Chapter 1

Four hours after scattering my mother’s ashes at sea, I found my husband beneath gold balloons with his arm around his sister.

They were celebrating her “fresh start” at the hotel he had booked for our fifteenth anniversary.

Then the front desk told me I had canceled my own anniversary dinner.

A white welcome sign stood in the center of the lobby:

PAIGE’S FRESH START WEEKEND

Paige held a glass of champagne beside Ethan. Eight members of the Bennett family surrounded them. Some were applauding. Others were recording on their phones.

The cake read: To the Bravest Paige.

When Ethan saw me, he quickly took his arm off her shoulders.

“Claire? What are you doing here?”

That question humiliated me more than the sign did.

Ethan had booked this seaside hotel a year ago.

He said we would celebrate fifteen years of marriage with a second honeymoon.

Three days earlier, he had urged me to come as soon as I finished handling my mother’s arrangements. He told me everything was ready.

I had driven two hundred miles in the black dress I wore to the memorial, grains of sand still clinging to the hem.

Yet Ethan greeted me as though I had crashed a party I wasn’t invited to.

Paige set down her glass and approached me with reddened eyes.

“I told him to let you know. You just lost your mother. I didn’t think you’d want to be part of something like this.”

“Something like what?”

She glanced at the balloons.

“My divorce is finally over. Everyone wanted to help me feel happy again.”

“This is Ethan’s and my anniversary trip.”

The two relatives nearest us lowered their glasses.

Ethan stepped in front of me and dropped his voice.

“We’ll talk later. Paige has had a terrible few months. Don’t ruin her weekend in front of everyone.”

Her weekend.

For fifteen years, whenever Paige had a breakup, changed jobs, or fought with someone in the family, Ethan said she needed us.

“Us” sounded fair.

I was always the one expected to give something up.

Now he had given away the weekend he had promised to me.

Worse, he expected me to accept it while his entire family watched.

I looked at the gold badge pinned to his shirt.

PAIGE’S SUPPORT SQUAD

Our private dinner, breakfast on the terrace, and anniversary photos had all been pushed into that vague place Ethan called “later.”

A front desk clerk approached with a cream-colored envelope.

Her smile had grown uneasy.

“Mrs. Bennett, this is the revised itinerary. Ms. Bennett said you might not be coming, so we didn’t prepare a welcome gift for you.”

Ethan reached for it.

“I’ll handle this.”

I took the envelope first.

On the first page, a black line had been drawn through Ethan’s name and mine.

A red stamp appeared beside our seven o’clock anniversary dinner:

CANCELED

Paige’s family toast had been added in its place.

“Who canceled it?” I asked.

The clerk checked her computer.

“The system says the request came from the guest.”

Ethan’s jaw tightened.

“The hotel must have made a mistake. Let’s go upstairs. I can explain.”

If he truly believed the hotel was responsible, he wouldn’t be so desperate to get me out of the lobby.

He also would have asked how my mother’s memorial went.

He hadn’t.

I turned to the final page.

A signature appeared beneath the cancellation request:

Claire Bennett

The letters were elegant. Every stroke was steady.

But it wasn’t my handwriting.