Chapter 1

"Hey, quit spacing out and start unloading. What are you standing around for?"

The woman next to me patted my back and lowered her voice. "There are cameras here. If the boss catches you slacking, he'll dock your pay."

I snapped back to reality and bent down to lift the styrofoam box of seafood in front of me.

It was heavy. Every step sent a dull ache radiating down from my lower back.

I gritted my teeth, finished unloading, collected my fifty-four dollars, and rushed toward the supermarket entrance.

Tina had just said goodbye to Patricia and was waiting for Rosa to load the groceries into the trunk.

I recognized the car immediately. It was Sean's favorite, the black Cayenne.

The day of the bankruptcy, he'd told me all the cars had been sold off cheap to cover the debts.

So they hadn't been sold. They'd been given to the woman he truly loved.

The car pulled away. I climbed onto my electric scooter and followed.

The black Cayenne stopped in front of the villa where Sean and I used to live.

Through the fence, I saw Rosa coming out with a little boy in her arms, about two years old, smiling as she greeted them.

"Welcome home, Mrs. Ashford. Little Noah's been calling for his mommy all day."

Tina planted a doting kiss on the boy's cheek and carried him inside.

That little face, nearly an exact copy of Sean's, hit me like a sledgehammer to the chest.

The second year after the bankruptcy, I'd been pregnant.

But to keep up with the crushing debt, I had no choice but to work three jobs that paid by the hour.

The exhaustion took its toll. I lost the baby.

When Sean rushed to the hospital, I had just come out of the operating room, my face white as a sheet.

His eyes rimmed red, he gripped my hand and swore he would work hard to give me a good life again.

But it had never occurred to me that this entire bankruptcy was nothing but a scheme from start to finish.

"Mrs. Ash... no. What are you doing here?" Rosa's face was a mask of shock and panic when she spotted me.

I walked past her, shoved the half-open front door wide, and stepped inside.

The moment I entered the living room, the scene before me rooted me to the spot.

A family of three's shoes sat neatly in the entryway. A play mat covered the floor, piled high with children's toys.

The staircase wall leading to the second floor was lined with family portraits. Three smiling faces. None of them mine.

Tina's soft singing drifted from the nursery I had designed myself.

"Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are."

My feet stopped. My fingertips went cold, wave after wave.

That was the song I used to sing to Tina.

When my mother first brought her into our family, she had nightmares every night.

I would lie beside her and hum this song until she fell asleep.

Now the same melody played on, but the singer and the listener had long since changed.

On my way down, Rosa caught up to me, looking as though she wanted to say something but couldn't find the words.

I understood her position.

"Don't worry. I barged in on my own. It's not your fault."

She nodded gratefully and said, "When it comes to matters of the heart, sometimes it's better to look the other way. As long as he treats you well, that's what counts."

I smiled bitterly.

Back when I first discovered Sean and Tina's affair, everyone around me had said the exact same thing.

But why was it always me who had to be the one to compromise?

I climbed on my electric scooter and rode to the rooftop restaurant downtown, the one that supposedly required reservations a month in advance.

At eight that evening, Sean stepped out of a Porsche.

The security guard uniform he'd worn that morning had been swapped for a tailored suit that made him look every bit the wealthy man he was.

He walked around to the passenger side and helped Tina out of the car like a perfect gentleman.

I stood across the street and called him. "Have you eaten? When are you coming home?"

He pulled out his phone, his tone perfectly calm. "Already ate. It's getting late. Don't wander around outside, just head home early."

His voice was as gentle as always, but every word was a small blade twisting into my chest.

Tears slid down my face. Watching their silhouettes disappear through the entrance, I said, "Okay. I'll be home waiting for you."