Chapter 1

I looked at my own haggard face in the mirror and hurled the glass in my hand at the corner of the bathroom wall.

The sound of breaking glass rang out, painfully loud in the empty room.

"Clara! What are you losing it for this time?"

Julian shoved the door open and came in.

I was on the cold tile, legs stretched out in front of me like two pieces of dead wood.

A minute ago I'd tried to stand up to wash my face and dropped like a sack.

"Losing it?" I laughed once, cold, and tipped my head up to look him in the eye.

"Right. That's exactly what I am. A woman who can't even stand up. A wreck."

His brow creased. He crossed to me in two strides and bent to lift me.

I fought him, palms slamming into his chest.

"Don't touch me. I can't stand it."

His body went still. Something exhausted and wounded flickered through his eyes.

"How long are you going to do this? I'm tired enough at work every day."

I pointed at the red on his collar. My voice shook.

"Tired? From work—or from a hotel bed?"

He looked down and saw the lipstick smudge.

His face changed in an instant. He covered his collar on reflex.

"Let me explain. It isn't what you think."

I bit down on the inside of my mouth. Tears welled up, but I refused to let them fall.

"Don't bother. I heard you."

The night before, I'd woken up at two a.m. with nerve pain in my legs, and I'd heard him on the balcony.

He'd said he couldn't do it anymore. That being tied to an invalid with mood swings was suffocating him.

The voice on the other end of the phone had been a woman, lilting. She'd told him she'd stay with him always.

I knew that voice.

It was his executive assistant, Sienna Harrington. Only daughter of Professor Richard Harrington—the country's leading neurosurgeon.

"Clara, calm down. There's nothing between me and Sienna."

He tried to take my hand. I wrenched it away.

"Nothing? Then why is she posting to her story in your shirt like she lives there?"

"Why is her lipstick on your collar?"

"Own it or don't."

I was shouting. My chest was heaving.

He went silent.

After a long time, he said quietly, "I can't leave Sienna right now. I need her."

I started laughing. I laughed until I was crying.

"You need her. Wonderful. You make me sick."

"If you need her that badly, then go. Get out. Why are you still standing here in front of this wreck?"

I grabbed the tube of cleanser off the vanity and hurled it at his head.

He didn't duck. It hit his forehead, and a red mark bloomed.

"Don't push me." His voice went cold.

I looked at him, steady.

"Send me to Westbrook. From now on, we go our separate ways."