Free Web NovelChapter 1: 1 | The Three Wives
"Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose." — Victor Frankl
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[10,000x Investment Multiplier System]
[Requirement for System Integration: Minimum of 0.1 Affection (1/3)]
The evening sky glowed orange as the sun set. Its rays reflecting off the roof of a small bungalow building in an urban neighborhood.
In front of this building was a limousine and five people.
"Here is the house key deed, the key, and ten thousand dollars. The Ashford family will no longer have anything to do with you as of this moment. Do we understand each other?"
Dexter opened his mouth.
The butler didn’t wait for Dexter to speak, nor did he offer a parting glance. He simply stepped back into the black limousine, leaving nothing behind but the faint smell of premium exhaust.
Dexter stood there, staring blankly.
He looked down at the key in his palm. It was faded and worn, as though a hundred people had used it.
Dexter was born into the wealthy Ashford Family by a slave mother who died during childbirth.
To make matters worse he was born with an F-rank mana affinity which he would never become a hero and was destined to be a nobody.
He was hidden away and abandoned, treated like a slave in the Ashford family where he was supposed to be royalty until today when he signed the condition for his freedom from the family.
He didn’t know what it was but he was desperate to escape the family’s influence, so he signed the contract.
But how could he have known that the condition was getting married to the three famous cripples in the entire city.
He turned around and behind him were three women dressed in white wedding gowns.
When he married them thirty minutes ago, it still felt like he was living in a nightmare.
Escaping one family only to be involved with three other families?
’Did I jump from frying pan straight into fire?’
He hated this situation. He had been helpless all his life. Finally escaping only to be tied down once more... it was hell.
He turned around to finally take a look at his three ’wives’.
The lady who was in a wheelchair, in the middle of the others is called: Mira Calloway.
From the wealthy Calloway family, she’s permanently paralyzed from the neck down.
She has flaming red hair, crimson eyes and a tiny mole beneath her nose.
She looked like the picture perfect painting of a sun goddess as she sat there with a blank expression on her face.
Three Years ago, she was called the Crimson-Valkyrie.
Born with an S rank mana affinity and an A rank Crimson Flame-heart talent. She battled monsters through countless dungeons, becoming one of the youngest B-rank heroes in the city.
However, tragedy struck when three families joined forces to explore a wild S-Rank dungeon under the Ashford Family’s jurisdiction.
Due to a grave miscalculation by the Ashford family, the dungeon was classified as S-Rank when it was, in fact, an SSS-Rank dungeon.
The expedition ended in catastrophe, leaving her crippled and her meridians completely shattered.
To Mira’s left, stood a tall, slender woman with dark hair cascading past her shoulders.
The second wife, Lyra Vance of the influential Vance family, was once a prodigy in her own right.
Born with B-rank mana affinity, she had awakened an A-rank ability known as Shadow World and rose rapidly to become one of the fastest individuals to attain C-rank hero status.
Since it was a joint family expendition, it included her family. She had been present in the dungeon alongside Mira when the incident occurred.
Since then, her vocal cords had been ruptured and her eardrums destroyed, leaving her unable to speak or hear.
In her prime, she was known as Aurelyx: The Shadow Saintess.
It was rumored that she has two faces. She could be smiling at you and then next second wish to kill you just like that.
At this moment, she currently stared at Dexter with an unreadable expression, just as one would stare at a strange painting.
To Mira’s right stood the third lady, Selene Frost from the prestigious Frost noble family.
Born with an A rank mana affinity and S rank Eternal Ice Winter ability. She became an A-rank hero and also was in the same SSS rank dungeon when she became blind and chronically ill.
Selene’s skin was pale, almost translucent and she wore a thin cardigan over her wedding dress that did nothing to hide how much she was shaking.
’They must be freezing.’
That was his first thought.
He walked to the rusty iron gate, fumbled with the key and finally got it open. He went to the women.
He moved behind Mira’s wheelchair first. Then he reached out and gently caught the hem of Selene’s sleeve.
"It’s cold out here. Let’s head inside."
His voice came out rougher than he intended. He cleared his throat.
The moment his fingers touched her sleeve, Selene flinched as she yanked her arm away.
Dexter’s jaw tightened and he frowned.
’What the hell?’
He could feel the evening cold through his suit which meant she had to be freezing.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a curtain twitch in the house across the street which meant that the neighbors were already watching. If someone took a photo of them and posted it on the internet, this place would turn into something else.
’Since I can’t touch her, maybe Lyra would.’ He said in thought and then brought out his phone, opened the notes app, and typed in a big font.
[Take her hand. Let’s head inside. It’s too cold.]
He held the screen in front of Lyra’s face. Her dark eyes focused on the text, then looked up at Dexter.
She stared at him for what seemed to be a minute and then slowly nodded.
Then she stepped toward Selene. Her hand hovered near Selene’s arm for a moment. Selene seemed to have noticed it. She brought her arm forward and Lyra’s fingers settled around Selene’s wrist.
Dexter sighed and then gripped the handles of Mira’s wheelchair.
He wheeled her up the path, while Lyra guided Selene behind them in silence. The front door got stuck, making Dexter put his shoulder into it to open.
The smell of dust and old wood escaped the house. He tapped at the wall with his fingers and found the switch, lighting up the entire house.
The bungalow was small but structurally sound. A previous owner had left behind three sagging sofas, an old television, a wooden dining table with five chairs, and a shelf of dusty paperbacks.
The wallpaper was also peeling at the corners.
He left the three women in the living room and went to check the bedrooms.
It was two rooms. One was slightly larger than the other. Each contained a bed frame with a bed, a nightstand, and a window with iron bars and dirty curtains.
’Two rooms and four people.’ Dexter thought.
It would be logical for two people to sleep in one room but nothing about this night was logical.
’I can only use the small room, merge the two beds together for the three of them to sleep.’
The beds were large enough for two people to sleep on so two combined beds should be more than enough to house the three women.
He found some extra blankets in a closet that smelled like mothballs and spread them out to cover the gap between the mattresses.
His own room was now empty. Luckily, he found a hand-crank air mattress in a storage closet, pumped it up, and threw a blanket over it.
’This should be alright for tonight. Tomorrow, I will make other arrangements.’ Dexter muttered to himself.
When he returned to the living room, the girls were exactly where he’d left them. No one had moved an inch just like barbie dolls.
"I set up the beds," he said, leaning against the doorframe. "You guys can head in and get some sleep."
Dexter was about to leave when he saw no one answered him
He frowned in frustration ’Why aren’t they—’
And then it hit him.
One couldn’t hear him, the other couldn’t see and the third couldn’t move.
Dexter gritted his teeth and without a word, he turned and walked back to his bedroom.
He needed five minutes. Just five minutes to sit in silence and not think about the fact that he had been disowned, married to three strangers, and left in a crumbling house with ten thousand dollars and no plan.
---
About an hour later, he came back.
He had washed his face with cold water from the kitchen tap and had calmed down a bit.
He typed a new note on his phone:
[Let’s go to bed. Bring Selene with you. I’ll handle Mira.]
He held it in front of Lyra. Her eyes focused once more. Then she looked at him, making Dexter a bit uncomfortable, but she eventually nodded her head.
She went to Selene and guided her toward the bedroom, one hand on Selene’s elbow, the other on the small of her back.
Dexter walked over to Mira.
She was still in her wheelchair. She hadn’t looked at him once since the wedding.
He crouched in front of her. "I’m going to pick you up now."
Her eyes trembled but she said nothing as Dexter lifted her up.
She was really light as though she hadn’t been eating.
He carried her through the doorway and into the bedroom. Lyra had already settled Selene on the far side of the bed. He lowered Mira on the empty side of the bed.
Mira’s head suddenly turned as she looked directly at him for the first ever. Her ember eyes were extremely dull.
"You know," she suddenly spoke. Her voice was like a thousand sirens singing "It’s our wedding night."
Dexter was at first stunned. Not because of her voice but because one of them was finally willing to speak to him.
He glanced at her and said nothing
She continued. "You can do whatever you want to me. I’m completely paralyzed and won’t be able to resist you at all.
Dexter was stunned.
’I still don’t know whether to be happy now that I’ve finally escaped my family or be sad that I’ve gotten entangled with three.’
Right now, he was feeling something but it was definitely not lust.
But now that she mentioned it...
Dexter felt heat crawl up the back of his neck. But he kept his face still.
Mira of course she saw it. Her lips curled into a cold smile.
"Or... did you want all three of us? Don’t worry. One is blind and won’t know if you’re small. And the other can see everything, but she can’t tell a soul." Mira chuckled coldly.
"Convenient, isn’t it?"
On the far side of the bed, Selene reached into her sleeve to pull out a slightly bruised apple
and began to munch on it gently.
Dexter rolled his eyes.
"Save the reverse psychology," he said flatly. "I wasn’t planning on anything. Even if I wanted to do it, it certainly won’t be with someone who can’t move."
The room suddenly went silent and a flicker of amusement flashed in Mira’s eyes.
Selene had stopped chewing as she froze there on the bed.
Dexter exhaled through his nose and rubbed the back of his neck.
"I don’t plan to do anything to you guys either. I like my women taking the initiative so just... sleep. We’ll figure the rest out tomorrow."
He didn’t wait for a response. He hit the light switch, plunging the room into darkness and closed the door.
Dexter rested in his room massaging his forehead
’How the hell am I supposed to take care of three people when I can barely take care of myself?’
