LOGIN~ LENA ~I watched Ashley covertly over the dinner table as she reached for her fork. Her movements were slow, careful. She made even the simple act of lifting her glass of water appear strenuous, as though lifting it required more strength than she possessed.Dressed in a soft, cream sweater, she looked every bit the fragile patient recovering from a serious illness. Her dark hair fell softly around her shoulders, and her complexion still carried just enough paleness to sell the performance.If I hadn’t overheard that conversation upstairs earlier, I probably would have felt sorry for her.Now all I saw was an actress.Deborah sat next to her, looking every bit as polished and composed as she had been all day.Mother and daughter. Conspirators.Conversation flowed around the table while I pretended to listen and contributed whenever necessary, acting as though everything was normal. But my attention remained mostly on Ashley. Now that the veil had fallen, it was easy to spot the pret
~ LENA ~I entered the bedroom and closed the door behind me. The soft click of the lock sounded loud in my ears.For several seconds, I stood there with my back pressed against the door, staring at nothing.My body was still shaking, my mind still reeling from what I’d just heard.The conversation replayed itself over and over again in my head.“You were supposed to fake it! Fake being sick! Not send yourself to the hospital!”“It worked, didn’t it?”“Very soon, he’s going to be completely mine.”A shiver rippled through me.What kind of woman deliberately makes herself sick?A dangerous one. A desperate one. A woman willing to do anything to get what she wanted.And Ashley wanted Nathan. She’d always wanted him, ever since they were kids.Not in the harmless, childish way Rosa had described. Not in the way a younger sister admired an older brother. No. This was something darker. Something uglier.A part of me had always wondered if I was imagining things. Now I knew I wasn’t. Every
~ LENA ~For the past few minutes, I’d been telling myself it was all in my head. Now I wasn’t so sure anymore.The footsteps returned. They were closer this time. Much closer. They matched my pace, then quickened as the sound seemed to rush toward me, closing the distance.My heart leapt into my throat as I whirled around. This time, someone was standing behind me.“Oh my God, I’m sorry!”The woman immediately apologized. Her expression filled with concern as she saw how frightened I was. “I’m so sorry,” she repeated.I pressed a hand against my chest, trying to calm the frantic pounding of my heart. “It’s okay,” I said with a little smile, relieved that it wasn’t a stalker or the mystery man who’d sent flowers.“I didn’t mean to startle you,” she continued. “I was just out for my morning walk when I spotted you walking through the neighborhood.” She grinned, then paused. A sheepish smile crossed her face. The look on my face must have told her I was struggling to place her.“Vivie
~ LENA ~I stood in the middle of the bedroom, arms crossed over my chest as I stared at the flowers I’d abandoned on the bed. Just minutes ago, I was holding them, admiring them. Now I stared at the bouquet with growing unease, as if it was something sinister looking at me.The flowers were breathtaking. Their delicate fragrance drifted through the room, and their soft, colorful petals brightened the pale bedding. But all I could think about was the note that had been hidden inside and the stranger who had sent it.Slowly, I looked down at it, still clutched in my hand, reading it for the umpteenth time.YOU’RE STILL AS BEAUTIFUL AS I REMEMBERA shiver ran through me.The message wasn’t threatening. It sounded romantic. Affectionate. Familiar. And that was what bothered me.It seemed whoever had written it knew Kimberly. The Kimberly who had existed before Nathan.Who could it be? An ex-boyfriend?But if that was the case, then why send flowers now?Why send them here?And why not l
~ LENA ~All the air vanished from my lungs as I heard my mum crying. The color drained from my face, and I gripped the phone tightly.“What happened to Sofia?” I repeated, my heart pounding so hard it felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. Every horrible possibility crashed through my head at once. My knees nearly gave out waiting for her to say something. “Mum, talk to me!”“Lena…” She finally managed to speak between her sobs. “Sofia had a complication.”My heart stopped. “She what?”“It happened all of a sudden. One minute everything seemed fine, and the next… alarms were going off and nurses were running into her room.”“What?”“But she’s okay now,” Isabella rushed out. “She’s okay. She’s much better.”The dresser next to me was suddenly the only thing keeping me upright. I grabbed it, almost collapsing from relief.“She’s okay?” I repeated weakly, blinking back the hot tears that sprang to my eyes.“Yes. She’s stable.”“What exactly went wrong?” I asked.“It happened l
~ LENA ~“You can tell me anything.”The words echoed in my head seconds after he said them.Anything.How could I tell him that I wasn’t the woman he thought I was?How could I tell him that his real love was somewhere out there while I was here living her life?How could I tell him our marriage and every moment we’d shared was built on a lie?Right now, I looked into his eyes and saw nothing but concern staring back at me.No suspicion. No doubt. Just plain trust.And somehow that made it all worse.He took my hand and pressed a kiss against my knuckles, his dark eyes holding mine, silently urging me to let him in, to tell him what was wrong, to unburden the secret crushing my chest finally.It was tempting. So dangerously tempting. But not enough to make me forget the consequences.Because I could almost see what would happen the moment the truth left my mouth.I could see the confusion, the disbelief, the way his face would harden once it sank in—the knowledge that I wasn’t Kim. T
~ LENA ~Nathan set me down quickly.As my feet touched the floor, my heart was still racing, my body still caught in the moment we had just left behind. The feel of his hands, his lips, the warmth of him still clinging to my skin.But Deborah’s voice—the way it had sounded—sent a chill through me a
~ LENA ~The ride back home was strangely quiet, but it wasn’t because we were both silent.Nathan spoke from time to time beside me, his voice calm and attentive. Every now and then, he said something light—small, easy things meant to draw me out of my thoughts.He had noticed it. The way I had go
~ LENA ~I stood in front of the mirror, studying my reflection for what felt like the tenth time.Late afternoon sunlight spilled into the bedroom. Outside the tall windows, the sky had begun its slow shift toward evening. The room was quiet, and for a moment I stared at myself.The dress Nathan h
~ ASHLEY ~From the moment Nathan first mentioned her name to me, I hated Kimberly Hayes.Seeing her standing in his room that day in that wedding dress only made the hatred burn deeper. And I hated her even more now, watching her stroll through the garden with his ring on her finger like she owne







