Beneath the Gilded Lies

Five years ago, Luke and I entered this strange world as broke outsiders, marrying the wealthy Astor sisters. A devastating car crash three years later left Luke paralyzed and me blind. Unable to accept his condition, Luke ended his own life.

While grieving, I overheard my wife Anne and her sister Eleanor. Anne asked if Eleanor had Lukes spine broken to protect someone named Simon. Eleanor replied coldly, then revealed Anne had blinded me with pills, making me believe the crash was the cause. Anne responded, "As long as Simon is safe, nothing else matters. We married these nobodies to use them as shields."

The truth hit me like ice. Every loving gesture had been a lie. We were just pawns, sacrificed to protect Simon. My best friends death will not be in vain. Now that I see the truth, I will make them pay.

I fished my phone out of my pocket and dialed a number I had committed to memory.

"I need you to draft divorce papers. I am leaving Anne."

Once the lawyer confirmed, I ended the call.

I was just about to turn and navigate my way down the hall when Anne's voice drifted out from the ajar door again.

"The truth is, Luke's spine could have been saved. Simon was careless during the surgery and severed the nerve. This malpractice could cost him his medical license and his upcoming board review. We have to bury this at all costs."

Eleanor hummed in agreement. "Consider it done."

"Those pills you are feeding Arthur. You know the side effects can cause severe cognitive decline, right? Do not give him more than one a day, Anne."

I heard the rustle of clothing as Anne shook her head. "No. He is too sharp. If I don't keep him docile, he might piece together our connection to Simon. If he exposes everything, it would ruin Simon."

My fingers curled into tight fists, fingernails digging sharply into my palms.

Luke had a chance to recover. He didn't have to die. I didn't have to lose my sight.

A sudden ringtone shattered the quiet. It was Eleanors phone.

I heard her gasp, her voice spiking in pitch. "What do you mean Luke jumped?"

The room went dead silent. A second later, the door swung open violently.

I didn't have time to hide. Anne froze the second she saw me standing in the corridor.

Panic laced her voice. "What are you doing out here? Did you hear something?"

I prepared to shake my head, but her hands were already gripping my arms, her fingers digging in tight. She let out a shaky breath.

"Thank God you are safe. Please, Arthur, promise me you won't do anything stupid. Promise me you won't leave me like Luke left Eleanor. I wouldn't survive it."

Her hands were trembling against my skin. She felt genuinely terrified.

But I could no longer tell where the brilliant actress ended and my wife began.

Five years ago, Luke and I arrived in this world with nothing but the clothes on our backs. The Astor sisters claimed it was love at first sight. They defied their incredibly powerful family, causing a massive scandal just to put rings on our fingers.

I remember trying to talk Anne out of it. I told her we were just two broke guys who didn't deserve them, and I didn't want to ruin her relationship with her family.

She had thrown her arms around me, holding on for dear life. She told me nothing else mattered as long as we stayed by their side.

So we braved the endless mockery of the elite circle, became the Astor husbands, and helped build their empire to the towering heights it sat at today.

Just this morning, when Luke was told his lumbar vertebrae were pulverized beyond repair, he cried. He told me the Astor relatives were already looking at him like garbage. He said he refused to drag Eleanor down. He said we would be brothers again in the next life.

Then he pushed himself off the windowsill. I lunged to grab him, but I grasped nothing but empty air.

The sickest joke of all was that it took his death for me to see the truth.

These women never had a single ounce of love for us.

Anne guided me back to my hospital bed. She pressed a handful of pills and a glass of warm water into my palm, her fingers gently brushing over my sightless eyes.

"You need to take better care of yourself, Arthur. You can't see. What if you trip and hurt yourself? Swallow these so you can heal faster."

I traced the chalky surface of the pills with my thumb. A bitter smile touched my lips.

A one-a-day prescription, and she was handing me over a dozen at once.

Did she want to turn me into a brain-dead vegetable that badly?

"It is too many. I don't want them."

The temperature in the room plummeted. Anne's voice turned remarkably cold. "This is not the time to throw a tantrum. Take the pills, Arthur, or I will force them down your throat."

She signaled the doctor. Heavy hands pinned my shoulders to the mattress. Anne pried my jaw open, shoved the bitter handful into my mouth, and poured water right over them.

I choked, coughing violently, feeling like I was drowning. I thrashed wildly on the bed, but Anne just stood there, watching in absolute silence.

Only when I finally swallowed did she help me up from the floor where I had fallen. She carefully wiped the spilled water from my face, her voice returning to a sickeningly sweet whisper.

"The doctor was too rough. I will have him disciplined later. But you have to take your medicine. It is for your own good."

My blood ran cold. My heart felt like a block of lead.

The moment her footsteps faded down the hall, I stumbled into the bathroom, shoved two fingers down my throat, and threw up everything.

Without the heavy dose of toxins clouding my system, my vision actually cleared a fraction. I could make out blurry shapes and moving shadows.

I needed air. I needed to calm down. I made my way up to the hospital roof, only to find Anne and Simon already there.

Simon was in his white lab coat. His eyes were red and puffy. He looked like a kicked puppy.

"I made a catastrophic mistake during Luke's surgery. He ended up paralyzed and killed himself because of me. The medical board is going to strip my license. I will never be a surgeon again."

"What do I do, Anne? I am so scared."

Anne gazed at him, her eyes practically overflowing with a deep, hidden adoration. She reached out and gently stroked his hair.

"It is okay. Eleanor and I will handle the board. We will buy off whoever we need to. And if we can't keep it quiet, we will pay witnesses to say Arthur caused the surgical complication by interfering. We will send him to prison for a few years. Your reputation will remain spotless."

Simon laughed through his tears, wiping his face. "Won't your husband hate you for that?"

Anne shook her head with absolute sincerity. "I don't care if he hates me. Your safety is the only thing that matters. You are the only person I care about protecting."

Simon wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her flush against him.

He lifted a hand to trace her bottom lip. "Am I really just a little brother to you? Watching you pretend with that blind charity case breaks my heart. You must be so disgusted playing the dutiful wife."

"Let me make it up to you..."

Anne flushed. She hesitated, looking around. "Our family has too many enemies. If I show you any affection in public, they will put a target on your back."

Her words were swallowed by his mouth.

Anne abandoned her restraint, clinging to his shoulders as they kissed passionately.

In the middle of locking lips with my wife, Simon opened his eyes, locked his gaze right where I was standing in the shadows, and gave me a look of pure, unadulterated mockery.

A chill crawled up my spine. But I didn't step out. I didn't scream.

I pressed the stop button on my phone's video recorder, slipped it into my pocket, and quietly walked back to my room, pretending I was still perfectly blind.

Three days later, we held Luke's funeral.

It was supposed to be a quiet, private service, but the Astor family turned it into a massive spectacle.

When Anne guided me into the hall, I could feel the hostile stares. The whispers buzzed around me like angry wasps.

"Is that the Astor heiress's husband? Why is he wearing dark glasses?"

"I heard he went blind. He was already a gold-digging loser from the slums. Now he is completely useless."

"Poor Anne. Shackled to a crippled parasite. If I were him, I would have the decency to jump off a bridge rather than embarrass her."

"The dead guy was his best friend. Two leeches sucking the Astor wealth dry. Good riddance to one of them. Too bad they both didn't jump."

The venomous insults echoed off the marble walls. My hands trembled slightly.

Noticing my reaction, Anne gripped my fingers tighter. She turned sharply toward the crowd, her voice cracking like a whip.

"Enough! Arthur is my husband. Say one more word about him in my presence, and I swear I will ruin you and your entire family by nightfall!"

The great hall fell deathly silent.

During the service, I stood at the front, holding my brother's urn, numbly accepting the hollow condolences of people who hated us.

Then Simon walked in, carrying a massive bouquet of white lilies.

"My deepest condolences, Arthur," he said, his voice dripping with fake pity. "It is a tragedy, really. But honestly, with a shattered spine, he would have been a bedridden vegetable for the rest of his life. He would have drained his wife's youth. Dying was probably the kindest thing he could do."

"To think, he actually took my advice and jumped out that window..."

My breath caught. Simon had goaded Luke into jumping.

I expected to hear at least a shred of guilt in his voice. Instead, he leaned in close so only I could hear.

"You are half a cripple yourself now. When are you going to do the world a favor and follow him? You two parasites have infected this family for way too long."

My knuckles turned white around the urn. I wanted to tear him apart, but I refused to cause a scene in front of Luke's ashes.

Suddenly, Simon threw himself to his knees. He raised his hand and began slapping his own face violently.

He wailed, his voice echoing through the silent hall. "I am so sorry! It is all my fault! My surgical skills weren't good enough! I couldn't fix his spine! I don't deserve to be a doctor!"

Anne shoved her way through the crowd just in time to see Simon kneeling on the floor, his cheeks bruised and swollen.

He was pulling at his hair, weeping hysterically, curling into a ball of misery.

He grabbed a heavy marble paperweight from the registry desk and raised it above his hands.

"Arthur is right!" Simon sobbed. "I am a failure! I killed Luke! I will crush my own hands so I can never hold a scalpel again! It is the only way to pay for my sins!"

Anne let out a terrified shriek. She lunged forward, snatching the heavy marble from his grasp, and pulled him fiercely into her chest.

She looked up at me, her eyes filled with absolute disgust. "How can you be so vicious, Arthur? Luke's spine was destroyed in the crash. You were the one driving! If you had kept your eyes on the road, none of this would have happened!"

"A surgeon's hands are his life! How could you try to force him to destroy his career? You stay here and think about what you have done!"

She barked an order, and the entire Astor entourage filed out of the room, following her and Simon.

The grand memorial hall emptied out in seconds.

I hugged the cold urn to my chest. It didn't matter. Luke hated these snobs anyway. We didn't need their fake tears.

I turned to leave the hall.

Before I could take a step, a heavy hand grabbed the urn and ripped it out of my arms.

I lunged forward to grab it back, but a blunt object smashed into the back of my skull.

The world spun wildly. As I collapsed to the marble floor, my blurry vision focused on the men standing over me. They were notorious rivals of the Astor family. Vicious men who operated in the city's underbelly.

The leader popped the lid off the urn. With a cruel sneer, he dumped Luke's ashes directly onto the floor. They stomped their heavy boots right into the gray dust, grinding it into the tiles, before spitting a mouthful of saliva onto the pile.

"Anne and Eleanor stole a massive shipping contract from us," the leader snarled. "They told us if we had a problem, we could come find them. Well, ruining their favorite little pets seems like a great place to start!"

"This dead one is boring. But the live one looks like he can take a beating."

"What do you think, boys? Break his arms? Shatter his kneecaps? He has a pretty face. Let's carve it up so every time Anne looks at him, she remembers who runs this city."

Laughter bounced off the walls. They dragged me into a dark corner like a piece of dead meat.

My hand slipped into my pocket, my fingers blindly navigating my phone's screen to dial emergency services.

Before the call connected, a steel-toed boot crashed into my ribs. Over a dozen men swarmed me. There was no holding back. They intended to beat me to death.

Bones cracked. Knives flashed, leaving long, burning cuts across my chest and arms. It felt like they were trying to drain every drop of blood from my body.

By the time the distant wail of police sirens echoed through the hall, I couldn't even twitch a finger.

Then came the frantic sound of high heels. Anne had finally returned.

When she saw me lying in a pool of my own blood, she screamed. She tore away the paramedics, dragging me into her own car, speeding toward the hospital like a madwoman.

Her face was twisted in absolute agony. She kept shaking my shoulders, refusing to let me close my eyes.

"I am so sorry, Arthur. I was just angry. I shouldn't have left you alone. I didn't know they would come for you."

"You have to stay awake. You have to live. If you die because of me, I will never forgive myself as long as I live!"

Hot tears spilled onto her cheeks and dripped down onto my cold skin.

But later, as I lay drifting in and out of consciousness in the trauma ward, I heard Anne whispering furiously to her head of security.

"Arthur was the bait. I needed to draw out the rats who wanted to hurt Simon. Now that they have shown their faces, wipe them out. Make sure the city is safe for him."

"I do feel slightly guilty about this. I will make sure Arthur is taken care of. Being a part of the Astor family and enjoying our wealth is more than enough compensation."

"The most important thing is keeping Simon's name completely out of the police reports. No media leaks."

A single tear slipped from the corner of my eye, soaking into the pristine white pillowcase.

For the first time in five years, I violently regretted saying "I do".

When I finally opened my eyes, Anne rushed over, wrapping her arms tightly around my neck.

I stared at the ceiling and spoke with absolute clarity. "I want a divorce."

Anne froze. She pulled back, looking confused. "What did you say?"

"I said, I want a divorce, Anne. I don't love you anymore."

Her grip on my hands tightened painfully. She opened her mouth to argue, but a sudden commotion outside the room interrupted her.

Simon stumbled through the doorway, looking disheveled, a horde of aggressive reporters practically breathing down his neck.

He had a shallow scrape on his cheek. Cornered, he immediately hid behind Anne's back.

He was crying, his voice trembling perfectly. "Anne, I am so sorry. Someone leaked the video of us on the roof to the press."

"They are calling me a homewrecker. They are saying I seduced you. They are demanding I get on my knees and apologize to Arthur."

"It is my fault. I shouldn't have fallen for you. I have ruined everything. I should just jump out this window and give everyone what they want!"

Without warning, he dropped to his knees, slammed his forehead against the tiles three times, then sprang up and threw one leg over the hospital window ledge.

Anne's eyes went wide with terror. She grabbed his waist and hauled him backward. "Are you insane?!"

She cradled him against her chest. "Who dares call you a homewrecker? You did nothing wrong. I forbid you from blaming yourself."

The reporters were shoving their cameras right into their faces. Anne gritted her teeth. Without a second thought for my stitched wounds, she grabbed the collar of my hospital gown and yanked me violently out of the bed.

She kicked the back of my knees. I crashed to the hard floor, landing directly on my shattered joints.

My newly stitched wounds ripped open. A mouthful of blood spilled from my lips, splattering the floor.

She completely ignored the blood. She pointed down at me and screamed, "Apologize to Simon, Arthur!"

I stared at her, genuinely shocked. "I didn't do anything. Why would I apologize?"

"Because you pushed him to the edge! You made things difficult for him twice in one day. You drove him to suicide!"

"Now the media is tearing him apart, and my family is a laughingstock! Are you happy now?"

"No wonder you brought up divorce. You knew I would punish you for this, so you tried to play the victim to get the upper hand!"

When I clamped my mouth shut and refused to speak, Anne lost her mind. She raised her hand and slapped me across the face in front of fifty flashing cameras.

"You are so vicious, Arthur! You are determined to destroy an innocent man!"

"If you won't tell them the truth, I will!"

She turned to face the blinding flashes of the press. She pointed directly at me.

"The real cheater is Arthur Pendleton!"

"He had an affair and tried to extort half the Astor fortune! I divorced him months ago, but he blackmailed me into keeping it quiet! Simon is entirely innocent! He was just comforting me during a difficult time, and someone took it out of context to ruin his career!"

The room erupted.

The reporters surged forward like bloodthirsty hounds. People passing in the hall started spitting on me.

Someone shoved me hard. I crashed into a medical cart, sending shattered glass flying. A jagged shard sliced deep into my neck. Blood pumped freely down my collar.

A doctor rushed forward to apply pressure, but Anne blocked him with her body.

"Leave him! Let him bleed on the floor until he repents for his lies!"

I lay there, watching my own blood pool around me. Right before the darkness took me, someone stomped their heel deliberately into the side of my head.

Anne grabbed Simon's hand and rushed him out of the room, demanding a full-body scan for his minor scrape.

After hours of tests confirmed Simon was perfectly fine, her anger finally cooled.

She pulled out her phone and called the hospital director. "Go check on Arthur. Stitch up whatever is bleeding. Remind him he is still my husband, and I will not be signing any divorce papers."

"Oh, and use the good anesthesia. He doesn't like pain."

The director's voice shook on the other end of the line. "Miss Astor... I was just about to call you. Arthur is gone. He left an signed divorce agreement and a USB drive for you."