" "Exactly. Corinne, you're gorgeous and you come from a great family. Why would you marry a creep like Emmett?" "Honestly, you'd have been better off marrying his brother, Silas. They look exactly the same anyway." Listening to the chatter, Corinne and Silas exchanged a look. A flirtatious smile lurked in both their eyes. They were too busy flirting to say a single word in my defense. Even though they both knew perfectly well I wasn't the one who'd hidden in the girls' restroom filming those girls... A chill spread through me. At this point, I had no intention of taking the blame for Silas anymore. So I raised my voice. "The one who hid in the girls' restroom and filmed those girls was Silas, not me. I've been taking the heat for him all these years, but I'm done!" Chapter 4 The lively room fell silent at once. Every eye turned to me. "Emmett, what proof do you have that the creep who hid in the girls' restroom filming people back then was Silas and not you?" "Exactly! If you don't have hard evidence, stop shouting nonsense. I sure don't believe you took the fall for your brother." My classmates clamored for me to show them proof. I turned to look at Corinne. "Corinne can prove it," I said. "Because back then, she's the one who came down to the police station and bailed Silas and me out." Back then, when Silas was caught filming a girl in the restroom, she called the police right away. But before the police arrived, Silas shook off the girl who'd caught him and ran. And because Silas and I looked exactly alike, the girl who'd called the police couldn't tell whether the boy she'd caught in the restroom was me or Silas. So the police took both of us down to the station for questioning. The police were good at their jobs. They quickly found the videos on Silas's phone. Since Silas was already sixteen, and the police found a huge number of hidden-camera videos on his phone, the case was extremely serious. They were going to send him to juvenile detention for a year or two. But then Corinne showed up and paid a large sum in bail to get Silas out. Once he was out, Silas started playing the victim in front of me. He cried and said he had a police record now, and he didn't want our classmates looking down on him too. So he wanted me to take the blame for him. Even Corinne said, "Emmett, just help Silas out. His health is already bad. If everyone at school finds out he did it and they freeze him out and bully him, won't that just make everything worse?" She was worried about Silas being shunned and bullied. But if I took the blame, wouldn't I be shunned and bullied too? Silas was a minor, so his police record would stay sealed. But I'd be branded for life. Ten years had passed since then. I stared into Corinne's eyes, hoping she'd tell the truth. If she still loved me even a little, she should tell the truth. After all, I'd taken the blame for Silas for ten whole years... When Corinne didn't answer, our classmates started pressing her. "Corinne, is Emmett telling the truth?" Corinne smiled. She ignored the classmates pressing her and looked at me tenderly. "Emmett, I love you, but I can't lie and go against my conscience. You were obviously the one who filmed those girls in the restroom. Why are you trying to pin it on Silas?" Her voice was gentle, but every word was a knife in my back. The room exploded. "Corinne is Emmett's wife! If even she won't take his side, then it was definitely Emmett who filmed those girls!" "Emmett is so disgusting! Not only did he film girls in the bathroom, he's trying to frame his own brother for it!" "That's it, I can't take this anymore! Emmett, you scumbag, you're an embarrassment to every man on the planet!" With a furious curse, someone in the crowd hurled the glass in his hand straight at me. Once one person started, everyone else followed. Wineglasses and plates came flying at me from every direction. Glasses shattered, and red wine splashed across my face. Plates hit me, and I was covered in food. Even my face was cut by shards of broken glass. Everyone was against me, and they were all throwing things at me. One furious girl even grabbed a bottle of wine and hurled it at me. "Die, you pervert!" Her aim was perfect. The bottle struck me square in the forehead, and blood instantly poured from my head. It ran down my forehead and dripped into my eyes. Through a haze of red, I saw Corinne frown in displeasure. "Stop throwing things!" she snapped. "The flying glass cut Silas! Can't you see that?!" Chapter 5 There was a tiny scratch on Silas's arm—so small you'd never notice it unless you looked closely. But Corinne was beside herself. She immediately had someone fetch the first-aid kit and began carefully treating Silas's arm. I was covered in cuts from head to toe, yet she didn't so much as glance at me. I wiped the blood from my face, turned, and went upstairs. Once I was upstairs, I took out my phone and called my best friend, who worked for the police department. "Declan, could you look up Silas's criminal record and send it to me?" I asked quietly. Now that Silas was an adult, the police no longer had to keep his record sealed. So my friend agreed right away. "Emmett, you're finally going to tell the truth? That's great! You should've done this a long time ago!" Not long after I hung up, Declan sent over Silas's record. It stated in black and white that the police had found over a hundred hidden-camera recordings on Silas's phone! That was enough to prove that Silas was the one who'd hidden in the girls' restroom filming people back then, not me. I was going over the record on my phone when the bedroom door was suddenly pushed open, and Corinne walked in. "Emmett, how badly are you hurt?" she asked, looking concerned. "Don't be mad at me. It's not that I wasn't sticking up for you earlier. It's that everyone hates you right now. If I'd defended you, they'd only have gotten angrier. "But if I stayed out of it, they'd let off some steam on you and then calm down. "When I blew up just now, it wasn't really about Silas. He was just an excuse. What I was really trying to do was protect you." As she spoke, she rose onto her toes to kiss the gash on my forehead. It was our thing from when we were dating. Every time I got hurt, she'd gently kiss the spot. "There. Kiss it better," she'd coo, like she was soothing a little kid. And her kisses really did seem to have some kind of magic. After she kissed me, it honestly didn't hurt as much anymore. But the kiss that used to heal me now only made me sick! So I turned my head and dodged it. Corinne froze. "Emmett, are you avoiding me?" I closed my eyes wearily and said quietly, "I'm filthy. All I want right now is a shower. Could you leave so I can take one in peace?" Corinne's expression shifted. She seemed to sense I was pushing her away, and a flicker of panic crossed her eyes. But just then, Silas's voice came from outside the door. "Corinne, come save me! They're drunk and they're trying to rip my clothes off!" The moment she heard that, Corinne forgot all about me. She tossed out a hurried "Emmett, go shower. I'll come back and put something on your cuts in a bit," then rushed downstairs. Laughter and cheerful chatter filled the house below. Only I stood there, a complete mess, in this house that wasn't mine. After my shower, I didn't go back downstairs. I lay down on the bed and drifted off. I don't know how long I slept before the bedroom door was violently kicked open. I jolted awake and stared blankly at the doorway. Then I saw my parents and Corinne storm in, radiating fury. The way they looked at me, it was like they wanted to skin me alive. "Emmett, did you get your buddy at the police department to pull Silas's criminal record?" Corinne demanded coldly. "Why would you do that? Thank God I know someone at the department too. He gave me a heads-up in time. Otherwise, this could've turned into a real disaster. "You went through a lot today. I understand you're upset and wanted to get back at Silas in the heat of the moment, but I can't let you do this. "So be reasonable. Delete Silas's record in front of me and your parents, and we can pretend this never happened!" Chapter 6 I gave Corinne a long look, then said coldly, "And what if I refuse?" The words had barely left my mouth when Dad slapped me across the face. "Are you trying to ruin your brother's life?!" Mom chimed in. "Emmett, I know you feel wronged. But you've already carried this for so many years. There's no need to drag your brother down now. Silas isn't even married yet. If you tell everyone the truth, how will he ever find a wife?" So they knew. They knew being branded the guy who filmed girls in the bathroom could ruin a man's life. Then why, back when they pushed me forward to take the fall for Silas, had none of them stopped to think about what would happen to my life? I laughed, even as a pain like a knife twisted deep in my chest. I fought through it and said, "Didn't you all tell me Silas was critically ill and didn't have long to live? "I gave him my wedding night to fulfill his dying wish, and now you're talking about him getting married and having kids someday... So now I'm confused. Is Silas actually sick or not? You didn't all gang up to lie to me about him being so ill, did you?" At that, Mom immediately looked away, guilt written all over her face. Dad shut his mouth too. They both knew Silas wasn't sick. They'd just been using "Silas's illness" to keep me under their thumb. In the middle of the awkward silence, a scream suddenly came from the room next door. It was the housekeeper. "Oh no! Silas slit his wrists!" Instantly, everyone panicked. Corinne was the first one out the door, and the rest of them followed right behind her. Silas was lying in the bathtub in the next room. The water had turned red with his blood. His eyes were shut tight, and his face was as white as paper. "Silas, what's wrong? Wake up! Don't scare me like this!" Corinne cried, clutching him in her arms. "Silas must have found out Emmett went behind his back to dig up his record. He couldn't handle it, so he cut his wrists." Mom sobbed as she pounded on me with all her strength. "Emmett! Look what you've done! Silas trusted you so much. Why would you do this to him?" Dad charged over too and slammed his fist into my face. "Emmett, if anything happens to Silas, I swear I'll never let you off the hook!" That punch was brutal. Blood welled at the corner of my mouth, and a few of my teeth felt loose. I hadn't done anything, and yet once again, I'd become the person everyone hated. In the chaos, Corinne called 911, and Silas was loaded into an ambulance. We reached the hospital quickly. Because he'd gotten there in time, Silas's life wasn't in danger for the moment, but he'd lost too much blood and needed a transfusion. Corinne immediately raised her voice. "Use my blood! Silas and I are both type AB. I'll donate for him." A nurse took Corinne by the arm, ready to take her downstairs to have her blood drawn. But the moment the nurse looked over Corinne's screening results, she paused. "Hold on... Ms. Devereux, you're pregnant! You can't donate blood!" Everyone was stunned. Mom rushed forward and asked Corinne excitedly, "Corinne, you're pregnant? Is it Silas's?" Corinne seemed to have only just found out herself. For a moment, she looked completely dazed, but only for a moment. Then she broke into a blissful smile. "It has to be Silas's. He's the only one I've been with," she said, blushing. "That's wonderful! Our first grandchild!" Dad exclaimed, beside himself. The three of them celebrated for a long time before Corinne finally remembered she was my wife. So she walked over to me, her cheeks flushed. "Emmett, I'm pregnant. I know the baby's Silas's, but twins have the exact same genes. So Silas's baby is basically your baby too." As she spoke, she took my hand and guided it to her stomach. "Emmett, we're having a baby. Aren't you happy?" I honestly couldn't believe she had the nerve to ask me that. Happy? I was disgusted! I was about to pull my hand away when Dad suddenly spoke up. "Since Corinne's pregnant and can't donate, then take Emmett's blood for Silas! "This whole mess is Emmett's fault in the first place. He should be the one to make it right!" Then, ignoring my protests, they forced me down into the donation chair. A thick needle pierced my skin, and bright red blood filled one bag after another. Corinne held my hand and said, oozing false sympathy, "Emmett, I know you don't want to sacrifice for Silas anymore. But this time, think of it as donating for me. You're not doing it for your brother. You're doing it for me—and for our baby." I smiled bitterly. I was about to tell her that what she was carrying wasn't our baby—it was the bastard child she'd made with Silas! But before I could open my mouth, a nurse called from the doorway, "Silas is awake!" The instant she heard it, Corinne let go of my hand and ran off to see Silas. My parents didn't hesitate either. They abandoned me and rushed to Silas's room next door. Weakly, I pushed myself up out of the donation chair, turned around, and walked out of the hospital one step at a time. Ravenmoor University's semester hadn't started yet. But this family... I couldn't stand to stay with them for one more minute! So I took a cab to the airport and bought a ticket on the next available flight. Before the plane took off, I posted Silas's criminal record online. I had Silas to thank for slitting his wrists at just the right time. The whole family had been so busy saving him that they'd forgotten to make me delete the record. Now I finally had my chance to tell the truth. Right after I posted it, I sent Corinne a photo. It was a photo of our marriage certificate after the clerk's office had corrected the name. "Corinne, congratulations on your marriage. You and Silas can stay stuck with each other for life. Just stop ruining other people's lives!" After sending that, I pulled out my SIM card, tossed it in the trash, and boarded the plane without looking back...