Chapter 1
James was dead.
I was just a small-town diner owner, and he was nothing more than the guy from the next alley who fixed appliances. Three years of marriage, and our life savings totaled exactly 30 grand.
I figured that was just how my life would be.
But on the day of his funeral, as I was crying so hard I almost passed out, a stream of comments suddenly floated across my vision.
[James Carter isn't actually dead. He's the second heir of the Carter family from Oceanview Holdings.]
[He was exiled to this podunk town for three years, but now that the old man is terminal, he's headed back to claim his inheritance and to marry a socialite from the Sutton family.]
[He faked his death to cut her off clean. He didn't want her clinging to him like a burr.]
[Talk about cold-blooded. Sarah eventually tracks him down to Oceanview City to make a scene, but the Suttons have her legs broken. She had it coming.]
Standing before his grave, I glanced down and touched my stomach. It was still not showing yet. I wiped my tears.
Fine. Since you're "dead," I'm going to live my best life.
*****
James died in July. To be precise, it was July 14th, the day before my birthday.
I'd closed the diner early that day. I had half a pot of leftover clam chowder and figured I'd take it home to heat up so we could have a simple dinner together. When I pushed the door open, the house was eerily quiet.
Usually, at this hour, he'd be out in the yard with a multimeter, poking at broken toasters and coffee makers.
I called out, "James?" There was no answer.
I set the chowder on the stove and walked into the bedroom.
He was lying on the bed, his face a ghostly pale, one hand dangling off the edge. A scrap of paper was tucked under his three-year-old phone on the nightstand.
I was shocked.
I don't remember much of what followed, just the paramedics arriving and the doctor saying it was "sudden cardiac death." When they asked me to sign the papers, my hands shook so hard it took three tries to get my name down.
The note only had one line; his handwriting was chicken-scrawl: [The pin code is 071502. You can marry someone else. Just don't do it too soon.]
The pin code was my birthday.
I clutched that piece of paper and spent the entire night huddled outside the funeral home.
James didn't have any family or friends around here. When he moved to Maplewood County three years ago, he just rolled in with a suitcase, rented the little shop at the mouth of the alley, and hung up an "Appliance Repair" sign.
My mother ran the diner next door.
Every morning, rain or shine, he'd stop by for two breakfast burritos and a black coffee.
My mother used to say that while he was a man of few words, he was clean-cut and handy, not the type to get into trouble.
Later, my mother was diagnosed with late-stage cancer and passed away quickly. On her deathbed, she clutched my hand and told me I couldn't run the diner alone. I needed a reliable man to help shoulder the load.
She had her eye on James.
I was 23 then, had never dated, and was nothing special to look at. I was just an ordinary woman who spent her life waking up at 3:30 AM to knead dough.
James was 26. He didn't talk much, and when he was fixing things, he was totally focused. Every now and then, he'd look up and catch my eye before tucking his head back down.
We eventually tied the knot.
There was no white wedding, no big reception. After we walked out of the city hall, he took me out for steak and eggs. He pushed the plate toward me and said, "The extra egg is for you."
At the time, I figured this was as good as it gets. A quiet life isn't such a bad thing.
Three years passed; he helped me get the diner on its feet. He upgraded the commercial mixers, patched the leaky roof, and gave the sign out front a fresh coat of paint.
Between us, we'd scraped together 30 thousand dollars.
And then he died.
I handled the funeral arrangements all by myself. In a small pond like Maplewood, nobody really noticed when a young repairman passed away.
My neighbor, Mary, lent a hand with the flowers and the wake. All told, I went four grand into the hole for the service.
It was drizzling on the day of the funeral.
I stood before the headstone under a black umbrella. The rain trickled off the canopy and soaked into the fresh dirt.
That was when I saw the words.
At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. I'd barely slept or eaten in days, and my head was spinning. But the text stayed right in my line of sight. It was semi-transparent, like comments on a screen.
[James isn't even dead. He's faking it. He's already on the plane to Oceanview City while this poor sap is standing over a grave, crying her eyes out.]
I was stunned. Rain lashed against my face, and I blinked hard. The words vanished, only to be replaced by another line floating by.
[His real name is James Carter, the heir of Oceanview Holdings. Three years ago, his cousins set him up, and he nearly lost his life. He went off the grid and hid in this backwater town. Now that his rivals have fallen, he's heading back.]
My mind went completely blank.
[To be honest, Sarah got it tough. She was just a placeholder for three years.]
[James got a childhood sweetheart back in Oceanview City, Emily, the Sutton family heiress. Their families practically promised them to each other years ago. The first thing he's going to do when he gets back is propose to Emily.]
My hands started to shake. It wasn't from the cold.
[But Sarah wasn't some pushover. Once she learned the truth, she went to Oceanview City all by herself and made a total scene, camping out at his door and calling the tabloids.]
[In the end, the Suttons had her intercepted and her leg broken. She had been disabled ever since, and James didn't even spare her a second glance.]
I collapsed, sitting right there on the sodden ground. My umbrella flipped over, and the rain drenched me instantly.
[Tsk, the classic ending for a throwaway character. That's what happens when you bite off more than you can chew. She should've stayed in her lane in this small town instead of going to Oceanview City to a death trap.]
I sat in the mud, soaked to the bone.