Chapter 1

Three days before my wedding, I find my fiancé in our bridal suite with another woman beneath him.

Downstairs, a florist is arranging the white roses I chose.

Upstairs, Victoria Sterling is wearing my fiancé's shirt.

Nothing else.

Ethan gets off the bed.

"Claire."

For a second, I can't look away from the sheets.

I picked those, too.

Victoria pulls his shirt closed, taking her time. Her engagement ring catches the light.

An engagement ring.

I look at Ethan.

"What is that?"

"Let me explain."

"What is on her hand?"

Victoria glances at him.

"You haven't told her?"

The room goes quiet.

Outside, someone calls for help moving a flower arrangement.

My wedding is being assembled on the other side of the door.

Ethan reaches for his pants.

"I was going to talk to you tonight."

"About sleeping with her?"

"About the wedding."

I wait.

He fastens his belt.

"The wedding is still happening. I'm just marrying her."

I stare at him.

For six months, he has let me choose flowers. Taste cakes. Put together a guest list.

Last week, he asked whether I had finished writing my vows.

"You're marrying her."

"Claire, this isn't how I wanted you to find out."

"How did you want it to happen?"

He glances toward the open door.

"Could you lower your voice?"

I haven't raised it.

Victoria sits on the edge of the bed.

"My father is announcing his investment next week," she says. "It makes sense to settle everything before then."

Everything.

Apparently, that includes me.

Ethan steps between us.

"Her family can help me move forward at the company. You know how things have been with Adrian."

His adoptive father.

The man who gave him his name, his job, and a home in the estate we're standing in.

"He keeps telling me I'm not ready," Ethan continues. "No matter what I do, there's another condition. Another year I'm supposed to wait."

"So you're marrying her because her father has money."

Victoria stands.

"Be careful."

I look at her.

"Why? Is that the part we aren't supposed to say?"

"Enough," Ethan says.

I turn back to him.

He looks irritated now.

As though I'm making an already difficult afternoon worse.

"When did you decide?"

"That doesn't matter."

"When?"

"A few weeks ago."

A few weeks.

I think about the seating chart spread across our dining table.

The invitations my mother helped address.

The dress hanging in a locked room at my studio.

"All that time, you let me keep planning."

"I was trying to find a way to tell you without hurting you."

"And did you?"

His jaw tightens.

"You're not listening."

I almost laugh.

"What part have I missed?"

He looks at Victoria.

"Could you give us a minute?"

She doesn't move.

"Ethan."

"Please."

She retrieves her skirt from the floor and pulls it on.

She picks up her bag.

As she passes me, her perfume reaches me first. I've smelled it on him before.

He said it was from a client dinner.

Victoria pauses at the door.

"I want the roses changed," she tells him. "White is so predictable."

Then she leaves.

Ethan waits until her footsteps fade.

"This doesn't have to be the end of us."

I look at him.

For a moment, I think I've misunderstood.

"What?"

"We've been together for four years, Claire. That means something."

"Apparently not a wedding."

"Don't do that."

He reaches for my hand.

I pull it away.

"There's a place near the river," he says. "Private. You liked that neighborhood when we looked at apartments."

I remember.

We were looking for somewhere to live together.

"I can arrange it. You'd have your own space. You wouldn't have to deal with all this."

"With your wife?"

"With the pressure. The family obligations."

I feel something inside me go very still.

"You want me to be your mistress?"

"I'm asking you to be patient. This marriage changes things for my future. It doesn't have to change us."

I look past him at the bed.

"You've already changed us."

"Victoria understands that we have history."

"Does she?"

"She isn't unreasonable. As long as we're discreet, there doesn't have to be a problem."

For four years, I have defended this man.

When he missed dinners.

When he forgot things that mattered to me.

When Adrian questioned whether he was ready for more responsibility, I told Ethan his father was being too hard on him.

Now he is offering me a hidden apartment and whatever time his wife decides I can have.

"Listen to yourself," I say.

"I'm trying to keep you in my life."

"On her terms."

"On terms that work."

He says it so easily.

I pull the ring off my finger.

He stops talking.

"Claire."

I place it on the dresser.

"Don't make a decision because you're upset."

"I'm upset because you made a decision."

"We can work through this."

"No."

His eyes flick toward the ring.

For the first time since I opened the door, he looks worried.

I pick up my bag.

He moves in front of me.

"What am I supposed to tell everyone?"

I look at him.

"The truth."

"Be reasonable."

"Tell them you decided to marry Victoria. Tell them you offered me an apartment."

His face hardens.

"You'd embarrass yourself, too."

I wait.

He steps aside.

Downstairs, a woman is wrapping ribbon around the staircase.

"Miss Bennett? Do you prefer the bow here or lower down?"

I stop beside her.

The ribbon is ivory.

My mother spent an entire afternoon helping me choose it.

"Here is fine," I say.

Behind me, Ethan comes down the stairs.

"Claire. We aren't finished."

I turn.

He looks almost certain I'll stop.

That I'll listen.

That four years of loving him means I'll accept whatever he leaves for me.

"We are," I say.