Chapter 2

I went home and splashed water on my face. The woman in the mirror had bloodshot eyes.

My phone buzzed. Sofia had sent a video. Open sea stretching to the horizon, fireworks blooming across the night sky. William clasped a necklace around Sofia's neck, a platinum chain set with a sapphire the size of a robin's egg.

The whole ship erupted in cheers. A satin banner unfurled from above, "Sofia My Queen" printed in flowing script.

Sofia tipped her head back, laughing. William leaned down and kissed her forehead.

At the same time, Diego sent me a message: "Flight's booked. See you tomorrow."

I looked down at the ring on my left hand.

I bought it five years ago when I married William. He'd been "dirt poor" back then, but he scraped together enough for this gold-plated ring. Gold on the outside, iron underneath. You had to be careful wearing it, or the true color would show through.

I slipped the ring off and sank into the couch, my mind flooding with memories.

I lost my parents young. The year I found William beaten and bloody on the street, I barely had a cent to my name, but I took him to the hospital anyway.

He said he wanted to repay me, so we got married. I didn't mind that he worked as a mechanic.

But when I was seven months pregnant with Matt, I took a fall. William said a client's car had broken down and he couldn't leave. A neighbor called the ambulance.

When Matt was two, he was hospitalized with pneumonia. William said he'd worked overtime for a month to cover the bill. I was so grateful. Now I realized that kind of money meant nothing to him.

Last year on my birthday, William brought home a discounted bouquet of carnations. I treated it like a treasure and kept it in a vase for a week.

...

It wasn't that he couldn't love. It was that his love had never been mine.

I got up and walked into the bedroom. I took the wedding photo off the wall and tore it to pieces, slowly.

I dug out a recipe notebook from the back of a drawer. William worked late often, and his stomach was bad, so I'd developed every recipe myself. The cover was curled and worn. I threw it in the trash.

By the time I finished, the sky was fully light.

The lock clicked. William pushed through the door, looking exhausted. Matt trailed behind him and shuffled back to his room.

"Alicia, listen to me. The arrangement with Sofia is purely strategic. We're just putting on an act..."

"Enough." I held up my phone, the screen showing William kissing Sofia's forehead.

"Putting on an act? An act that needs kissing? That needs a sapphire necklace? Chartering a yacht and setting off fireworks?" My voice was flat. "William, do you even hear how ridiculous you sound?"

William reached for me. I slapped his hand away.

I stood and pulled a hospital form from under the coffee table, a follow-up report on William's "lung shadows."

"You said you'd breathed in too many exhaust fumes. Every month I scraped together money to buy you imported lung supplements. Five years. Over twenty-five thousand dollars. But I just checked, and those pills are basic supplements worth a fraction of what I paid. Where did my money go? Buying gifts for Sofia?"

"The pills were fake. The ring was fake. Your identity was fake. William, this marriage is worthless. I want a divorce." I hurled the papers to the ground. The white pages fluttered down like snow, like our shattered marriage.

William grabbed my wrist with bruising force.

"Fine. Don't believe me. Get your divorce. But there's something I have to say. Sofia can't have children. She wants Matt adopted under her name..."

I backhanded him across the face.

"You want me to hand my son over to the homewrecker?" My voice shook. "William Thomas, what gives you the right to negotiate with me? You gave me nothing for five years, and now you want to take my son?"