When Ebony had lost her job and couldn't find work, I'd waved her in without a second thought—hired her as a live-in caretaker at five thousand dollars a month.

But now Caspar kept confusing them, and it was driving me out of my mind.

Ebony smiled. "But I don't want to leave."

"Even if your husband really does think I'm you, nothing would ever happen between us."

I believed her.

But later, when I wasn't home, she schemed her way into Caspar's bed with every trick she had.

When she saw me frozen in the doorway, face white as paper, staring at the two of them, her smile only grew wider. More vicious.

"Maud, your husband really does have stamina for days."

"He had his arms around me all night long. Wore me out completely."

"But don't get the wrong idea—he was totally out of it. He thought I was you, that's all..."

As she spoke, Ebony pulled her collar open, deliberately showing off the trail of hickeys across her skin.

Blood rushed to my head.

My fists clenched. Something inside me finally snapped. I grabbed the stool beside me and swung it at her head.

But before it could land, a hand clamped around my wrist.

Caspar.

"What do you think you're doing?"

He glared at me, cold and hard, his fingers digging into my wrist until the bones ached.

There was no trace of the warmth he used to show me. Nothing in his eyes but ice-cold hostility and the guarded look you'd give a stranger.

As if I were his worst enemy.

I knew. He was having another episode. He couldn't recognize me.

But I had already shattered.

"Caspar Stephens, look at me! Look at my face!" My voice cracked. Tears spilled down my cheeks. "Who am I?"

"I'm Maud Fox. Your wife. The woman who stood by you for five years, who spent the last two on her knees praying to every god she could find, begging them to bring you back to me!"

"Can you just open your eyes and look at me? When are you going to stop mistaking me for someone else?"

But he didn't hear me. Or didn't care. He kept Ebony tucked behind him, shielding her like she was something precious and fragile.

When he turned to face me, there was disgust in his eyes.

"You think you get to call yourself that?"

"She is my wife. You're nothing but a lunatic, and if you lay a finger on her again, I swear you'll regret it."

Ebony nestled against Caspar's chest, dabbing at crocodile tears with trembling fingers.