Chapter 3

Ten years ago, Royce left Grayport under a false identity to prove himself up north. At a cocktail party, he noticed me, a complete stranger, drinking a glass of wine that had been spiked.

He meant to rescue me, but instead walked in on me smashing the bottle over the creep's head. I'd dug the broken glass into my own thigh to keep myself conscious, and by the time it was over, my leg was a bloody mess.

Royce told me he'd never met a woman as fierce as me, and that was why he pursued me. We hadn't been together long before he brought me back to Grayport, and that was the first time I realized the kind of old-money empires people saw on TV actually existed.

Cutting ties with my parents was the Draytons' first condition for letting me into the family. They could barely stomach a daughter-in-law who wasn't up to their standards, and they certainly weren't going to tolerate my relatives showing up looking for handouts.

Humiliating me was the least of what they did.

That was the first time I formally asked for a divorce. My parents were ordinary people, but they loved me.

I chose to leave quietly by ferry. When Royce found out, he raced to the dock and threw himself into the freezing water without a second thought, swimming desperately after a ferry he had no chance of catching.

As a child, his family's enemies had kidnapped him and taken him out to the open sea, and he'd been terrified of the water ever since. But he fought through that fear for me.

Maybe even fate took pity on us, because the ferry broke down right where it was. I stood on the deck crying, and he was in the water crying.

That single leap was all it took. I was willing to bet my whole life on him.

The doctor came out to say that Blythe was awake, and Royce left without looking back. "Go home and cool off."

How could he be this cold to me?

I picked myself up off the floor, burning with enough jealousy and hatred to storm that room and tear it apart. But every ounce of that fury shattered the moment I heard their voices through the door.

"You bit me too hard!" Blythe's voice was bratty and spoiled.

"Your mouth tastes like cigarettes. Didn't you promise me you'd quit?"

Royce pulled her close, still shaking with relief that she was safe. "You scared me. I couldn't help myself, so I had one.

"Just this once. One last time."

Royce was actually quitting smoking for Blythe. I stood frozen.

A tabloid reporter once asked Royce to name the three things he couldn't live without. His answer was, "Celia, the Draytons, and cigarettes."

Even I had never been able to get him to quit. Even when we were trying to conceive, all he'd done was cut back to half.

The pain in my chest was so sharp I could barely stand, and my hands were too numb to push the door open and face them. Did Royce's heart really still belong to me?

I chose to run away instead.

Three days later, Royce sent me a new horse. I brought it to a villa under my name, one he'd given me as a consolation gift after I burned our house down when he brought another woman into our bed.

The painting in the living room was from the last time I caught him with a secretary, the wall of Hermès bags was from the first time I caught him cheating, and the couture jewelry in the safe was from after he got a woman pregnant and I cleaned up his mess.

Royce was right about me. I never knew when to quit. But even the most stubborn person would get tired of running into the same wall.

I came here to dig out the wager I'd signed in secret on our wedding day, so I could take it to Royce's mother and hold up my end of the deal.

But when I reached the estate and stood in front of the stone steps where Royce and I had once begged his family for their blessing, it all came flooding back. He'd refused to eat or drink, starving himself to prove he was willing to die before he'd give me up.

Even now, I have to admit that I still love him. Leaving Royce would be like tearing myself apart.

In just those few seconds of hesitation, I was already talking myself out of it again. No man can resist temptation, especially not one who owns the entire city of Grayport.

He was just playing around, and his heart was still mine. I was still his real wife.

I just never expected to find Blythe at the Drayton family estate.