Chapter 1

Elizabeth Connerty let out a muted, incredulous laugh. "It was just a joke. How could you possibly take it seriously?"

In that moment, the gentle, graceful woman standing before me overlapped with the bright, carefree girl she had been eighteen years ago.

Our marriage was a business alliance. Before meeting me on a blind date, she'd had a college sweetheart—Lucas Ryder.

He came from a poor family, and the Connerty family refused to accept him as their son-in-law. They sent him overseas instead.

I laid out two choices for her.

First, she could chase after Lucas, and I would find someone else to marry.

Second, she could marry me—and cut ties with him for good.

Out of duty to her parents, she chose me.

After we married, she treated me well. She soon became pregnant, and I began to believe that I could gain both business advantages and love from this union. So when I had my car accident, my instinct was to call her.

But she didn't answer.

When I came out of the emergency room, she returned the call. Her voice was honest.

"I'm sorry, honey… Lucas went into anaphylactic shock…"

She chose him—chose to stay by his side because she loved him.

On the phone, her words faltered, as if she didn't know what to say next.

In that instant, I curled inward like a hedgehog, pulling every shred of affection I had for her back into myself.

Suddenly, on the other end of the line, her breathing quickened. A doctor shouted for her to be wheeled into the delivery room.

For Lucas, she hadn't even spared a thought for her own body.

When I looked at the tiny newborn daughter wrapped in swaddling cloth, I said, "Elizabeth, can you promise me this—when our daughter turns eighteen, we'll get divorced.

"For these eighteen years, I need you to play the role of a good mother and a good wife in front of her."

Elizabeth whispered a single word, "Okay."

I never forbade her from contacting Lucas again. But she seemed to shut that door herself. She devoted herself fully to being a responsible wife and mother, never reaching out to him again.

I knew she did it out of duty—to our daughter, to her family, to the life we had built.

But I also knew she had never truly let him go.

Every time she groped for the old hair tie he'd given her… every month when she quietly sent someone to gather photos of him overseas… she revealed a love she tried so hard to hide, a devotion that grew wild and unchecked.

Eighteen years passed. Her parents were gone. Our daughter had grown into a poised young woman.

And I—finally, completely—had let go of whatever feelings I once had for Elizabeth.

So now, I want her to pursue the love she never stopped longing for.