Chapter One
Elise's POV
My boyfriend of three years, Blake, had promised to propose at my twentieth birthday party.
But that night, he walked right past me with the ring and got down on one knee in front of my stepsister, Chelsea.
The whole room clapped. I just stood there, frozen, in the white dress I'd picked out for my engagement.
Everyone was just waiting to watch me fall apart.
Then Grayson, heir to the Hale family, pushed through the crowd and took my hand. "I've had feelings for you for years. Marry me."
I said yes.
Five years into our marriage, he still remembered how much cream I took in my coffee, that thunder scared me, and that I needed a lamp on to sleep.
Everyone in town said I was the luckiest woman alive.
Until the day I stood outside his study and heard his childhood friend Derek ask, "Chelsea's Mrs. Mercer now. How much longer are you gonna keep playing house with Elise?"
Grayson sounded completely unbothered. "If I can't have Chelsea, it doesn't matter who I marry. As long as Elise is with me, she won't go messing with Chelsea's marriage."
That night, I opened the locked bottom drawer of his desk.
Inside were cufflinks from Chelsea, a birthday card in her handwriting, and a stack of letters he'd written her but never sent.
The one on top was a single line.
"Just smile at me once and I'll do anything you want."
I took a job out of state. I'd start in two days.
When that day came, I'd walk out of his life for good.
"I signed the lease for you. Key's under the flowerpot by the front door."
Paige, my friend of more than ten years, asked over the phone, "You're really not gonna think about it some more?"
"No. I'm sure."
I hung up and set my phone face down on the vanity.
In two days, I'd start at the new company. I'd get a new number and start over somewhere nobody knew me.
I heard the front door unlock.
Grayson walked in with his suit jacket over his arm and his tie pulled loose. He smiled the second he saw me. "Who're you talking to? You look so serious."
"Just Paige. We were catching up." I tucked my hair behind my ear and kept my voice light.
He wrapped his arms around me from behind and rested his chin on my shoulder.
"I got out of that dinner tonight. Remember that Italian place you wanted to try? I got us a table by the window at eight."
In the mirror, he looked at me so tenderly, like I was the only woman in the world.
Everyone in Charleston knew the CEO of the Hale Group was crazy about his wife.
The whole city had turned out for our wedding. What nobody knew was that the marriage license he'd signed had been sitting in a folder in his study ever since.
I found it a few days ago while I was looking for my passport.
Five years, and he'd never filed it. Legally, we'd never been married.
When I first saw it, I made excuses for him. I told myself he'd just been busy and forgot.
Now I knew. He hadn't forgotten. He'd never planned to be tied to me at all.
He'd been saving that spot for Chelsea the whole time.
My entire five years with him had been an act, one he put on so Chelsea would never have to worry about me.
Grayson let go of me, like he'd just remembered something.
"Oh, by the way, the Mercers are throwing Chelsea a party tomorrow. She's pregnant, and her designs made it to the finals of that competition. If you don't want to go, I'll take the gift over myself."
I froze, hairbrush in hand. "I wanted to enter that competition too..."
"Don't bother." He ruffled my hair.
He said it sweetly, but he wasn't asking. "Getting a portfolio ready will wear you out. Don't you want a baby? Just focus on your health for a while."
I looked down and didn't say anything.
We'd been talking about kids for five years. I'd been to the doctor more times than I could count, and every test came back normal. It just never happened.
I'd always blamed my own bad luck. It wasn't until today that I finally got it. He was the one who never wanted a baby.
That was the same reason he wouldn't let me enter the competition.
Anything Chelsea wanted, I wasn't even allowed to go near.
"Our fifth anniversary's the day after tomorrow."
Grayson got to the door, then came back with a huge bouquet of peonies. "Your real present's coming then. This is just a little something to start. Happy birthday, babe."
The pale pink petals were packed tight, and the scent was heavy and cloying.
For five years, every birthday and every anniversary, he'd given me peonies.
I'd always thought it meant he remembered what I liked. But I'd never once told him I liked peonies.
Chelsea was the one who loved them.
She'd posted on Instagram a long time ago that when she got married, she wanted a bouquet of nothing but peonies.
So even the flowers he gave me were really meant for someone else.
"You'll be with me on my birthday, right?" I asked, holding the flowers.
"Of course," he said, way too quickly. "Nothing's more important than you."
I gave him a little smile.
Five years, and he'd never flubbed a single line. Even the look in his eyes was too convincing to fault.
Too bad none of it was ever for me.
That night, he was fast asleep, but I lay there wide awake.
Like always, he'd taken his watch off and left it on the nightstand. That watch was his most prized possession. He kept it within reach even when he showered.
Without really thinking, I picked it up and turned it over.
In the streetlight coming through the window, I could just make out a tiny engraving on the back.
To C.
I stared at it for a long time, then put the watch back exactly where it had been.
The last bit of hope I'd been clinging to went cold, little by little, until there was nothing left.
