Chapter 1

I sat in the living room all night.

By dawn, Hunter Jenkin returned, pulling his suitcase behind him.

When he saw me, surprise flickered in his eyes before he hurried over and pulled me into his arms.

“Jocelyn, I missed you so much that I could barely sleep these past two days. As soon as I wrapped things up, I rushed home overnight.”

I rested my head against his shoulder, but my gaze fell on the red marks on his neck, and nausea churned in my stomach.

Hunter noticed me staring and casually tugged his collar higher. His tone was so offhand it bordered on dismissive.

“Mosquitoes are everywhere in the summer. They bit me several times.”

I did not call him out on the lie, but many things suddenly came to mind.

Late one night, I received a car vibration alert. Hunter claimed someone had rear-ended his car, and I was so worried that I had stayed awake all night.

Another time, I found lipstick stains on his collar, but he claimed he had accidentally brushed against some paint at a celebration dinner.

He had made so many lame excuses, yet I had believed every single one.

His lies were not foolproof; I simply loved him so much that I always found a way to explain away the inconsistencies.

“Today is my last bachelor party before our wedding.”

Hunter let go of me and picked up his car keys.

“I’ll pick Candace up first since she lives farther away. I’ll come back for you later.”

Before I could reply, he hurried out and shut the door behind him.

I decided to go anyway to verify my suspicions.

However, I waited at home for three hours before Candace Lindhurst finally sent me a location pin for a hotel on the outskirts of town.

“Jocelyn, we switched venues and didn’t have time to come get you. Just take a cab here yourself.”

After more than an hour on the road, I finally arrived, only to discover that the hotel had long been abandoned.

I called Candace and asked where everyone was. A jumble of voices came through the phone, followed by a chorus of laughter.

“Wait, she actually believed it? She’s so dumb. How has Hunter put up with her for seven years?”

“Did she even use her brain? Who throws a party in the middle of nowhere?”

I tightened my grip on my phone until my knuckles turned white.

Candace seemed to have finally had her fun. She casually sent me another address, this time for an upscale private club downtown.

I opened my navigation app and saw that the club was barely three-quarters of a mile from Candace’s house, yet more than thirty-seven miles from where I stood.

The sky gradually darkened.

I tried to book a ride, but the app kept displaying the same message: No drivers available nearby.

The last bus had long since left.

I had night blindness and had never dared to walk alone in the dark. Hunter knew that perfectly well.

Whenever I worked late, he parked as close to my office building as possible and switched on his hazard lights before I came out. I only had to spot that distant glow to know he was there.

Once, during a power outage, I was stranded in the stairwell on the twenty-fifth floor, too afraid to move. Hunter came looking for me with a flashlight, climbing the stairs one floor at a time.

He stood in the dim emergency stairwell, drenched in sweat. Yet the first thing he did was shine his flashlight at my feet.

“From now on, call me when it gets dark,” he said. “No matter where you are, I’ll come get you.”

Tonight, I called him thirty-seven times, but he did not answer once.

With only three percent battery left, I gritted my teeth, turned on my flashlight, and inched my way along the route on my phone.

I had barely walked a few dozen feet when I suddenly lost my footing.

Then, I fell hard into a pile of loose rocks by the roadside, banging my knees against the stones as my phone rolled far away.

I lay sprawled on the ground, the pain so intense that my vision went white.

Eventually, a small farm utility vehicle pulled up in front of me, and the middle-aged driver shone his flashlight at me.

“Miss, where’s your family? How could they leave you out here alone this late at night?”

I used the side of the vehicle to pull myself up, so shaken and disheveled that even my voice trembled.

“Sir, could you please take me somewhere I can find a ride? I’ll pay you.”

It was 10 p.m. when I finally reached the venue.

The moment I pushed open the private room door, a confetti popper exploded in front of me, scattering cheap confetti all over my face.

Candace clapped a hand over her mouth and laughed.

“Oh, look! The star of the show finally made it!”

The private room fell silent for a moment as everyone stared at me, taking in my soaked, muddy appearance and the bloodstains on my pant legs.

Then, someone burst out laughing.