Chapter 2

I stared at the crack in my violin, the memory of Nathan's boot connecting with the case replaying in my mind like a horror film on loop. But it wasn't the first time he had abandoned me when I needed him most.

Last winter, I had been driving home from a rare coffee date with Chloe when it happened. The rain had been coming down in sheets, visibility near zero on the 405. I never saw the truck that hydroplaned into my lane. The impact sent my car spinning across three lanes before slamming into the concrete divider.

I remembered fragments: the metallic taste of blood, the wail of sirens, the cold fluorescent lights of the emergency room. What I remembered with perfect clarity was lying alone in that hospital bed, my phone clutched in my trembling hand as I watched the Grammy Awards livestream.

There was Nathan, resplendent in his tailored tuxedo, accepting the Producer of the Year award. And there was Scarlett beside him, her arm wrapped around his waist, her red lips close to his ear as she whispered something that made him laugh.

"Mrs. Hayes?" The doctor had appeared at my bedside, clipboard in hand. "We need to perform surgery to repair your fractured wrist. There's a risk of permanent nerve damage if we wait."

"My husband..." I had mumbled, still dazed from the painkillers.

"We've been trying to reach him." The nurse's eyes had held that same pity I would later see in the waiter's at Maison Laurent. "Is there someone else we can call?"

In the end, I had signed my own consent forms, my signature a shaky scrawl across the dotted line. The nurse had held my hand as they wheeled me into surgery, a stranger showing more concern than the man who had vowed to be by my side in sickness and in health.

Nathan had arrived the following afternoon, his eyes bloodshot from the after-party, not from worry. "Jesus, Bella, you should have called me."

"I did," I had whispered, my throat raw from the breathing tube. "Seventeen times."

He had the decency to look ashamed, but only for a moment. "It was loud at the ceremony. And then at the party—you know how it is."

I did know. I knew exactly how it was to be an afterthought in my husband's life.

* * *

A week after our disastrous anniversary, Nathan dropped a velvet box on the kitchen counter while I was making coffee.

"Happy belated anniversary," he said, not meeting my eyes. "I know I messed up."

I opened the box slowly, expecting jewelry—his usual go-to apology. Instead, I found a violin bow. For a moment, hope fluttered in my chest—until I examined it more closely.

"It's a factory second," I said quietly, running my fingers over the uneven frog, the poorly aligned hair. "There are cracks in the varnish."

"What? No, it's fine." He barely glanced at it. "The guy at the shop said it was a good deal."

A good deal. As if the replacement for my grandmother's violin—the instrument I had played since I was seven years old, the one that had earned me a place at Berklee—was nothing more than a bargain to be hunted.

"Thank you," I said mechanically, closing the box. What was the point of explaining?

Later that day, I was searching for a sweater in our closet when I saw his laptop open on the dresser. I shouldn't have looked. But something pulled me toward it, a gravitational force I couldn't resist.

His Instagram direct messages were open. At the top was a conversation with Scarlett, sent three days ago:

*Just delivered. Custom Steinway, one of only five made this year. Worth every penny to see your face when you play it.*

Below was a photo of an exquisite grand piano, gleaming black with gold accents, positioned in what must be Scarlett's home studio. Her reply was a string of heart emojis and *OMG Nathan you're literally the best producer/friend a girl could ask for!!!*

I closed the laptop, my hands shaking. A custom Steinway for her. A factory second for his wife.

In that moment, I realized that the crack in my violin wasn't just a broken instrument. It was the perfect metaphor for what our marriage had become—something once beautiful, now damaged beyond repair.