Betrayed by my husband and sister, I became a perfumer

Three years ago, at the perfumery competition, I inexplicably lost my sense of smell and lost the contest.

Afterward, my younger sister, who'd taken the championship, came running over cradling her trophy to gloat.

Beside me, my parents were scolding me for being a useless failure who had disgraced them beyond words.

At that critical moment, my fiancé Bryce Henson, a pharmacist, was the one who stayed faithfully by my side. "Don't worry. I promise I'll formulate a serum to restore your sense of smell as soon as I possibly can."

He threw me a lavish wedding, and after we married he showered me with endless devotion.

But on this day, I walked in on him and my sister kissing, unable to tear themselves apart.

"Bryce, honey, it's all thanks to you drugging my sister three years ago and stripping away her sense of smell that I could win the championship."

Bryce chucked her affectionately under the nose. "Don't worry. For you, I'd sacrifice my own happiness without a second thought. All these years, those antidotes she thought she was drinking were nothing but the poison I developed to keep her sense of smell gone."

I stood outside the door, undone, feeling ice-cold all over, as if struck by lightning.

Fine, then. I'll let go of my own free will, and give the two of you my blessing!

Even after I'd walked some distance away, I couldn't stop myself from bracing against the wall, trembling all over.

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I could never have believed it.

The happiness I'd imagined all these years had been nothing but one enormous fraud.

Only yesterday, Bryce was still holding me in bed, tangled up with me in tenderness.

And in the blink of an eye, behind my back, he was kissing my sister as though they couldn't bear to part!

What was even more absurd was what I had always believed.

That three years ago, when I lost the competition and everyone turned against me, he alone had stayed faithfully by my side.

But it turned out even the loss of my sense of smell had been a scheme he'd engineered.

And all those years of companionship had only been so he'd have the chance to coax me into keeping down those serums that robbed a person of smell.

Just as I stood there, undone, Bryce had appeared in front of me at some point I hadn't noticed.

Seeing how ghastly my expression was, he asked with concern, "Joan Foxie, what's wrong?"

Looking at the anxious set of Bryce's face, I felt ice-cold to the bone.

Only moments ago he'd been carrying on with my sister, and now he came rushing to my face to put on some act of devotion.

I forced myself to pull it together and shook my head. "It's nothing."

Before I could hide the pregnancy test report in my hand behind my back, he snatched it away, quick as anything.

"What is this?"

"Joanie, you're pregnant?" Bryce stared at me in surprise, but there was clearly no joy in his eyes.

Just then, Jocelyn Fox came up behind us, and the moment she heard those words her face changed too. "Sis, you're actually pregnant?"

Jocelyn shot Bryce a glare so subtle it left no trace, her eyes brimming with deep resentment.

And Bryce, with a trace of guilt, avoided Jocelyn's gaze.

Slow as I was, I finally saw that something was off between the two of them.

Their affair had shown signs all along, and I had been kept completely in the dark.

I clenched my fist hard, lifted my head, and taunted him. "What's the matter? Don't tell me you're not happy to hear I'm carrying our child?"

"How could that be?" Bryce pulled me tightly into his arms and pressed an affectionate kiss to the top of my head. "You have no idea how much I've been looking forward to this child."

Beside us, Jocelyn's face darkened as she fixed us with a rigid stare.

The next second, she suddenly let out a shriek, her body going limp as she toppled to the side. "Ahh..."

Without a moment's hesitation Bryce shoved me aside, lunged to Jocelyn's side, and swept her up in his arms, frantic. "What's wrong, Jossie?"