Chapter 1

The insurance rep asked Olivia to confirm it for the third time.

"Ms. Grant, I need to hear you say it. You really want to terminate the Love Insurance policy?"

He tapped the contract.

"It matures in three days. Keep it active that long and the two of you collect a three-hundred-thousand-dollar payout."

Olivia didn't even look up.

She signed the cancellation form.

"Terminate it."

Nathan winced.

"When you two bought this policy, you were about as in love as anyone who's ever sat in that chair. You told me you wanted to renew it the day it matured."

Pain closed around my chest.

I gripped the arm of my chair.

Olivia already had her phone up, recording a voice message for somebody else.

"Julian, it's done. I canceled the Love Insurance.

"When I get back, we'll go down to the city hall.

"Then wedding photos, and rings. Sound good?"

Nathan looked from her to me.

"Ms. Grant. Your husband is sitting right here."

Even a stranger found it cruel.

I'd lived inside it long enough that I should have gone numb by now.

I hadn't.

Olivia and I had married and divorced ten times.

Ten.

Every time, Julian Stone—the boy she'd never gotten over—would call, or cry, or manufacture some crisis about not being able to watch her belong to another man.

And every time, Olivia listened to him.

She'd divorce me.

Then, once Julian settled down or disappeared again, she'd come back and tell me we could remarry.

The clerks knew us by name.

Something hit my cheek.

A ring bounced off the desk and hit the floor. The diamond came out of the setting when it landed.

"Here. Take it back."

She said it the way you'd hand back a borrowed pen.

"I'm meeting Julian later to pick out rings. It'd be weird if he saw this one."

She caught my expression and frowned.

"Don't make that face. I already told you, I'll remarry you in a few days.

"Julian doesn't have much time left. I just want to be with him for what's left of it."

My fingers tightened.

Then I reached for the termination agreement and signed my name under hers.

When I looked up, Olivia was stripping off the bracelet and the necklace I'd given her.

She dropped both in the trash.

Then she smiled into her phone.

"Julian. Wait for me. I'm coming to marry you."

A memory surfaced without asking permission.

All ten times she'd married me, she had looked impatient. Tired. Like standing next to me at that counter was one more errand to get through before lunch.

So she was capable of being happy about a wedding.

Just not one of ours.

"Olivia."

She stopped at the door.

I had one last question, and my knuckles had gone white on the armrest.

"Three months ago, when we signed the Love Insurance contract. Did you ever actually read the terms?"

She glanced back.

"It's an insurance policy, Ethan. What's there to read?

"I'm busy. I'm not standing here wasting the afternoon on this."

Then she was gone.

Nathan watched the door swing shut. He didn't bother hiding what he thought of her.

"Mr. Reed. I'm sorry."

Then he lowered his voice.

"But you understand what happens in three days now, don't you?

"She terminated early, and you signed as the non-breaching party. Our relocation team comes for you.

"You'd be moved somewhere she can't reach. You could go the rest of your life without ever seeing Ms. Grant again."

He paused.

"Do you actually want to go?"

Did I?

Eight years pressed down on my chest all at once.

When my father died, Olivia had stayed with me through the funeral and every week after it. There'd been a time when I believed she was the one person who would never walk away from me.

Then Julian came back from overseas.

Everything changed.

My phone buzzed.

A message from Julian.

[Thanks for stepping aside, Ethan. Today was the best day of my life.]

A photo underneath it.

Julian and Olivia on the steps, holding up their marriage license.