"Maud, please don't misunderstand. There's nothing between me and Caspar. He's sick, that's all. He thinks I'm you. Don't blame him. If you need to blame someone, blame me. It's all my fault..."
Every word was designed to twist the knife, yet she delivered them with the perfect quiver of a victim.
And Caspar fell for it. He raised his arm and shoved me. Hard.
"Get out!"
The venom in his voice, the cruelty in his eyes. I had never seen him look at me like that. Not once in five years.
I hit the floor. From where I lay, I watched them. The two of them, still holding each other. One was the husband I loved down to my marrow. The other was the best friend I'd given my whole heart to.
Together, they had just delivered the killing blow.
I couldn't even speak.
I left the room. Walked out into the street in a daze, barely registering the world around me. A car swerved past, missing me by inches.
"What the hell! Are you out of your mind?"
"Watch where you're going!"
The driver's curse snapped me back. Cold sweat crawled down my spine.
Two years.
Two full years I'd devoted to a man who couldn't recognize my face. Two years clinging to the wreckage of a marriage that had already sunk.
Everyone in Harbor City thought I was a joke.
Even at the last gala, Carissa Sanchez, a woman who'd always been perfectly polite to me, had deliberately shoulder-checked me with a sneer plastered across her face.
"Still think you're the same Mrs. Stephens he used to treat like a queen?"
"He doesn't even know who you are anymore. He'd call any random woman on the street his wife."
"Maud, how many times do you think he's humiliated you in these two years? You must have lost count by now."
I stared at the haggard face in the mirror and forced a bitter smile.
Caspar, I'm so tired.
I sat on the front steps for two hours before I finally dialed a number I hadn't called in a long time.
"Mom. I'll do it. I'll fly out in seven days."
My mother's voice surged with excitement, then confusion.
"You've changed your mind? Wait, that doesn't make sense. Just last year you were telling me everything was fine, that you and your husband were happy, that you didn't want to live apart..."
"And don't forget, if you actually commit to moving here for good, you and that Stephens Group heir of yours won't be seeing much of each other..."
I lowered my head, the bitter smile returning.
"He... doesn't recognize me anymore."