ON OUR WEDDING NIGHT, MY HUSBAND DIDN’T COME INTO THE BEDROOM ALONE… AND THE WOMAN BESIDE HIM WAS WEARING HIS JACKET
ON OUR WEDDING NIGHT, MY HUSBAND DIDN’T COME INTO THE BEDROOM ALONE… AND THE WOMAN BESIDE HIM WAS WEARING HIS JACKET
Downstairs, the music was still playing.
Guests were still raising their glasses to toast our “eternal love.”
Through the massive windows, the lights of the Hrytsenko family’s suburban estate in Koncha-Spaska flickered in the dark.
The garden was decorated with hundreds of white roses.
Lining the driveway were expensive cars belonging to Kyiv’s top entrepreneurs, lawyers, bankers, and influential politicians.
Everyone was still celebrating a wedding that society columnists had already dubbed the event of the year.
Yet into our bridal suite, my husband had just walked in accompanied by another woman.
And she was no random stranger.
It was Olena Marchenko.
His visually impaired personal assistant.
A woman Oleksandr had spent years defending as if she were something sacred, fragile, and untouchable.
Oleksandr Hrytsenko, the man I had married mere hours ago, stood before me with his shirt unbuttoned, his hair disheveled, and his gaze clouded by alcohol.
“Kateryna…” he mumbled. “I drank too much. I mistook her for you.”
Olena was kneeling before me.
She wore a carelessly tied ivory silk robe, her shoulders draped in a men’s blazer.
I recognized it instantly.
Three months ago, I was the one who picked out that exact blazer for Oleksandr’s wedding suit.
Embroidered on the left cuff were our initials:
O.H. & K.B.
The blazer he was supposed to wear while waiting for me at the altar.
The blazer now resting on another woman’s shoulders.
Olena was crying uncontrollably.
“Kateryna, I am so, so sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen. I can’t see… I was just trying to get back to my room and I must have gotten lost. If you want to punish me, I’ll accept it. If you want to hit me or throw me out of this house, I won’t say a single word.”
I looked at her in silence.
I was still wearing my wedding dress.
It had been tailored from fabric my mother had saved for me until the day she died.
I took a deep breath.
“Then go.”
The entire room froze.
Even Oleksandr looked like he had sobered up in a fraction of a second.
Olena lifted her pale face.
“What… what did you say?”
“You offered it yourself,” I replied. “You said you’d accept my decision if I wanted to throw you out. Striking you would be illegal. But asking you to leave this house is entirely reasonable.”
Olena’s tears fell harder.
“But… I have nowhere to go.”
“You’ll receive enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your life,” I said. “At least salvage whatever shred of dignity this family has left. We’ll tell everyone you fell ill and returned to your hometown for treatment.”
Oleksandr took a step toward her.
“Kateryna, enough.”
I looked at him.
“Enough?”
“It was a mistake,” he said quietly. “Olena can’t see. She got the rooms mixed up. I was drunk. Are you seriously going to kick her out just because she walked through the wrong door?”
I smiled faintly.
“The wrong door?”
I turned toward the exit.
“To get from the guest room on the second floor to this bedroom, you have to walk through the central hall, go up the curved staircase, walk down the corridor past the library, and get past four security checkpoints.”
After that, I looked back at Olena.
“Funny how a blind woman knows this estate better than the security guards who have worked here for years.”
Olena let out a loud sob.
“I knew you despised me. To you, I’m just a burden. A pathetic blind woman living off Oleksandr’s pity.”
Oleksandr immediately stepped in front of her, shielding her with his own body.
“Don’t talk about her like that, Kateryna.”
At that exact moment, I felt something inside me snap.
Not our marriage.
Perhaps that had never truly existed in the first place.
My last remaining illusion broke.
“I didn’t say anything offensive about her,” I replied. “I simply asked a question. After the accident, your family hired two nurses and a personal maid for her. She is never left alone.”
I looked Oleksandr straight in the eye.
“Then tell me, Oleksandr… where are those three women tonight?”
No one answered.
Mr. Savchuk, the family butler, stood by the door as motionless as a statue.
“Mr. Savchuk,” I addressed him. “Bring the staff responsible for Olena up here immediately.”
His expression shifted.
Yet he didn’t move an inch.
“Do I also need to explain to you how orders are executed?” I asked calmly.
Oleksandr clenched his jaw.
“Kateryna, don’t turn this into a circus.”
“The circus started the moment your assistant ended up in my bridal bed.”
The upbeat music from downstairs drifted through the open door.
It sounded absurd.
Cruel.
Almost mocking.
Oleksandr lowered his voice.
“Today is our wedding day. Don’t ruin everything over a misunderstanding.”
I stared at him as if a complete stranger were standing before me.
“My bed is already defiled. My wedding night is ruined. My marriage is ruined. But, of course, the most important thing is that the guests find out nothing.”
Olena pressed her palms to her eyes.
“It hurts… Oleksandr, my eyes hurt so much…”
He turned to her instantly.
“Don’t cry, Olena. The doctor said you mustn’t get stressed.”
Then he looked at me coldly.
“Kateryna, apologize to her.”
For a second, I thought I had misheard him.
“I have to apologize to her?”
“You terrified her.”
A short, bitter laugh escaped my lips.
“She walked into my bridal suite, lay in my bed, and is wearing your jacket… and I have to apologize?”
At that moment, Valentyna Hrytsenko, Oleksandr’s mother, appeared at the doorway.
She was still wearing the elegant dark blue dress she had used to greet the guests.
Seeing the scene, she instantly tensed up.
“Kateryna, what are you doing? Downstairs there are important guests. Do you want to humiliate the Hrytsenko family?”
I pointed at Olena.
“The humiliation is standing right there.”
Valentyna gave Olena a fleeting glance, but her voice instantly turned soft and nurturing.
“Olenka, darling, are you hurt? Did you get very scared?”
That was when I understood everything.
It wasn’t just about Oleksandr.
The whole family had chosen her long ago.
I was the wife.
But Olena was the one they protected.
Untouchable.
Olena hid behind Oleksandr’s back.
“Aunt Valentyna… I just got the room mixed up. Kateryna wants to throw me out.”
“Don’t you dare!” Valentyna snapped, turning back to me. “Olena is the savior of this family. She lost her sight saving my son’s life. You’ve barely crossed the threshold of our home and you’re already trying to flex your power over a defenseless woman?”
I answered slowly:
“Does the fact that she saved your son give her the right to lie in my wedding bed?”
Valentyna fell silent.
Slowly, I slipped the wedding ring off my finger.
The diamond flashed in the warm light of the room.
Then I placed it on the nightstand.
The sound was barely audible.
Yet everyone heard it.
“If the title of ‘Mrs. Hrytsenko’ requires me to turn a blind eye to this… then let that name belong to the woman who wants it so badly.”
Oleksandr’s expression shifted.
“Kateryna. Don’t make a scene.”
“I haven’t even started yet.”
I looked him straight in the eye.
“And now, I want to see the security camera footage.”
And for the very first time all evening…
Olena stopped crying.
The continuation is in the first c0mment
