Chapter 1

The morning of my fourth wedding anniversary, I woke before sunrise.

This was not unusual. I had long ago learned that the early hours belonged to me alone quiet, unclaimed, untouched by the weight of being Mrs. Cassian Kingsley. By the time my husband stirred in his separate bedroom down the hall, I would have already planned his breakfast, reviewed his schedule with his assistant via email, and arranged the small, invisible details that made his life run smoothly.

Today, however, was different.

Today was our anniversary.

I had not expected much. Four years of marriage had taught me to expect nothing at all. Still, some stubborn, foolish part of me had woken with a flicker of hope. A candlelit dinner. A conversation that lasted longer than five minutes. Maybe, just maybe, his eyes on me instead of his phone.

I dressed carefully. A silk dress the color of champagne, modest but elegant. Pearl earrings he had given me on our first anniversary back when he still pretended to try. I arranged fresh peonies in the dining room, the same flowers from our wedding. I set the table for two. A bottle of his favorite wine. A handwritten card I had spent an hour composing, then rewriting, then rewriting again, trying to find words that would reach him without sounding like a plea.

The clock on the wall ticked past eight. Then nine.

At nine forty-seven, I heard his footsteps in the hallway.

Cassian Kingsley walked into the dining room looking like he always did impeccable, unreachable. His dark hair was still damp from the shower. His suit cost more than most people's cars. His eyes, the color of winter steel, swept the room and passed over the flowers, the table, me.

He stopped.

"The hell is all this?"

His voice was flat. Not angry. Not curious. Just... inconvenienced.

I kept my smile in place. "Happy anniversary, Cassian."

Something flickered across his face. Not guilt. Not warmth. The briefest pause, like a man trying to remember where he left his keys. Then it was gone.

"Right," he said. "I have to go."

The words landed in my chest like small, dull thuds. I watched him pull out his phone, thumb scrolling through messages I would never be allowed to see. His expression shifted, softened, actually softened and I knew. I knew before he even opened his mouth.

"Is everything okay?" I asked, though I no longer wanted the answer.

"Vanessa's flight just landed." His voice had changed. There was an urgency there, a brightness I had not heard in years. "She's been out of the country for almost a decade. She's at the airport. She needs me to pick her up."

Vanessa.

The name that had haunted my marriage before I even understood I was living in a grave someone else had dug. Vanessa Hale. His first love. The woman whose photograph still lived in his study drawer, whose letters he kept in a box I was never permitted to touch, whose name he had whispered once in the dark of our bedroom before he remembered I was beside him.

I had never met her. I had only lived in her shadow.

"Today?" The word escaped before I could trap it. "You're leaving today?"

Cassian glanced up from his phone, and for one strange moment, he actually looked at me. His brow furrowed, as if my question were a puzzle he couldn't be bothered to solve.

"I'll make it up to you," he said. "The necklace you wanted. The sapphire one from Christie's. I'll have it sent over."

The necklace. As if a piece of jewelry could fill the space where a husband should have been. As if I were a child whose tears could be bought off with a shiny thing.

"Cassian..."

"It's just an anniversary, Clara." He was already walking toward the door. His overcoat was over his arm. His keys were in his hand. "We'll celebrate some other time. Vanessa needs someone to pick her up, and I'm not going to leave her stranded at the airport. Don't be dramatic about this."

Don't be dramatic.

The mantra of my marriage.

Don't be dramatic when he forgets your birthday. Don't be dramatic when he works through dinner. Don't be dramatic when he calls you her name in his sleep.

I said nothing. My silence was a language I had mastered.

Cassian paused at the door. He turned, just slightly, his profile sharp against the morning light. "I'll be back late. Don't wait up."

The door closed behind him.

The click of the latch echoed through the dining room.

I stood there for a long moment, staring at the closed door. The peonies were already beginning to wilt at the edges. The card I had written To my husband, on four years of learning to love sat unopened beside his untouched plate.

He had not even seen it.

He had not even wished me a happy anniversary.

I don't know how long I stood there. Long enough for the morning light to shift. Long enough for my untouched breakfast to grow cold. Long enough for the tears to come, and for me to wipe them away with the back of my hand, and for new ones to replace them.

Then my phone buzzed on the table.

I almost didn't look. I assumed it was Cassian, maybe a token text, a scrap of guilt thrown in my direction. But the sender was not my husband.

It was an automated notification from the immigration office.

Visa Application Status: APPROVED. You may enter the country in seven (7) days.

Seven days.

I stared at the screen. The words blurred, then sharpened, then blurred again.

I had applied for the visa three months ago, on a night when we made love and Cassian murmured Vanessa's name with no explanation he cared to offer. I had done it quietly, in secret, with a shaking hand and a heart that still did not fully believe I would go through with it. It had felt like a fantasy. A lifeboat on a distant horizon I would never actually swim toward.

But here it was. Approved. Real.

Seven days.

I looked at the anniversary table. The flowers. The card. The empty chair where my husband should have been sitting, reading my words, maybe reaching for my hand.

Then I wiped my tears for the final time.

"Seven days," I whispered to the empty room.

My voice did not waver.

"Seven days, and I'm done."