Chapter 1

I saw that chat log on James's tablet.

It was 11 PM. He came out of the shower, took a call, and stepped out onto the balcony, his voice barely above a whisper.

The tablet was still on, showing a group chat with his buddies.

The group was called "The Uptown Quartet." So cheesy it made me cringe. The messages were scrolling up, one after another.

Ryan sent a voice message, and I hit play on speakerphone. [Man, isn't this a bit much? Emily's been waiting for this for ages.]

James replied with a text, four words: [Stay out of it.]

I scrolled up a bit more. Samuel: [Dude, if Emily finds out you're ditching her for the honeymoon and taking Lily to Islehaven instead, she'll flip out and raise hell.]

James replied: [She won't find out.]

Ryan: [What if she does?]

James: [So what if she does? It's Lily's birthday wish, one last trip together before we make it official. I promised her, and a man keeps his word.]

After a three-second pause, he sent another message. [Emily's always making a scene over trivial stuff. It's really getting on my nerves. Maybe this will finally teach her to get her act together.]

I stared at that line for a long time. So it was "trivial stuff," huh? To him, our honeymoon was nothing but "trivial stuff."

I'd been looking forward to it for three months, picked out the hotel two months in advance, put together a twenty-page travel guide and marked all the best spots for photos.

And to him, all that was "trivial stuff." But Lily's birthday wish? That was the real deal.

I felt nothing at all. It wasn't me pretending to be calm. It was real. It felt like my heart had finally frozen over.

*****

It had been three years.

In those three years, I'd seen this kind of thing way too many times.

When Lily cried, he ditched my birthday dinner.

When Lily got sick, he rushed to the hospital on Christmas Eve.

When Lily hit a snag at work, he used his connections to open doors for her.

And me? I was "Emily Lane," the one he never called Emily. I was the wife he always said was "a bit annoying."

I set the tablet down and gently turned off the screen.

Out on the balcony, James was still on the phone, his voice gentle and warm, with a tone he never reserved for me.

I didn't need to hear it to know who he was talking to.

I picked up my phone and opened the flight booking app. He'd already canceled the tickets to Azure Bay, and the refund still hadn't come through.

I didn't bother rebooking Azure Bay. Instead, I searched for Lumiere. One-way.

The flight was at 7 AM the day after tomorrow. It was two hours earlier than the flight James and Lily were taking to Islehaven.

When I hit confirm, my hand stayed steady.

James came back in from the balcony, his hair still damp, the air thick with the fresh scent of his shower gel.

He glanced at me and said offhandedly, "I've got a meeting tomorrow. So I might be home late."

"Okay," I replied.

He walked over to the bed, lay down, picked up the tablet, swiped through a few things, then locked it and set it aside.

He did it all so naturally, like it was the most normal thing in the world. Not a hint of guilt.

That was the kind of guy he was. He could mess up, betray me, and still act like nothing was wrong, like it was all perfectly normal.

Because in his world, Lily always came first, and I was always an afterthought. It had always been this way.

I turned off the light and rolled over to face away from him.

In the darkness, I lay there with my eyes open, thinking. Nana, I really tried.

Before you passed away, Nana, you told me to marry into the Foster Family. You said James was a good man, that our families went way back, and that marrying him would bring me happiness.

I did as you said. It had been three years. That was enough.