Chapter 1

I walked out of the hospital in a daze, then pulled out my phone and made a call.

"Clara, when you said you'd marry me, did you mean it?"

Her voice came through the line, cynical as ever. "Justin, what do you take me for? Your backup plan?"

"If you won't do it, I'll ask someone else."

"I'll do it!"

Clara Sutton bit out through gritted teeth, "Justin, you're the one who said you'd marry me, so don't you dare go back on your word!"

"It's a deal."

After we settled on the wedding date, I hung up and returned to the wedding venue.

I apologized to all the family and friends who had come that day and informed everyone that the wedding had been postponed for a month.

Once I had everyone settled, I dragged my exhausted body home.

I had barely sat down when I heard movement at the door.

Rowena Lane walked in and looked at me with guilt written all over her face. "Justin, I'm sorry, but there really was an emergency today."

A bitter smile tugged at my lips. "An emergency? What could've been more important than our wedding?"

She looked at me and said, "A friend of mine got into an accident. It was a matter of life and death. I didn't even have time to explain because I had to rush him to the hospital first."

If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes—the picture of her standing there with Adrian Cole and his child—like they were a family of three, maybe I really would've believed her.

On the day of our wedding, Rowena never showed up, and I couldn't get through to her phone.

At first, I thought something had happened to her on the way there, and I was worried sick.

It wasn't until I saw Adrian's Instagram post that I realized she had gone off to play mother to his child, Theo Cole.

Looking back at it now, I was a complete fool.

Tears streamed down my cheeks. I didn't want to cry over her, but my heart was aching despite myself.

The moment Rowena saw that, she panicked. She pulled me into her arms and tried to comfort me. "Justin, I know my actions today have hurt you, but I promise I won't miss our next wedding."

I braced a hand against her shoulder and pushed her away. My voice cracked. "That won't be necessary. There won't be another wedding for us."

But she didn't believe me. "Don't say things you don't mean. I know you already moved the wedding to a month from now."

I was just about to tell her that the new bride wouldn't be her when her phone rang.

The second Rowena answered, her expression shifted. "Okay. I'll be right there."

With that, she let go of me and headed for the door.

It wasn't until she reached the entryway that she bothered to explain, "I need to deal with this right away. Be good and wait for me at home. When I get back, we'll talk about the wedding."

I didn't respond.

Later, I picked up my phone and tapped on Instagram, only to see that Adrian had posted again.

The photo showed Rowena's profile as she held the baby, gently soothing him.

The caption read, "Can anyone relate to how exhausting taking care of a baby is? It's a good thing his mom is here to help out. She's seriously amazing at calming him down!"