Chapter 1: The Moment Everything Changed

“If you want to know the truth about your husband, come to this address. 1588 Belmont Drive. Now!"

Isla stared at the anonymous message, the address mentioned was one she knew too well, it was the description of Hayes vacation home, not too far from the mansion she shared with her husband.

Her expression remained neutral at first, but soon she could not help but scoff, waving the phone and shaking her head.

“Fraudsters…Gossip phishers!”

This must be a desperate attempt to stir trouble in her marriage and then put it on the news.

Well, they could try such games with any other woman out there, but not her, Isla Hayes.

“Not Nate," Isla murmured, shaking her head. "He would never."

Three years of marriage had solidified her trust in him. He was a man of discipline, a man of his word.

And, more importantly, the circumstances that had led to their unusual union made him owe her a debt that neither of them ever brought up but was deeply understood.

The thought of that debt made her look up slowly at the wedding portrait of Nate and herself hanging above the alcove in the dining room where she was sitting.

The photo captured a moment frozen in time— her in a simple ivory dress, him in a tailored suit, both smiling but with a distance in his eyes that only she seemed to notice now.

"A marriage of convenience," some had called it, but she had always believed it could grow into something more.

With a small sigh, Isla pushed away the thoughts.

She was preparing a special dinner earlier before the rude interruption.

Her dear husband would be home soon from his business trip to Wisconsin.

She took a step toward the kitchen, but before she could reach the counter, her phone vibrated again.

She rolled her eyes knowing it was yet another message from the first sender, already prepared to block the sender. But as she held out the phone, the next sight stopped her breath.

It was a photo this time. A photo of Nate entering the previously mentioned vacation home.

Isla blinked hard staring at the image. Something was grumbling in her stomach.

“But.. but, he told me he was going to Wisconsin for a business trip.”

“So why was he there?”

A part of her brain tried to wave it off again as a misunderstanding but it did little to quell the doubts this time.

A live photograph was way too much proof to overlook.

With a deep breath, she turned off the stove, grabbed her car keys, and started hurrying towards the door.

Less than an hour later, Isla pulled up at Belmont Drive.

Her hands trembled as she saw Nate’s SUV was parked right outside. Her heart pounded. So he was really here? But why will Nate return without telling her?

She made her way in and on getting to the first door, she took another deep breath and pushed it open.

The sight that greeted her nearly gave her a heart attack. It nearly made her fall but she struggled and found balance.

Nate was really there, and not just that, he was with a woman. Again, not just any woman but Vanessa Reed, her own best friend.

Vanessa was perched on Nate’s lap, her head thrown back in laughter without the slightest concern that Isla was around.

And like someone in a bad dream, Isla shivered and shouted their names.

"Nate! Vanessa!"

Her husband’s head snapped up first, his expression startled. But far from guilty.

Vanessa, on the other hand, merely smirked and looked away, as if Isla was some random woman instead of the wife of the man she was flirting with, instead of her own best friend.

The room was spinning. Isla pinched herself, suspecting it to be a dream. But the scene before her remained unchanged.

It was painfully real.

Nate exhaled finally, before rubbing his forehead and meeting her gaze.

“We both know this marriage was never about love, Isla. It was…practical. For both of us.”

Isla gasped, stepping back as if she had been slapped.

" Practical? Is that all it has ever been to you?"

The foods she cooked, the nights she stayed up waiting for him, the way she had tried to build a life with him—had it all meant nothing?

While still staggering from that blow, Vanessa’s voice came next.

"It’s time you knew the truth, honey. Nate and I love each other very much."

To crown it up, Nate nodded to acknowledge it. Isla felt her face and eyes burning up. She swallowed hard and blinked, but tears did not come.

She tried not to scream. She tried not to crumble. Instead, with great difficulty, she turned on unsteady legs and walked out of the room.

She stepped into her car minutes later. And as her buttocks touched the seat, reality started to dawn on her slowly. Her marriage, which she had spent three years trying to nurture into something real, was over in the blink of an eye.

***

One month after everything, Isla lay slanted and dejected on the bed of her room in her family house thinking about the soul-crushing betrayal over and again.

Nate didn't even try to put up a fight to keep her. Not in the slightest. He had wanted out, and he got it without hesitation. A divorce.

Had it always been a lie? Had she been blind all along? How long had they been seeing each other behind her back? Had she ever truly mattered to Nate?

She stayed in that position for minutes, lost in the deafening silence of her thoughts until the sudden sound of the door made her look up abruptly.

Standing in the doorway was her sister Sophia, her attitude hesitant, but without further delay, she blurted out.

"Nate and Vanessa are getting married tomorrow.”

Isla’s eyes almost tore apart, while the hair on her skin stood.

“Tomo..what?”

A whole marriage in just one month? Her lips opened, but no other words came out.

Where does that ever happen?

Her gaze slowly shifted away from her sister, a bitter realization making her face fall. They had been together all along.

The words Vanessa had spoken that night resounded again. "Nate and I love each other very much."

It hadn’t been a sudden affair. It had been premeditated.

For the first time since that night, she felt something other than numbness. It was the bursting, vengeful force of rage and this time, she wouldn’t bury it.