Chapter 1

My husband, David Shaw, lived for adrenaline, so his decision to go skydiving with my college friend Zoey Foster was just another adventure for him.

Until it became a disaster. They had a crash landing in the woods, and both were rushed to the hospital with critical injuries.

The moment I heard, I dropped everything and ran to his side. But then I found the video on his phone.

There he was, clutching Zoey, his voice barely a whisper as he gasped out his final wish. "If I die, everything I have should go to Zoey Foster and her daughter."

Hearing that was like a physical blow. Facing death, his thoughts weren't with me or our little girl. His last words were for another woman and her child.

In that instant, any love I had left for him died, and my heart turned to dust.

*****

Numbly, I kept scrolling through his phone, my hands shaking so badly that I could barely tap the screen.

In one of them, David and Zoey were snuggled up against a big boulder, looking cozy and completely wrapped up in each other.

Then, David whispered, "I'd give my life for Zoey's in a heartbeat, without a second thought.

"Her daughter is too young to lose her."

I completely broke and couldn't hold back the tears anymore.

Here he was, staring death in the face, and all his thoughts were for another woman's child, not his own little girl, who was only six.

Everything changed after Zoey moved back to the city as a widow. David became a different person.

He skipped our daughter's birthday to take Zoey and her daughter shopping.

He blew off our wedding anniversary to spend Valentine's Day with them.

He even walked out of our daughter's parent-teacher conference because Zoey and her daughter "had no one else," leaving our little girl humiliated in front of her classmates.

For the sake of our daughter, I just put up with all of it.

But the final straw was discovering that on his deathbed, David planned to leave his entire estate to Zoey and her daughter.

How could he do that?

Half of that money was mine, earned through my own hard work. And he thought he could just sign my share away without a single word to me?

When David was finally wheeled out of the ER, I was already bracing myself for the worst.

The doctor said they'd given him timely medical treatment and barely managed to save him. While he was out of immediate danger, he'd need to stay in the hospital for observation.

David came to, groggy but alert, and before anything else, he blurted out, "Where's Zoey? Is she alright?"

I watched his anxious face and answered slowly and bitterly, "When you two fell, you held onto Zoey so tightly that she barely got a scratch. She's in much better shape than you are, so you can relax."

He just let out a helpless chuckle. "Sylvia, why do you always have to be jealous? It was an emergency. What was I supposed to do?"

I didn't answer, just held his gaze until he started to fidget, unable to look me in the eye.

He gave me an awkward smile, squeezed my hand, and started rambling, "You're overthinking this. I only see Zoey as a little sister. I just feel sorry for them.

"With her husband gone, she and her daughter have no one. Who's going to look out for them if I don't?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Zoey came in, pushed by a nurse in her wheelchair.

She was in far better condition than David, with just a leg injury that would take time to heal.

The second she saw David lying there, she forced herself up, limped over, and practically collapsed into his arms.

It seemed like I was the third wheel here.

Zoey, her face streaked with tears, could barely talk between sobs.

"David, I'm so sorry," she choked out. "This is all my fault. I was way too stubborn. If I hadn't pushed for that skydiving trip, none of this would've happened. We almost died because of me.

"Honestly, the moment I came to, all I could think was that if you were hurt saving me, I wouldn't want to live either."

"Zoey, just try to calm down," David said, his voice weary.

He tried to gently push her off, but when she wouldn't budge, he just let her cry on his chest.

"You are safe now. Don't dwell on it. Why don't you think about Lily? What would Lily do if you died?" David said softly.

Zoey smiled, "That's right. We have Lily, our baby girl—"