Chapter1
The first time Ethan Caldwell brought a woman to a business event, the reporters mistook her for his wife.
I watched it happen on television. I was his wife—Claire Bennett—and half an hour earlier, he'd sent me a message.
Stay at home tonight. Don't go out.
The message was still open on my phone. On the screen across the room, Vanessa Hart stood behind him, her eyes wet with tears.
Ethan's expression had darkened. People in business knew him for his cold manner and unpredictable temper, but I'd known him since we were children. I recognized the tightening around his eyes. He was angry.
Even then, watching Vanessa struggle not to cry, I felt a brief, ridiculous pang of sympathy for her. I had to look down at his message to remind myself where I was and why.
Our marriage had always been an arrangement. I knew that. I had known it when I agreed to marry him two years ago.
Knowing hadn't stopped me from loving him.
A few minutes earlier, the cameras had followed Vanessa into the ballroom. She wore a red strapless gown and smiled up at Ethan as he took the stage. A caption flashed beneath her image: THE CALDWELL HEIR'S WIFE FINALLY STEPS INTO THE SPOTLIGHT.
I sat forward without meaning to.
I hadn't seen Ethan in days. At the microphone, he looked more relaxed than he ever did with me. Throughout his speech, his gaze kept returning to Vanessa. Whenever the camera cut to her, she was watching him with the same open affection.
For five minutes, I watched them look at each other.
When the speech ended, reporters crowded around them.
"This must be Mrs. Caldwell. You're even more beautiful than we'd heard."
"Mr. Caldwell, you make a wonderful couple."
"Mr. and Mrs. Caldwell, over here, please."
Vanessa's smile grew strained. She glanced at the cameras, then lowered her eyes.
"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm not Mrs. Caldwell. I'm not Claire Bennett."
The reporters paused. Then the questions came faster.
"Then what's your relationship with Mr. Caldwell?"
"We heard he had an old flame before he married. Are you her?"
"Could you answer the question?"
Vanessa said nothing. Tears gathered in her eyes as microphones pushed closer. Behind the reporters, guests began whispering loudly enough for the broadcast to catch fragments.
"The Caldwell family and the Bennett family have known each other for years. Why would he risk that marriage?"
"What do you think she wants? Look at the family fortune."
"She's pretty enough. Perhaps he's just having a little fun."
I looked at the title they had given me and then at the woman beneath it. Until she'd corrected them, no one had questioned whether she belonged beside him.
"Are you finished?"
Ethan stepped through the crowd. The nearest reporter lowered his microphone.
He didn't look embarrassed. He looked furious with them.
"Vanessa," he said. "Come here."
Ethan held out his hand. Vanessa hurried to him and stood just behind him.
He looked over the reporters who had questioned her.
"Miss Hart is here as my guest. My wife wasn't feeling well and couldn't attend. I should have made that clear. The misunderstanding was my fault."
The same people who had been demanding answers began offering polite apologies. The guests nearby joined in, eager to smooth things over. No one wanted to be the person who kept challenging Ethan Caldwell.
By the time the livestream ended, Vanessa was safely beside him.
I wasn't sick. I could have gone.
He had told me to stay home.
I put down my phone and went out onto the balcony. People knew my name and my family, but few recognized my face. I'd never enjoyed society parties, and my father had never forced me to attend. Tonight, that made it easy for another woman to take my place.
It hadn't always bothered me to stay out of the spotlight. Before the marriage, before my father's company ran into trouble, I'd had work I loved.
When I returned from studying abroad, I took over some of Dad's projects. His executives thought I was too young. A few suggested I leave the difficult decisions to people with experience.
Their doubt made me work harder. Within months, the projects I led were among the strongest in our industry. Companies that had dismissed me started asking to work with us, and the Bennett Group grew into a business no one could casually ignore.
I remembered ending those days tired and pleased with myself. I knew what I wanted to do the next morning.
Then Ethan came home from abroad with Vanessa.
He had never been a man who welcomed attention. Growing up, I'd watched other girls try to get close to him and give up. With me, it had been different. We'd known each other so long that I hardly remembered a life without him in it.
When Vanessa appeared, he began keeping everyone else at a distance. That included me.
I told myself I was imagining it. Then I began waiting for calls, searching his face when we met, wondering what I'd done to make him so impatient with me.
There was one New Year's Eve I kept thinking about.
We were younger then. My parents were abroad on business, and I'd stayed home alone. Outside, the city was full of people celebrating. I could hear them from my room as midnight approached.
"Claire."
For a moment, I thought I'd imagined his voice. Then the doorbell rang.
