Chapter 2

I arranged my father's funeral alone.

Cassian never showed up. He only transferred a sum of money with the note: [Funeral expenses.]

Another message followed.

[Take a few days to calm down. When you're no longer angry, I'll bring you home.]

I stared at the screen and suddenly laughed. By the time my laughter turned into sobs, my tears were falling onto my father's portrait.

He thought I was merely throwing a tantrum.

Three days later, my lawyer accompanied me to City Hall to search the marriage records.

The clerk checked our documents repeatedly before finally turning the computer screen toward me.

"Ms. Wexler, there's no record of your marriage in the system."

My chest tightened. I took out the marriage certificate I had kept locked away for three years.

The clerk glanced at it once and pushed it back.

"It's fake."

My hand froze.

Three years earlier, Cassian's mother had confiscated my birth certificate and passport because she refused to let us marry.

But Cassian had taken my hand and led me to a little chapel that supposedly could complete the process that same day.

When we received the certificate, he had kissed my forehead and said, "Vee, no one can stop me from marrying you."

It turned out the chapel had only been rented for the occasion. The "pastor" conducting the ceremony was a friend whose credentials Cassian had bought online for a few hundred dollars. Even the vows were fake.

My lawyer pulled up Cassian's registration information.

Spouse: Odessa Vance.

Registration date: two years ago.

I rushed out of the building and threw up against the railing, my whole body trembling.

My lawyer handed me some water and lowered his voice. "There's also a result regarding the six hundred and twenty thousand dollars you asked me to investigate."

It had been my mother's old house. Cassian had told me the company was short on cash, so I sold it and gave him every cent.

But the bank records showed that less than a week after the money arrived, it had become the down payment on Odessa's apartment and the cost of her maternity suite at a private hospital.

The transfer note contained only one sentence:

[Take care of whoever needs the money most.]

The paper trembled in my hands.

Before my mother died, she had still been worrying about the jasmine on the balcony. I had promised her that once Cassian got through the company's financial crisis, I would buy the house back.

But my home hadn't been used to solve any emergency.

It had become another woman's home.

My vision went dark. When I woke up, I was in a hospital.

A nurse handed me the examination report.

"Seven weeks pregnant. Where's your family?"

I stared at the words and said nothing.

Seven weeks earlier had been my birthday. Cassian had stayed with me for two hours, cooked me birthday pasta, and promised to take me to Iceland to see the northern lights after our wedding.

During those two hours, a child had been conceived inside me.

My phone suddenly vibrated. An unknown number sent me several screenshots.

Odessa had asked: "Isn't holding three ceremonies on the same day too risky?"

Cassian had replied: “I have to take care of all three of you. Putting everything in one place saves time.”

Linnea had asked: "What if the woman downstairs finds out?"

[Verity wants the ceremony. The certificate isn't that important. Don't let her find out yet. I'll calm her down afterward.]

The final screenshot was an invitation to the third-floor birthday party.

Rowan Ashcroft's First Birthday Celebration.

Rowan was the name my mother had chosen for my future child.

I bit down hard on my lip.

Cassian had stolen my home, my marriage, and three years of my life. He had even taken the name my mother had left for my child.

The nurse asked if she should notify the baby's father.

I gently covered my lower abdomen. Tears finally slipped down my face, but my voice was strangely calm.

"No."

After leaving the hospital, I went to the hotel as the person who had paid for the wedding.

"Pull every booking record, surveillance video, and payment receipt for the three ballrooms that day."

"Seal the originals and make three copies of everything."

I wiped away my tears and spoke word by word.

"This time, I don't want his explanation."

"I want evidence."