Chapter 2

"I told you to go home."

Mason found me outside the private championship suite twenty minutes later. Champagne darkened the collar of his jersey, and Serena's lipstick still marked his cheek.

I looked at the stain.

"You told twelve thousand people another woman saved you."

His eyes moved toward the closed suite doors.

"Lower your voice."

Even now, his first instinct was not to explain. It was to make sure no one heard his wife.

"There are reporters inside."

"I'm your wife."

"You're also the team's rehabilitation specialist. This is exactly why we kept our marriage private."

He said it as if secrecy were a rule we had both chosen, not a promise he had kept extending.

"Go back inside and correct what you said."

Mason exhaled.

"Nora, the interview was planned. The network wanted Serena because people know her. The sponsors liked the story."

"What story?"

"Childhood friends. Loyalty. A comeback. It was clean."

The word settled between us.

Clean.

A story became clean, apparently, once the exhausted wife, the sleepless nights, and the hidden wedding ring were removed from it.

"You used my words."

His jaw tightened.

"I gave Serena a few details so she would understand what recovery was like."

"You gave her my memories."

"She helped me too."

"Then thank her for what she did. Do not give her my life."

The suite door opened before he could answer.

Serena stepped into the hall wearing Mason's black team jacket over her silver dress.

"Oh, Nora. Perfect."

She smiled as if I were another helpful member of the staff.

"Could you bring two ice packs? Mason's knee is starting to swell."

I waited for my husband to correct her.

He did not.

"I'm not working tonight."

Serena blinked.

"Of course. Sorry. I forget you medical people get to celebrate too."

Music spilled through the open doorway. Someone called Serena back for a sponsor video, and she reached for Mason's hand.

"They need the two of us."

Mason looked at me.

"Wait here. We will talk after the photos."

I walked past him into the suite.

The championship trophy stood beneath a wall of blue lights. Players, executives, and reporters gathered around Serena as a camera began recording.

She smiled into the lens.

"The night after Mason's second surgery, he kept saying his body had betrayed him. I made him name five things he could see and four things he could touch until he stopped shaking."

My lungs forgot how to work.

That night, Mason had been on our bathroom floor with his brace thrown against the wall. I had knelt beside him until dawn, guiding him through every breath.

Serena had been in another country.

She could only know because Mason had told her.

When the recording ended, I met him beside the trophy.

"If I were standing beside you tonight, would you be proud or embarrassed?"

His face hardened.

"This is not about pride."

"Then why can she wear your jacket while I have to hide my ring?"

"You're making this about jealousy."

"No. I'm making it about theft."

Several people turned toward us. Mason caught my elbow and lowered his voice.

"This is the biggest night of my career, and you're trying to ruin it."

The accusation finally made everything clear.

For three years, I had believed secrecy was a sacrifice we carried together. But Mason had carried nothing. He got a devoted wife in private and the freedom of a single man in public.

He was not trapped by sponsors. He had chosen the version of his life in which my work stayed invisible and his victory stayed clean.

He wanted my loyalty in private and his freedom in public.

I pulled my arm from his hand and reached behind my neck. The chain loosened, and my wedding ring dropped into my palm.

Mason stared at it.

"What are you doing?"

"Making your story true."

I placed the ring on the table beside his championship trophy.

His voice turned sharp.

"Do not be dramatic. Go home, and we will discuss this when the party is over."

I looked at the man I had rebuilt and understood that he still expected me to wait in the dark until he was finished being celebrated.

"No, Mason."

I stepped away from him.

"Tonight is the last night of your marriage."