Chapter 3

Aiden took me back to the hospital and booked the best private room available.

He gently stroked my cheek, his voice full of concern.

“I haven’t forgotten what you endured today. Kira went too far this time. You never should have had to face the consequences for her.”

“When you wake again, I’ll take you to the Maldives and give you another wedding. The northern lights, swimming with dolphins—wherever you want to go, I’ll take you.”

Before I heard the truth, his promises would have moved me. Now I only murmured a faint acknowledgment and turned my face away.

Aiden kept talking for a long time. When I gave him no response, he finally fell silent.

He was in no hurry. In his mind, we would marry sooner or later, and I would always be the wife he had chosen. He could take his time winning me over again.

He stayed beside my bed. When I felt dizzy, he helped me walk. He personally brought every meal, and the moment I frowned, he called for a doctor.

He helped me to the bathroom, cooked soup for me, and watched me take every dose of medicine. He refused to leave my care to anyone else.

Within a day, every nurse on the floor knew I had a handsome, wealthy fiancé who loved me more than life itself.

While adjusting my IV, one nurse smiled and said, “Mr. Hartwell must love you so much. He has a company to run and a wedding to plan, but he still can’t bear to leave your bedside for even a minute.”

I looked at Aiden asleep in the chair. One of his hands was still wrapped tightly around mine.

His tenderness was real.

That was what hurt the most.

He could plan eighteen accidents and sacrifice me again and again for Kira’s happiness, yet still sincerely believe that he loved me more than anyone else in the world.

The next morning, he arranged my discharge.

By then, even walking from the bed to the door left me short of breath. The weakness in my legs was getting harder to hide.

“Come to the office with me. Afterward, we’ll stop by the bridal boutique and look at custom gowns. They take months to make, so yours should be ready by the time you wake up again. Then we can finally have our wedding.”

Before I could answer, he opened a velvet box. Inside was a blue diamond necklace.

“You’ve been through so much these past few days, so I bought you a gift.”

He fastened the necklace around my neck and kissed the skin just behind my ear.

“Do you like it?”

“It’s beautiful.”

He smiled, satisfied.

When we reached Hartwell Group, he led me into the CEO’s office as naturally as if I had been there countless times before.

“Wait here. I have a meeting.”

The moment he left, I escaped into the restroom. His office was filled with traces of the life he lived every spring and summer, and I could barely breathe.

A female employee beside the sink noticed my necklace.

“Isn’t that the one Mr. Hartwell bought at auction in Sicily last June? It looked beautiful on you.”

My fingers froze against the clasp.

“Last June?”

She smiled. “Weren’t you there with him? Don’t you remember?”

I gave her an embarrassed smile, as though ashamed of having forgotten.

“I’ve been in and out of the hospital so much lately that my memory is a little hazy. Could you show me?”

She opened Aiden’s private Instagram account. It was filled with posts he had hidden from me.

She scrolled through them one after another.

One photo showed them kissing against the brilliant blue waters of Hawaii. In another, they traced a heart beneath the northern lights. A third showed their fingers intertwined on the deck of a yacht as sharks cut through the water below.

Every photograph had been taken in spring or summer.

Every destination was somewhere I had once begged Aiden to take me.

Whenever I asked, he said his company could not function without him, or that those places were not worth visiting in fall or winter.

The truth was simple. He had already been there with Kira.

The pain of realizing how completely he had deceived me tore through my soul, weakening it even further.

The employee panicked when she noticed my tears.

“Miss Blackwood, why are you crying? Everyone knows Mr. Hartwell only loves you. You’re the only woman allowed inside his office.”

I looked toward the restroom door.

Before today, I had never set foot in Aiden’s office.

Whenever I asked to visit, he told me he did not want to drag me into the company’s power struggles before we were married.

Kira, meanwhile, had been coming and going freely for years as the future Mrs. Hartwell.

“Thank you,” I said.

I handed the phone back and walked alone into the emergency stairwell.

I sat on the floor with both hands pressed over my mouth until every sob had subsided.

By the time the stairwell door flew open, I had already wiped away my tears before Aiden could see them.

“There you are.” Panic filled his voice. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”

He crouched in front of me. “What happened?”

I lowered my head and gave him the answer he would find easiest to believe.

“I felt dizzy. I didn’t want to interrupt your meeting.”

His anger vanished at once.

“You should have called me.”

He bent down, lifted me into his arms, and carried me out of the stairwell.

I rested my head against his shoulder.

He never realized that I had seen the other life he shared with Kira.

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