From Fan to Husband

My wife had just passed away when the glowing, floating comments started appearing right in front of my eyes.

Someone wrote that the female lead faked her death just to test the supporting male character's loyalty.

Another predicted that the supporting guy would get lonely and cheat almost immediately, leaving the female lead free to end up with the main male lead.

Some even said they couldn't wait to see the supporting guy standing outside in the pouring rain, begging the female lead not to leave him, completely unaware that she was inside acting coy with the main guy, begging him to stop kissing her. The comments said this scene would be incredibly satisfying to read.

I felt unbelievably wronged. I swore to myself right then and there that I would never betray my feelings for my wife.

But on the day of her funeral, her estranged sister showed up.

She walked right up to me, held a black umbrella over my head, and whispered in a low, velvet voice, "Noah, my sister is gone. But you still have me."

I stood frozen. Was this another test?

I went to a psychic down in the Village.

The reader flipped a tarot card and told me, "You are destined to have two wives in this life. The woman standing beside you isn't the love of your life."

"That is absolute garbage," I snapped, losing my temper.

A shadow fell over me. A slender, elegant hand reached out from behind and snatched the tarot card right off the table.

I turned around and met Sloane's eyes.

"Honey, don't listen to this."

She gave a faint, dismissive smile and carelessly toyed with the card. Her face betrayed no real emotion.

I knew she didn't care.

Marrying me was just her settling.

She had countless wealthy, gorgeous men throwing themselves at her feet. With her looks and status, leaving me would only mean trading up. But I was the one who had chased her the longest.

Since she couldn't marry the man she truly loved, she married the man who loved her the most.

I just didn't expect her to bring up the psychic's reading in bed that night.

All her usual coldness vanished. She came at me fiercely, completely selfish and almost brutal in her demands.

I knew that arrogant, high-and-mighty look of hers too well. She didn't like me all that much, but she demanded that I worship the ground she walked on.

"Sloane," I breathed, surrendering entirely. "I only love you."

I promised her over and over again. As long as she lived, I would love her.

She paused, looking down at me. "And if I die?"

I froze. "...I'd still love you."

She caught that split-second of hesitation in my voice. One perfectly sculpted eyebrow arched up.

I instinctively tried to pull my hand back, but she pinned my wrists down hard against the mattress.

"Noah," she whispered. "Even if I die, you are only allowed to love me."

Half past midnight.

Sloane threw on a black silk nightgown, leaning against the window sill with her long legs crossed as she took a phone call.

"The news of your supposed death will hit the press tomorrow."

The voice on the other end of the line was giving her a mission briefing. "You'll lay low at the remote villa in Sardinia for six months. Once we catch the corporate mole over here, you can come back."

Sloane gave a lazy, indifferent hum of agreement.

"Are you really not going to tell your husband it's a setup?" the voice asked.

Sloane keeping me in the dark was partly for the undercover operation, but mostly, it was a gamble.

When she was seven, her mother ran off with another man, taking her younger sister and leaving Sloane behind. Because of that, she absolutely despised betrayal.

She wanted to bet on whether I would actually stay loyal to a ghost. Only then would she fully accept me.

"Did the private investigators find anything?" she asked the person on the phone.

"We tailed him for half a month," the voice replied. "Noah doesn't have anyone on the side. He goes straight from work to home and back. He's as straight-laced as they come."

"Honestly, everyone knows he worships you," the person added, a teasing note in their voice. "Are you seriously worried he'll find someone else just because he thinks you're dead?"

"Let him find someone else."

She scoffed, completely unbothered. "He's not the only man who wants to marry me."

Sloane hung up the phone. Her hand slipped into her pocket and brushed against the psychic's tarot card she had confiscated earlier.

She gripped it tightly in her palm, staring at the night sky for a few seconds.

Running a frustrated hand through her hair, she glanced over her shoulder at me, fast asleep in bed.

She tossed the card into the trash can.

The next day was our anniversary.

I waited for her at home all day, only to receive the news of her death.

I sat there in a daze, barely registering the police officers telling me something about a catastrophic accident during a business trip.

I returned to our empty house alone.

I saw the black silk nightgown she had worn the night before still draped over the edge of the sofa.

I picked it up, intending to throw it in the wash, until the realization hit me that there was no point anymore.

A suffocating, agonizing heartbreak spread from the freezing nape of my neck all the way to my fingertips.

I held her clothes to my chest and cried for a long, long time.

It wasn't until the day of the funeral that I saw the scrolling text floating in the air:

[OMG here we go. The FMC faked her death to test the beta male orbiter!] [He's gonna get lonely and cheat so fast, leaving the FMC completely free for the real Male Lead!] [This stupid side guy can't resist temptation. He's gonna think he struck gold, but when she comes back, he's gonna regret it so much.] [The MMC is totally her type anyway. They're gonna fall in love on that island. She acts tough but she won't be able to resist him.] [The side guy chased her for years, but the MMC gets everything just by standing there!] [I can't wait to see the side guy begging in the rain for her to take him back, not knowing she's inside begging the MMC to stop kissing her. It's gonna be so satisfying!]

I stared at the floating words, feeling a mix of sheer absurdity and bitter resentment.

So, I was just the discarded side character.

No wonder I could never warm Sloane's heart, no matter how much I bled for her.

But what I absolutely could not accept was the accusation that I would cheat!

According to these comments, I was going to find my next target right here at the funeral.

Have some faith in me! I am a traditional guy with actual morals. There is no way I would mess around when my wife's grave hasn't even been filled yet!

And the most infuriating part? Looking around this gloomy cemetery, there wasn't a single woman here who was prettier than Sloane!

We desperate orbiters only dedicate our lives to someone because we are heavily biased toward a pretty face.

[Just thinking about the side guy waking up next to some ugly chick every morning is hilarious.] [No wonder he's gonna be so bitter. But whatever, the gorgeous FMC belongs to the MMC now.] [Wait, who is that absolute bombshell walking up to him?] [Holy crap, look at those legs!]

I slowly raised my head.

Through the mist of the rain and the somber crowd in black, a strikingly bright and beautiful face caught my eye.

The crowd parted. Through the hazy drizzle, she walked straight toward me, holding a black umbrella.

She stopped right in front of me and called out in a low, soft voice,

"Noah."

"My sister is dead. But you still have me."

A few steps behind her hung the black-and-white portrait of her sister, Sloane.

Melina.

The pop star I had worshipped for ten years.

Back in high school, I used to hide under the covers in my dorm room, secretly listening to her debut album to fall asleep.

Even in my most desperate teenage fantasies, I didn't dare picture her face. She was practically a goddess to me.

And now, she was standing less than two feet away from me.

"That's Sloane's sister," someone whispered nearby. I already knew she was the younger sister who was taken away by their motherthe sister Sloane absolutely despised.

Because of that hatred, I hadn't seen her once during my entire marriage.

And I was Melina's brother-in-law.

In a matter of seconds, my brain short-circuited. I had always joked that if my celebrity crush ever started dating someone, I would jump off a bridge. I despised the idea of any man calling himself her husband.

But now, I was the taboo husband figure in her life?

Dammit.

I was panicking. Staring at my idol's flawless face from this close, my vocal cords completely seized up.

But I couldn't just leave her hanging. I had to say hello. I had to

"Quack."

My tight throat managed to produce a sound exactly like a dying duck.

It was humiliating. I wanted the earth to swallow me whole.

But unfortunately, I was a physically robust side character. I didn't faint.

Ten minutes later, I found a dark, isolated corner in the venue's stairwell to hide and hate myself.

"Have you seen Noah? Melina's looking for him."

Two of Sloane's relatives walked past the stairwell door, their voices echoing.

"Hey, did you hear Sloane didn't leave a single cent to Noah in her will?" "Yeah. A woman's money is where her heart is. That leech drained his youth on her and walked away with absolutely nothing." "Don't be so harsh. Noah is a good kid. Did you see his eyes? He cried them completely red."

Their footsteps faded away.

The glowing text floating in front of me was still updating with scenes from the Mediterranean island:

[Ahhh the MMC and FMC finally met!] [Why is the MMC staring at her like that?] [The FMC's dog loves the MMC! Dogs are way better judges of character!]

I took a deep breath, grabbed the doorknob, and prepared to go home.

The moment I pulled the door open, a strong force pulled me right back into the stairwell.

The person let go of my jacket and looked up at me.

"Found you."

In the narrow stairwell, the door blew half-open by the wind, letting in just a sliver of gray light.

"Are you hiding from me?"

Melina's face was half-shadowed in the dark, her voice ringing crystal clear. "Do you hate me, Noah? Just like she did?"

I took a half-step back and shook my head rapidly.

"I don't hate you."

God knew I could barely even breathe looking at her.

She was actually taller than her sister. Even though she was half a head shorter than me, her presence was so overwhelmingly magnetic it made my chest tight.

"Then do you like me?" she asked.

Someone walked past outside, and the draft pushed the heavy fire door open a little wider.

I instinctively shrank back into the shadows.

She smiled, amused by my reaction, and reached out to hold the door steady, blocking me from view.

Once the people outside were gone, the light spilled back in, illuminating her bright, dark eyes.

"Do you still remember me?" she asked softly. "Noah, we were in the same class freshman year of high school."

Melina's name had defined my entire adolescence.

She transferred out in sophomore year, got discovered, and debuted as a singer. She became a massive sensation overnight, sweeping up awards left and right.

The year I took my SATs and barely scraped into a decent state college, my college roommate lay on his bed on the first day of dorm move-in and mentioned his favorite singer was Melina.

Years later, after we graduated, my roommate had long stopped keeping up with pop culture. But I was still listening to her music.

Her concert tickets sold out in seconds every single tour.

The one time I finally managed to secure a ticket, my corporate boss called me in for a mandatory overtime emergency.

I sat at my cubicle that night, crying silently.

I realized I wasn't just sad about missing the show. I was devastated because, in that moment, it became violently clear that she and I lived in completely different universes.

I would probably never see her in real life.

"I remember," I said, finally meeting her gaze. "It is pretty crazy. I never expected you to remember me, and I definitely never expected us to become family."

I tried my hardest to keep my voice from shaking.

"Who would've thought the next time we saw each other would be eating catering at my wife's funeral?"

She listened to me refer to her sister as my wife, looking at my red, swollen eyes.

She seemed to finally remember the occasion.

"Oh."

She turned slightly, putting a little distance between us.

Fine droplets of rain carried by the freezing wind blew through the doorway, hitting my exposed forearms. She had briefly touched my arm just moments ago.

"My sister was really cruel."

She didn't look at me. "How could she treat you like that?"

Melina had been in the industry for years. She kept a low profile, had zero scandals, and maintained a flawless reputation.

Even at high school reunions, old classmates would talk about her.

"Back then, some gang kids from another school cornered me," a guy once said. "Melina barely knew me, but she quietly called the cops and even stepped in to fight them off." "She's a genuinely good person."

I always believed Melina was fundamentally kind.

That had to be why she was looking at me now, with that devastatingly beautiful face and an expression of pure, honest sincerity, asking:

"What do you want?"

"As her family, I'll compensate you."

I felt so incredibly dirty.

In that precise moment, I became painfully aware of my role as the weak-willed, corrupted side character.

My brain was screaming: If she sleeps with me, does that count as hooking up with a fan? Will it ruin her career? I shouldn't do this.

Control yourself, Noah!

I lowered my head and muttered, "No, it's fine. I don't need anything."

But her deep, alluring voice pushed further. "Are you sure you don't want anything?"

"I'm sure. You don't owe me anything."

"Oh."

The shadows of the trees outside swayed violently, and the wind blew the heavy door wide open.

Someone in the hallway was calling my name.

I turned around, ready to leave.

She watched my back, her voice floating leisurely through the cold air.

"Noah."

"Then can I ask for some compensation of my own?"

I stopped and turned back to look at her, confused.

"Like what?"

"Marry me."

She looked me dead in the eye. "Let me take care of you in her place."