My Amnesic Ex Married My Sister, So I Married His Uncle-Chapter 1: A Very Pure Transaction

「June. Lumina.」

"Your first time?"

Stella Sterling said, her cool fingertips tracing the muscles of the man’s chest and abdomen. A smile played on her lips; she seemed quite pleased with his physique.

The man, who had an Eastern Asian face, had sharp, well-defined features, a high-bridged nose, and deep-set eyes beneath his tousled hair. His was the kind of gentle gaze you could get lost in.

’Everything was perfect, except—’

"Relax. Your muscles are too tense."

The man seized her wrist, stopping its downward trail. His gaze was heavy and unreadable as he stared at the beautiful, bold woman before him.

"Are you that desperate for a man?"

Stella Sterling raised an eyebrow at him, ignoring the disdain in his words as she pulled her hand back.

"Are you that desperate for money?"

She turned and walked toward a nearby easel. Her movement stirred the white gauze skirt she wore, which was speckled with stray drops of paint.

"I need a model. You need money. We’re each getting what we want. It’s fair, and it’s a purely professional—a purely professional transaction."

Her gaze fell to his loose-fitting black beach shorts. "Aren’t you going to take them off?"

The man’s thin lips pressed into a line. His brow furrowed, his expression full of reluctance.

Stella Sterling casually mixed her colors, not pressing him.

"No undressing, no money. Of course, if you’re not willing, you can leave now."

That’s what she said, but inwardly, she felt it was a real shame.

It had been a month since she’d posted the ad for a nude model, and people had been showing up almost every day.

But this one, today’s applicant, was by far the one she was most satisfied with.

Not only was his face handsome, but his physique and muscle definition were so perfect they looked like they were straight out of a textbook.

’He’s even more perfect than Ethan Rhodes was...’

She froze for a second, then shook her head, forcing the person who had surfaced in her thoughts out of her mind.

After a long wait, Stella Sterling heard a RUSTLING sound. She looked up and let out a soft "Whoa."

She casually stuffed a wad of US Dollar bills from nearby into the pocket of the man’s beach shorts, which he had taken off and left to the side.

"Pleasure doing business with you."

Once her brush touched the canvas, she painted from high noon until the sun dipped below the horizon.

Stella Sterling received a call. Seeing the caller ID, she frowned in displeasure. She tossed out a "That’s all for today," and grabbed a cigarette and lighter from the side table before heading to the balcony.

As the man was getting dressed, he heard the sounds from her phone’s speakerphone coming from the balcony.

He didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but the voice on the other end was so shrill that it shot straight into his ears.

"Stella Sterling, so you do know how to answer your phone! When are you planning on coming back?!"

Stella Sterling couldn’t stand Ms. Jennings’s high-pitched voice either, which was why she’d put the call on speaker early on, hoping the sea breeze would dilute the decibels a bit.

"Get to the point. I’m busy."

"Busy? Busy finding men? I heard you have a different man in your apartment every day! The gossip has already spread back home. Have you no shame? Your sister’s engagement party is just around the corner, can’t you just behave yourself for once?" Madeline Jennings’s anger flared.

CLICK—

Stella Sterling flicked the wheel of her lighter and gave a cold laugh.

’We’re an entire Pacific Ocean apart,’ she thought. ’I wonder who has such a big mouth.’

The flame licked the tip of her cigarette, making it glow.

"So Kiana Sterling can steal my boyfriend and that’s fine? You and President Sterling can try to snatch my marriage certificate and that’s fine too? You’re the ones who sent me to Lumina because you were afraid I’d cause a scene. How exactly do you expect me to just ’behave’?"

"Stella Sterling! Is that any way to talk to your mother? What do you mean Kiana stole your boyfriend? The marriage was arranged and agreed upon by both our families. It’s perfectly legitimate.

"Besides, Ethan doesn’t even remember you anymore. And your sister’s health is poor. The two of them are in love now. It’s a good thing! Why must you cling to the past? Can’t you just stand to see them happy?!"

Stella Sterling’s fingertips trembled slightly. She raised her hand and put the cigarette to her lips, taking a shallow drag.

’A good thing?’

’Not for me, it isn’t.’

’Let go? How could I just let go?’

One was her childhood sweetheart of twenty-four years, the other was her own sister who had swooped in and taken advantage of the situation. Why on earth should she selflessly give them her blessing?

"That’s right. I can’t stand to see Kiana Sterling happy. If she’s comfortable, I’m not. Are you sure you want me to come back for her engagement party? Aren’t you afraid I’ll turn the whole thing upside down?"

"You—"

Madeline Jennings was so angry she was speechless, but then she remembered the purpose of her call and suppressed her anger, softening her tone.

"Where did you put the marriage certificate your grandmother left you?"

"I don’t know."

Her tone was casual, and Madeline Jennings didn’t believe her for a second.

"That was something your grandmother left for you, how could you not know! Stella Sterling, I’m telling you, either you obediently hand over the marriage certificate before the engagement party, or you destroy it yourself, quietly. If that thing causes your sister’s illness to relapse, you’ll be sorry!"

The view before her blurred in the smoke.

The Rhodes and Sterling families had been close for many years, and since Stella Sterling and Ethan Rhodes were childhood sweethearts, the two families had arranged their engagement long ago, formalizing it with a marriage certificate.

Stella Sterling and Ethan Rhodes got together when she was twenty, and everything seemed to be falling into place naturally.

But fate, it seemed, had other plans.

A year ago, they were in a car accident during a road trip. At the critical moment, Ethan Rhodes had shielded her.

Stella Sterling was bedridden for a month with a broken bone, but Ethan Rhodes remained in a coma for a full six months.

When he finally woke up, he couldn’t remember anything about Stella Sterling. Instead, he fell head over heels in love with her older sister—Kiana Sterling.

At first, Stella Sterling couldn’t accept it at all. She cried, and she threw tantrums.

But after she personally witnessed the look in Ethan Rhodes’s eyes shift from calm, to coldness, to disgust when he looked at her, she fled.

She used Madeline Jennings’s fear of her making an uncontrollable scene as an excuse to get away.

She waited in Lumina. Waited for Ethan Rhodes to remember, waited for him to come find her. But in the end, what she got was the news that he and Kiana Sterling were getting engaged.

Of the three children in the Sterling Family, the eldest son, Chase Sterling, and the second daughter, Kiana Sterling, were both radiant and endlessly celebrated. Only the youngest daughter, Stella Sterling, was so quiet it was as if she’d been erased from existence.

There was very little news about Stella Sterling in their social circle, and even fewer people knew that she and Ethan Rhodes had actually been engaged all along.

Thus, that old marriage certificate had become a ticking time bomb.

If word got out that Kiana Sterling had stolen her own sister’s fiancé, she would be so condemned by gossip that she’d never be able to hold her head up again.

And so, for Kiana Sterling’s sake, Stella Sterling was abandoned.

Another call came in, and Stella Sterling immediately cut off Madeline Jennings’s nagging.

It was her best friend, Ariana Grant.

"Stella Sterling, have you been feeling any better lately?"

Stella Sterling roughly stubbed out the cigarette in her hand.

"I found a model I’m really happy with today, so I was in a pretty good mood, but a call from Ms. Jennings just now completely ruined it."

As she spoke, Stella Sterling thought of the man.

She glanced back and realized he was still sitting in the living room.

Dressed in a white T-shirt and black beach shorts, he had a tall, broad-shouldered posture as he looked through her previously discarded paintings.

But whether they were discarded works or the one she had just painted today, the canvases were, without exception, all seascapes. There wasn’t a trace of a human figure in any of them.

Stella Sterling picked up her phone and walked over.

"What did Ms. Jennings want?"

"She wanted the marriage certificate and told me to come back for Kiana Sterling and Ethan Rhodes’s engagement party."

"Has she lost her mind?! Stella Sterling, are you sure you weren’t adopted? How can anyone be that biased!"

"Unfortunately, I’m their biological child."

Stella Sterling stopped a few steps away from the man and asked him, "Why haven’t you left yet?"

The man’s expression was calm. He put down the painting and looked up at her.

"What time should I come over tomorrow?"

His voice was like the clear, fine weather that day—crisp and resonant.

Stella Sterling was taken aback.

’Even his voice is my type.’ She was even more satisfied now.

’He looked so unwilling before, as if I were forcing him into doing something sordid. I really thought he wouldn’t agree to it.’