Chapter 1

On our fifteenth wedding anniversary, I discovered my husband had another wife.

He had secretly divorced me three years ago.

Then he married her the very next day.

I stared at the computer screen across the municipal registry counter, still holding the deposit check for our vow renewal.

"I'm sorry," the clerk said. "I know this must be confusing."

Confusing wasn't the word.

I had come here to reserve the historic chapel where Adrian and I had married fifteen years ago. He thought I was spending the afternoon shopping before our anniversary dinner.

He didn't know I had spent months planning a surprise vow renewal.

Now the clerk was telling me there were no vows left to renew.

"There has to be a mistake," I said."My husband and I have been married for fifteen years. We’re only renewing our vows."

"According to the records, you and Mr. Whitmore are no longer married."

I almost laughed.

Three hours ago, Adrian had kissed my forehead before leaving the house.

"Seven tonight," he'd reminded me. "Don't be late."

I had believed him.

The clerk turned the heavy monitor toward me. Her eyes were full of a pity that made my skin crawl.

"The divorce decree was finalized three years ago. Filed by your husband."

Three years.

The document appeared on the screen.

Petitioner: Adrian Whitmore.

Respondent: Claire Bennett Whitmore.

Marriage dissolved: three years ago.

It was a perfect, jagged forgery of my handwriting.

I had never touched that document.

While I was busy being the perfect wife, managing his home, and funding his company, he had been legally erasing me.

Then, she scrolled to the final page.

The divorce was filed on a Tuesday. On Wednesday, Adrian Whitmore had signed a new marriage license.

The bride's name flashed on the screen: Vanessa Cole.

My fingers went numb.

I knew her.

I had served her tea in my living room.

She had attended Adrian’s birthday dinner and sat only two seats away from me.

When she spilled coffee on her dress before the speeches, I even took her upstairs and gave her one of mine to wear.

She had stood in front of the mirror, smoothing the fabric over her waist.

"Adrian talks about you all the time," she had said.

At that moment, Vanessa had already been married to him for two years.

My phone suddenly vibrated inside my purse.

The sound made me flinch.

It was a message from Adrian.

[Don’t forget our dinner tonight, sweetheart. Fifteen years is worth celebrating. I can’t wait to see you.]

I read the message once.

Fifteen years.

He still called me sweetheart.

He still planned to come home tonight, sit across from me at dinner and sleep beside me.

My husband had legally ended our marriage after twelve years, married another woman the following day, and then spent three more anniversaries sitting across from me as though nothing had changed.

To Adrian, I was the woman who funded his company, maintained his home and paid the bills whenever his family needed help.

A loyal wife.

A convenient source of money.

I slowly put the phone back into my bag.

Tonight, Adrian wanted to celebrate fifteen years of marriage.

I would sit across from him.

I would listen to whatever loving husband performance he had prepared.

And before the night was over, I would start deciding exactly what Adrian Whitmore was still entitled to receive from the woman he had secretly stopped being married to three years ago.