Chapter 1

My fiancée, Jessica Evans, slapped me hard across the face in front of everyone, and she did it to protect her reputation.

I blocked her number and deleted her from every social media platform that same day.

Everyone thought I'd lost my mind, but I knew exactly what I was doing.

Jessica and I had grown up together, and I'd spent eighteen years chasing after her like a lovesick puppy from the time we were six until we turned twenty-four.

On the day I was leaving the country, she stopped me, and her voice carried a confusion I'd never heard before, something that sounded almost like panic.

She asked, "Why are you doing this? Because I slapped you?"

I looked her straight in the eyes and said each word clearly, "Yes. Because you slapped me."

*****

When the slap landed, my world went silent.

Jessica's palm cut through the air, and the sharp crack echoed in the office.

My head snapped to the left, and I tasted blood in my mouth.

My ears rang like a swarm of bees had invaded my skull.

I stumbled back and caught myself against the desk. My fingers trembled, and my left cheek went numb before the burning pain kicked in.

It felt like someone had pressed a hot iron against my face.

When I looked up, Jessica's hand was still raised in the air, and her knuckles had gone white.

My childhood friend, my fiancée, had just slapped me in front of everyone because I'd confronted her male secretary.

Jessica realized what she'd done, and her expression froze for a second, but anger and irritation quickly replaced it.

She snapped at me. "Ryan Foster! Can you stop making a scene?"

Someone in the office let out a low snicker, and others stayed quiet, but they were all watching this play out.

Colin Brooks leaned against Jessica's side, and his chestnut hair caught the light.

He smiled, and his voice dripped with mockery. "Jessica, don't be so hard on him. Look, you scared your little boyfriend so bad he's gonna cry."

Jessica's jaw tightened when she heard that, but the fury in her eyes didn't fade.

She glared at me. "Ryan, this is a company, not your house. Can you stop being so dramatic over nothing? You're a grown man and you're about to cry. I'm so done with you!"

Her voice was ice cold, and scattered laughter rippled through the office.

I touched the wetness at the corner of my mouth, but I couldn't tell if it was blood or tears.

Eighteen years, and I'd seen every side of her temper, but I never knew her slap could hurt this much.

Shame, humiliation, and rage twisted inside me, and I dug my nails deep into my palms.

Jessica started to say something, but I didn't want to hear it.

I turned and grabbed my phone, then rushed through the glass doors. Behind me, someone whispered, "Oh my God, if that were me, I couldn't show my face here anymore."

I didn't know where to go, but I didn't want to work anymore. And I definitely didn't want to stay and face everyone at the office.

Jessica had never been patient with me, but this was the first time she'd hit me. And it was the first time anyone had ever slapped me in my life.

When I moved into the new house at six years old, Jessica was crouched in the hallway playing with her Barbie dolls.

Sunlight slanted through the window at the end of the hallway and stretched her shadow across the floor until it almost touched my shoes.

We lived next door to each other and shared a small garden between our houses.

My mom always said Jessica and I were like two saplings growing up side by side, destined to walk through life together.

But she had always been the stronger one, even from the beginning.

So all these years, I'd been chasing after her.

But we'd had our innocent childhood moments too.

The winter I was in second grade was brutal.

Lily Carter sat behind me and kept poking me with her pencil during class. When I turned around, she kissed me.

The whole classroom erupted in laughter.

I started crying, and my teacher tried to smooth things over. "She kissed you because you're cute," she explained. "She wants to be your friend. Stop crying now."

Her words made me feel worse than the kiss did.

I cried all the way home after school that day.

When Jessica's dad, Daniel Evans, found out what happened, he called Jessica over while she was doing her homework. "Jessica, go check on Ryan's class tomorrow," he told her.

The next day, during recess, Jessica kicked open the back door of my classroom, and I remembered that moment for fifteen years.

She charged at Lily and slammed her fist down on her desk with a loud bang.

She grabbed Lily's braids, and even though her voice still had that childish edge to it, her words were fierce. "Listen up," she said. "Ryan's my brother. If you mess with him again, I'll come back here every day and beat you up."

Before she left, she smiled and patted my head.

From that day on, I became Jessica's shadow.