Chapter 1

Before the wedding could begin, the groom, Clive Sanchez, was taken in for questioning for raping his brother's widow.

I ran after them in my wedding gown, gathering up the skirt to explain, but he stopped me.

"I turned myself in."

"Jade's pregnant. Mom and Dad blame her for running off with my brother, and they won't accept the baby. Her family called the police to force the Sanchezs to make a statement."

"I have to marry her. It's the only way to protect my brother's child, the only way to keep people from talking about them."

He took out a wedding ring and slid it onto my finger.

"You'll just have to put up with being my mistress for a while. Wait for me nineteen years. Once the child is grown, I'll come back to you."

He couldn't bear for them to be talked about, but he could bear to let me carry the name of the other woman.

Nineteen years. He said it as lightly as nineteen minutes.

"The premarital exam showed you're pregnant. The timing's wrong for this baby, so I've arranged a termination. Go in after the wedding."

The ache in my chest went cold in an instant.

In that moment, I saw him clearly.

The police car pulled away. I slid the ring off, threw it to the ground, and ground my heel down on it.

You thought you could chain me with this. Clive Sanchez, you think far too much of yourself.

...

I made two calls.

One to my assistant. Halt every deal with the Sanchezs. Without my backing, the company would grind to a stop in no time, and Clive Sanchez would lose everything.

One to the housekeeper at home, going through the things in the house that held our memories, one by one.

The painting Clive Sanchez and I made together. The matching pajamas we picked out. The couple dolls we sewed in each other's likeness...

On my orders, all of it went into the fire.

Watching the flames churn across the screen, I went on. "Pack up Clive Sanchez and Jade Jennings's things and send them back to the Sanchez house."

I paused, then added, "Keep the throw blanket."

Two months ago, Jade Jennings came back with news of Clive Sanchez's brother's death. The Sanchezs wouldn't take her in, her own parents looked down on her, and when she had nowhere left to go, I was the one who took her in, let her move into the wedding home under my name.

If Clive Sanchez meant to marry her, I would help them clear it openly with the Sanchez family.

"Yesterday Miss Jennings had morning sickness..." The housekeeper faltered. "Mr. Sanchez used the throw blanket to wipe her up, then threw it out when he was done..."

A sharp pain shot through my chest, so sudden it caught my breath.

That blanket. I knit it with my own hands, staying up night after night for a month.

Clive Sanchez had bad allergies. Long contact with certain fabrics left his skin red and itchy, sometimes even tight-chested and palpitating. And of course he loved to curl up on the couch to work, so I knit him that blanket, stitch by stitch, in a fabric that wouldn't irritate his skin at all.

It was the first time I'd ever tried to knit anything. When I made a mistake, I pulled it all out and started over. Dozens of times, over and over. By the time I finally finished, I'd worn my wrist down to tendinitis, and the ache still came back now and then, sharp as ever.

Clive Sanchez always rubbed my wrist for me, pained on my behalf. He'd wash that blanket himself, by hand, like it was something precious.

And now he'd used it to wipe up Jade Jennings's vomit and thrown it away like garbage, without a flicker of regret.

I gave a bitter laugh and ignored the swarm of pain in my chest. "Never mind."

"There's a jade good-luck pendant under my pillow. Keep it somewhere safe for me. I'll come back for it right away."

But the housekeeper went quiet for a moment, her voice harder still. "Last night, when you stayed at the old estate, I saw Mr. Sanchez take that pendant into Miss Jennings's room. She wore it out the door today..."

My head buzzed. I hung up at once and called Clive Sanchez instead.

Once, twice, three times...

On the ninety-ninth try, he finally picked up.

His voice was low, gentle in tone but unable to hide how little he cared. "I'm at the county clerk's office signing the papers with Jade. Be good. The sooner I wrap things up here, the sooner I'll have time for you, hm?"

My fingertips had gone numb with panic. "You took my jade pendant?"

"That's all this is about?" His patience snapped, then forced itself soft again. "Didn't you say that thing calms the nerves? Jade hasn't been sleeping well, so I gave it to her. Your pendant came in handy. Means you didn't go through all that trouble getting it for nothing, right?"

He said it like it was the most natural thing in the world, taking what was mine and giving it to his new wife, as if I ought to feel honored.

"Don't go bothering Jade over this. I'll buy you ten of them later to make up for it—"

"As if I'd want them!" I finally lost control, my voice tearing out of me. "That was my mother's. She got it for me while she was dying, dragging her sick body to ask for it!"

"You took my things and gave them to Jade Jennings without my permission. Clive Sanchez, that's theft!"