Chapter 1: The Perfect Lie

I should have known something was wrong when he didn't answer his phone.

But I didn't. I was too busy replaying the meeting in my head, the way Sandra from corporate had smiled when she told me I was being considered for the promotion. Senior Marketing Director. The words still felt surreal, like if I said them out loud, they'd evaporate.

My heels clicked against the marble lobby floor of our building, and I couldn't stop grinning like an idiot. God, I probably looked insane. The doorman, Miguel, gave me a knowing nod as I rushed past.

"Good evening, Mrs. Carter."

"Evening, Miguel!"

The elevator ride up to the penthouse felt eternal. I clutched the paper bag from Lombardi's, the Italian place on Fifth where Ethan and I had our first date. Chicken parmigiana, extra sauce, no capers. His favorite. The smell was making my stomach growl, but I'd waited to eat. I wanted us to celebrate together.

Five years of marriage. Five years of building our life in this city, brick by brick, dream by dream. And now this. The promotion would change everything. We could finally start trying for a baby like we'd been talking about. Maybe get that beach house in the Hamptons.

The elevator dinged.

I was already fishing for my keys when I heard it.

Laughter.

Not just any laughter. The kind that's low and intimate, like a secret being shared. My hand froze on the doorknob. For a second, just a second, I thought maybe Ethan had invited someone over. A colleague maybe. But no, he would have texted me.

I pushed the door open slowly.

"...so good at this," a woman's voice said. Violet . Familiar in a way that made my skin crawl.

My brain couldn't process what I was seeing at first. It was like looking at one of those optical illusions where you have to stare for a while before the image makes sense. The living room. Our living room. The couch we'd picked out together at that overpriced furniture store in SoHo.

And on that couch...

Ethan.

And Layla.

My stepsister.

Her dress was bunched around her waist. His shirt was on the floor. His hands, the same hands that had held mine at our wedding, were tangled in her hair. Her back was arched, her head thrown back, and the sounds coming from her mouth...

The bag from Lombardi's slipped from my fingers. The containers hit the hardwood floor with a wet thud, marinara sauce exploding across the white oak like blood splatter.

They froze.

Ethan's head snapped toward me, his eyes going wide. But it was Layla's face I couldn't look away from. For just a fraction of a second, before the shock settled in, I saw it. Triumph. Pure, undiluted satisfaction in her eyes as they met mine.

Then she gasped, scrambling to pull her dress down. "Oh my God. Violet. I... we..."

I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. The air in the room felt too thick, like I was drowning on dry land. My vision tunneled, everything going hazy at the edges except for them. Crystal clear. Horrifyingly clear.

"Vio." Ethan's voice. He was standing now, reaching for his shirt. "Violet , this isn't... you don't understand."

I opened my mouth. Nothing came out.

He took a step toward me, pants still unbuttoned, and something inside me snapped awake. I stumbled backward, my shoulder hitting the doorframe.

"Don't." The word came out strangled, barely recognizable as my own voice.

"Please, just listen to me." He was still coming closer, hands raised like I was some wild animal he needed to calm. "This was a mistake. She... she came onto me. I was weak, I wasn't thinking..."

Layla made a sound. A whimper. She was crying now, mascara running down her cheeks. "I'm so sorry. I'm so, so sorry. I didn't mean for this to happen. He said you two were having problems and I just..."

"We're not having problems." My voice was steadier now. Cold. I didn't recognize it. "We're not having any problems."

"Baby, come on." Ethan was right in front of me now. I could smell her perfume on him. That sickly sweet floral scent Layla always wore. It was all over his skin, his clothes. "Let's just talk about this. Just... let me explain."

I looked at him. Really looked at him. The man I'd married. The man I'd given five years of my life to. The man I'd trusted with every piece of myself.

His hair was messed up. There was a hickey blooming on his collarbone. And his eyes, those blue eyes I'd once thought I could drown in, were pleading. But there was something else there too. Calculation. Like he was already working through the angles, figuring out how to spin this.

"How long?" I heard myself ask.

"What?"

"How long has this been going on?"

Ethan's face did something complicated. "Violet , it doesn't matter..."

"How. Long."

Silence. The kind that answers everything.

Layla was still on the couch, watching us. She'd pulled her dress down but her hair was wild, lips swollen. She looked like she always did after she'd gotten exactly what she wanted.

My stepsister. My father's wife's daughter. The girl I'd grown up with, shared Christmases with, confided in. She was twenty-six. Three years younger than me. And she was sitting on my couch, wearing my husband's touch like a second skin.

"You came to our wedding," I said, and my voice cracked. I hated that. Hated that I was giving them this. "You were in the bridal party. You... you helped me pick out my dress."

Layla's face crumpled. "I never wanted to hurt you."

"But you did it anyway."

"It just happened, Beth. You don't know what it's like. The way he looks at me, the way he makes me feel..."

"Stop." Ethan's voice was sharp. He shot Layla a look that made her shrink back. Then he turned to me, his expression softening into something that might have been remorse if I didn't know better. "This was one time. One stupid, drunken mistake. I swear to you, it meant nothing."

I laughed. Actually laughed. The sound was harsh, almost hysterical.

"You're not even drunk." I could see it in his eyes. Perfectly clear. Perfectly sober. "Neither of you."

His jaw tightened. "Vio..."

"Don't call me that." I stepped back again, needing distance. Needing air. "Don't you dare call me that."

I looked down. The marinara sauce had spread across the floor, creeping toward the white rug. Ruined. Everything was ruined.

My phone was buzzing in my purse. Probably Sandra, wanting to know if I'd told my husband the good news yet. If we were celebrating.

Celebrating.

I thought about the promotion. The beach house. The baby we were going to have. All those futures I'd been building in my head while my husband was... while they were...

"I want you out." The words came from somewhere deep, somewhere I didn't recognize. "Both of you. Get out of my home."

"Violet, please." Ethan reached for my arm.

I jerked away so violently I almost fell. "Don't touch me. Don't ever touch me again."

"This is my apartment too," he said, and there it was. The shift. The hardness creeping into his voice. "You can't just kick me out."

"Watch me."

"Violet." Layla stood up, tugging at her dress. "Can we please just talk about this like adults? I know you're upset but..."

"Upset?" I turned on her, and she actually flinched. Good. "You think I'm upset? You slept with my husband in my home on my couch and you think I'm upset?"

"I didn't... we weren't..." She was stumbling over her words now, eyes darting to Ethan for help.

And that's when I saw it. The way she looked at him. The way he shifted, almost imperceptibly, toward her. The way they moved together like this wasn't new, wasn't foreign. Like they'd done this dance before.

The room tilted.

"Oh my God." My hand found the wall, nails digging into the paint. "This isn't the first time."

Ethan's face went carefully blank. "Vio..."

"Answer me." I was shaking now, my whole body trembling. "Is this the first time?"

He didn't answer. He didn't have to.

Layla was crying harder now, but I couldn't hear her anymore. Everything had gone quiet except for the sound of my own heartbeat, thundering in my ears.

How many times? How many times had they done this while I was at work, while I was traveling for conferences, while I was planning our anniversary dinner? How many lies had I swallowed? How many times had I kissed him, held him, made love to him, never knowing where else he'd been?

My stomach lurched. I pressed my hand to my mouth, tasting bile.

"I'm sorry." Ethan's voice was soft now. Almost gentle. "I never meant for you to find out like this."

Find out. Not that he never meant to do it. That he never meant for me to find out.

I looked at him. My husband. The man I'd promised forever to. And I didn't know him at all.

"Get out," I said again.

"Violet..."

"GET OUT!"

The words ripped from my throat, raw and jagged. Layla grabbed her purse, still crying, and stumbled toward the door. Ethan hesitated, looking at me like he wanted to say something else. Like he was waiting for me to break, to forgive, to make this easier for him.

I stared back. Silent. Stone.

He grabbed his shirt and walked out.

The door clicked shut behind them.

And I stood there in the wreckage of my life, marinara sauce seeping into the floorboards, the smell of her perfume still hanging in the air, and finally, finally, I let myself fall apart.

My knees hit the floor. The sound that came out of me was inhuman, something between a scream and a sob. I pressed my forehead to the cold hardwood, fingers clawing at the edges of the sauce stain like if I could just clean it up, if I could just fix this one thing, everything else would go back to normal.

But it wouldn't. Nothing would ever be normal again.

Because the man I loved had just shattered me. And he'd used my own sister to do it.