Chapter Three: Sophie

Chapter Three: Sophie

Preston said single very slowly, as if he were laying down his trump card.

Mrs. Kane let out a cold laugh. "You hear that? She lies without blinking."

I didn't explain.

Eddie and I were married in Zurich. A Swiss marriage wouldn't turn up in any Massachusetts records search. My parents knew. My lawyer knew. Everyone who needed to know, knew.

It had just never occurred to me that I owed Preston Kane an explanation.

But he clearly took my silence as guilt.

He took a step closer, and his eyes dropped to my stomach. His voice went low, with a kind of hope in it he didn't seem to notice himself.

"Or... were you already pregnant when I left three years ago?"

Mr. and Mrs. Kane exchanged a glance. The anger on their faces faded, just a little, and something lit up in their eyes.

The Kanes had wanted a grandchild for years.

If there was a baby involved, that changed everything.

Nina went white. She caught Preston's sleeve, her voice trembling. "Preston..."

The comments overhead were scrolling fast:

[OMG did the heroine run off pregnant with his baby??]

[SECRET BABY! Classic secret baby!]

[I KNEW they were endgame!]

I looked around at their faces and felt nothing but how absurd it all was.

"It has nothing to do with you," I said. "She's my husband's."

I took out my phone. I'd pull up a wedding photo, show them, and end this circus.

My thumb had barely touched the photo app when a video call popped up.

The contact name was a little golden sun.

I answered without thinking.

The picture wobbled, and then there was Eddie's face.

He must have just gotten out of the shower. His blond hair was still wet, a few strands stuck to his forehead, a white towel slung around his bare shoulders. It was nighttime in Zurich, and behind him the city lights glittered beyond the hotel's floor-to-ceiling windows.

He leaned toward the camera, his light brown eyes crinkling, and spoke in that German accent he'd never been able to shake.

"Liebling, is Lucy asleep? I want to see her."

Before I could say a word, my hand was empty.

Preston had snatched my phone away.

He stared at the man on the screen. Wet blond hair. Bare shoulders. A towel draped across his collarbone.

His breathing turned heavy.

Eddie was clearly thrown, too. His brows slowly drew together. He sat back and looked at the stranger on the other end, and his voice went cold.

"Who are you? Why do you have my wife's phone?"

Preston's lips were shaking.

"Your... wife?"

"Yes." Eddie said it slowly, leaning hard on each word, as if worried his accent might get in the way. "My wife. Sophie."

He paused, then added one more thing, every syllable perfectly clear:

"Sophie Kroll."

Outside the restaurant, there was dead silence.

Mrs. Kane's mouth hung open. Nina's knuckles had gone white where she was gripping Preston's sleeve.

The comments went off like fireworks:

[?????]

[WAIT WAIT WAIT what's happening, did the male lead just get CHEATED ON??]

[Hold on, this is supposed to be a win-her-back story, how did the second lead get the girl??]

[The second lead is so hot though... she really hit the jackpot...]

Preston's grip on the phone tightened, little by little.

His knuckles went white. Veins stood out on the back of his hand. On the screen, Eddie was still talking, probably asking where I was, asking who this man was.

But Preston couldn't hear anything anymore.

Crack.

He hurled the phone. It smashed against the marble steps of the restaurant.

The screen splintered into a spiderweb. Eddie's face flickered twice through the cracks and went black.

My heart dropped.

My first thought wasn't anger. It was Eddie. He seemed so mild, but when it came to me he could be jealous to a ridiculous degree. A call cutting out like that, what was he going to think?

I crouched down and picked up the phone. The screen was completely dead. Nothing I pressed did anything.

Gritting my teeth, I pried out the SIM card and stood up.

I hadn't even found my footing when a hand clamped around my wrist.

Preston's grip was like a vise. It hurt all the way to the bone.

His eyes were red and a vein was jumping at his temple. That face, always so smooth and in control, was twisted for the first time I could remember.

He yanked me toward him and forced the words out through his teeth:

"Who is he?"