Chapter 1

I was the most hated food influencer on the internet.

Mostly because my husband had never eaten anything I made.

Ethan Walker had struggled with an eating disorder since he was a kid, so people gave him a pass.

Me? Not so much.

Three years ago, during one of my livestreams, I handed him a pastry straight out of the oven. He took one bite and spit it into the trash in front of more than a million viewers.

The clip was everywhere by the next morning.

People called me a fraud. Said my food probably tasted like shit. For months, every comment section had some version of the same joke: if my own husband couldn't stomach my cooking, why the hell should anyone follow my recipes?

So I stopped asking Ethan to try anything.

I kept cooking, though, and eventually people stopped laughing. Three years later, my channel had millions of followers.

Ethan still wouldn't touch my food.

Then, on our anniversary, I came across a random livestream while I was waiting for him to get home.

PumpkinPieCantBake — LIVE

The girl on-screen was standing over a pan of something black and smoking.

She laughed awkwardly.

"Okay, this is really bad. My boyfriend's definitely ordering takeout."

Honestly, I felt for her.

I typed a quick comment.

Don't feel bad. Everybody sucks when they start. I learned because I wanted to cook for my husband too.

Then somebody walked into frame.

I stopped cold.

Ethan.

He took the plate out of her hands.

She immediately tried to grab it back.

"No, seriously. Don't eat that."

"Why?"

"Because I burned the hell out of it."

He picked up a fork anyway.

Then he took a bite.

I just stared.

The girl—Chloe Reed—watched him like she was waiting for him to spit it out.

He didn't.

He kept eating.

"Ethan, you don't have to do that."

"It's fine."

"You're such a liar."

He smiled at her.

"I'm still eating it."

When her eyes started watering, he wiped a tear off her cheek with his thumb.

"Try again next time."

The comments started flying.

Girl that man LOVES you

Not him eating that whole thing！

Okay when's the wedding

I looked at the dinner sitting on my table.

I'd spent half the day making it.

For three years, I'd told myself Ethan couldn't eat my food because of his condition.

Watching him finish Chloe's burnt dinner made that excuse pretty hard to hang on to.

I deleted my account.

Then I took off my wedding ring and dropped it into the trash.

Ethan finally came home after midnight.

He smelled like somebody else's perfume.

He walked into the dining room, saw the food, and frowned.

"Why'd you make all this?"

I looked at him.

"You know what day it is?"

He went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water.

"I had a long day, Claire."

"So that's a no."

He didn't answer.

I picked up my tablet and played the livestream.

His expression changed as soon as he saw Chloe on the screen.

Then he sighed.

"Seriously?"

"She called you her boyfriend."

"She was messing around."

"And you just let her?"

"Claire, nothing happened."

"You spent our anniversary at her place eating dinner."

"She was upset. I ate some food. You're making it weird."

I laughed.

"I'm making it weird?"

"Yes."

"You haven't touched anything I've cooked in three years."

His jaw tightened.

"Don't start with that."

"Why not?"

"You know how my eating disorder works."

"Apparently Chloe figured it out pretty fast."

"Jesus Christ."

He set the water bottle down.

"Chloe isn't some random girl. You know that."

I did.

Ethan had been kidnapped when he was a kid and left in an abandoned factory. A girl had found him there and brought him food until he was rescued.

He'd spent years trying to find her.

Now he believed Chloe was that girl.

"That doesn't mean she gets to call you her boyfriend."

"You're reading way too much into this."

"Then tell her to stop."

His expression changed.

"Watch it."

That got me.

"Seriously?"

"Don't talk about Chloe like she's doing something wrong."

"She knows you're married."

"So?"

"So she doesn't get to play girlfriend with somebody else's husband."

"Nothing is going on between us."

"Then maybe both of you should start acting like it."

His face went cold.

"Enough."

I looked straight at him.

"If she keeps doing this, what do you expect me to call her?"

"Claire."

"A homewrecker?"

"Don't."

"Your side chick?"

"Shut up."

I gave him a humorless smile.

"Then stop treating her like one."