Chapter 1

...

"Officer, is something wrong?"

Mallory Voss frowned, staring at the license clenched in my hand.

I came back to myself, handed it over, and nodded toward the roses piled across the back seat.

"Nothing. You two seem very affectionate. It’s sweet to see this romance even after marriage."

Through the helmet, my voice came out flat and muffled.

Mallory went blank for a second, then snatched the license back, impatient.

Colin Reddick laughed and pulled her against him.

"We're just dating."

He took her hand like it was nothing and laced their fingers together.

"Today's our third anniversary."

Three years.

Mallory and I had married exactly three years ago.

Today was our anniversary too.

"These are our custom couple's rings. That's her favorite flower on them. Apricot blossom."

Colin lifted his hand to show off the engraving, and his smile turned deliberate.

"In red, especially."

"Stop it..."

The cool expression Mallory had worn all along broke, and her face went pink.

She playfully swatted his chest.

The glaring flash of red on the ring kept flickering before my eyes.

My fist closed. I thought about the balcony at home, crowded end to end with foxtail grass.

So she had never cared about the flower’s symbolic meaning of faithful companionship.

She only wanted all that green to mock me openly.

I took a slow breath and quietly texted her.

"Honey, I can get home tonight after all. Let's do our anniversary."

The woman in front of me saw her screen light up, picked up the phone, and didn't change expression at all.

Her thumbs flew.

A second later, her message landed on my phone.

"Baby, I'm so sorry. I've got a project due tonight, so I won't be back until tomorrow."

"I'll make it up to you for our anniversary then. Love you."

Watching how practiced she was, I finally understood all the late nights since the wedding.

They were never for our home. They were for another man.

"My girlfriend's actually got a husband."

Colin volunteered it out of nowhere.

His smile never faded, yet his eyes cut toward me like sharp blades.

Like he wanted to cut straight through the visor and meet my eyes.

"But he's useless. Can't even hold on to his own woman.

"You have no idea how far gone she was over him. She had his name tattooed on her waist.

"And now? Now it's mine over the top of it."

Colin's laughter came out through the half-open window and carried down the whole road.

I set my jaw and forced the fire in my chest back down.

"You're not worried her husband finds out?"

Colin raised an eyebrow and snorted.

"Her husband's a doormat.

"I borrowed twenty‑thousand dollars from him two years ago. He still hasn't worked up the nerve to ask for it.

"I lived in his house for three months last year, ate his food, didn't pay a dime. He even kept a spare key for me.

"His wife ends up in my hands, that's on him.

"I could marry her tomorrow and he'd show up with a check in his hand and toast us obediently."

Every word of it went into me and stayed there.

So all those years of my loyalty and kindness merely read as weakness to him.

They had toyed with me like a dog for their own amusement.

"All right, enough. Our parents are waiting at the Rosegate Grand.

"We're going to be late."

Mallory cut him off with a small pout.

Her foot came down, and the car shot past me.

The Rosegate Grand.

The same place Mallory and I had held our wedding.

Something uneasy started spreading through my chest and wouldn't stop.

I turned off my body‑worn camera, finished my shift, and drove straight to the hotel.

I got two steps into the lobby and stopped.

A bright‑red welcome sign bore the words “Wedding Banquet” in huge lettering.

Underneath were the names Mallory Voss and Colin Reddick.