Chapter 1

I came home from a two-week business trip and found another woman's press-on nails in our bed.

My husband explained them away: my mother-in-law had knocked a set loose while she was doing the housework.

When I told my best friend about it, she was so furious she stomped around the room and smashed the prized clay teapot my husband treasured most.

"Althea Pruitt, if you ask me, your husband is definitely cheating! Five years married and he still won't even try for a baby with you? He's in love with someone else, mark my words. He's probably already gotten her pregnant!"

I hung the bead-art figure I'd spent seven hours making the night before on her bag, and smiled as I calmed her down.

"Don't read too much into it. My mother-in-law really has been wearing those nails lately. I even saw them on her yesterday."

My best friend and my husband had rubbed each other the wrong way from the very first time they met, five years ago.

They bickered every single day, both looking ready to tear each other apart.

But when I took leave early to come home on my birthday, I found the front door left ajar.

My husband and my best friend were wrapped in each other's arms, kissing, lost to everything around them.

Beside them stood a stroller, and inside it lay an infant, fast asleep.

The birthday cake slipped from my hands and hit the floor, cream splattering everywhere.

Nothing is more devastating than a heart that has died. So this was what it felt like.

…

At the sound, the two of them turned their heads, and both froze.

It took Dean Vance a long moment to gather himself. Then he smiled and walked toward me.

"Why are you home so suddenly? It's pouring outside. You should have told me. I could have come to pick you up."

His gaze followed the line of my arm down to the cake broken on the floor.

He hurried to fetch a broom and started sweeping it up.

Then he reached out and gently patted my head, just like always.

"It's your birthday today. I bought you an ice-cream cake ages ago. It's in the fridge, strawberry, your favorite flavor."

"Tonight I've invited all our relatives and friends over. We're going to celebrate your birthday together."

Sunlight spilled into the room.

Colorful balloons covered the walls.

My photo was projected across the TV, HAPPY BIRTHDAY written over it.

On the coffee table sat an exquisite diamond necklace and a huge bouquet of roses.

If I hadn't just seen Dean tangled up with another woman with my own eyes,

I really would have believed he loved me.

Seeing that I said nothing, Dean smiled and laid a hand on my shoulder again.

He steered me over to the couch and sat me down.

"Don't just stand there in a daze. You haven't had lunch yet, have you?"

"I'll go to the kitchen and make you a bowl of your favorite noodle soup. No scallions, easy on the salt. I know how you like it."

I opened my mouth, but something was lodged in my throat.

After Dean turned and went into the kitchen, I stared at Imogen Harding in disbelief.

"You're my best friend. Why would you do this?"

"Why not?" Imogen laughed, laughed until tears came to her eyes.

"It's precisely because we're best friends. Didn't you always say you'd share every good thing with me?"

"Well, now I think your husband is pretty great. So I'm sharing your husband. What's the problem with that?"

I clenched my fists.

"Your parents died young. If mine hadn't paid your way through college, your uncle would have married you off to that old bachelor a long time ago and pocketed the twenty-thousand bride price."

"Doing this, can you look my parents in the eye? Can you look me in the eye?"

I grabbed her by the arm. "Get out of here right now! When my parents get here, you can explain yourself to them!"

But to my surprise, Imogen only gave a cold little snort.

"God, you're exhausting, Althea. Do you honestly still not get it?"

"I carried on a five-year affair with Dean right under your nose, and gave birth to a daughter without a hitch. All of it thanks to your parents covering for us."

"Otherwise, how do you think your mother ended up seeing me through my confinement, fussing over me until I put on ten pounds?"

She shook the jade bracelet on her wrist.

"This is from your mother, too. She said it was a reward for giving her such an adorable granddaughter, Bailey, so they could hold a grandchild sooner."

I seized her by the collar and dragged her whole body out the door.

I slammed it shut behind her, cutting off her voice.

"No! Get out! Don't you ever show your face in front of me again!"