Chapter 1

My husband and I had been married ten years, always polite and considerate with each other.

He was an investment prodigy, forever off doing field research in one city or another.

To pass the time, I opened a café downstairs from his company.

He'd once teased me with a smile.

"I move a finger and I make more than you do in a year."

I only took it as a joke and let it go.

On Valentine's Day, some of his employees came into my shop for coffee.

"Kay Finch, haven't the roses your husband ordered for you shown up yet?"

I pointed at the bright roses in the vase on the counter, my face full of happiness.

"After all these years, he still pulls the same routine every time."

The employee who'd asked scratched his head, looking puzzled.

"Weren't they supposed to be nine hundred ninety-nine, for love that lasts forever? Why's there only one?"

Something cold slid through me, a bad feeling.

The employee gave an awkward laugh, paid, and left with his coffee.

I opened my secret account on the short-video app and found my husband's own hidden account in my following list.

"Nine hundred ninety-nine roses. Forever, and never to fail you in this life!"

So somewhere along the way, without either of us noticing, we'd come to a crossroads.

1

When I'd first stumbled onto my husband Scott Gilbert's secret account, I was thrilled.

I thought it was a sign of how in tune we were, so I quietly followed it.

On that account, Scott said things he never said to me, posted little moments I'd never gotten to see.

But he had never once posted a video about a woman.

In the video in front of me, Scott had his arm around a bright, striking woman.

The two of them stood inside a heart shape laid out from nine hundred ninety-nine roses.

His face was all adoration, hers all soft tenderness.

More than a hundred thousand likes. Over fifty thousand comments.

【Mr. Gilbert is so handsome! I'm so jealous of that woman!】

【I know her, that's Samantha Henson, the heiress of Henson Industries!】

【By that logic, he's got the talent and she's got the looks, a match made in heaven!】

My phone started to buzz. Scott was calling.

"Kay, I've got a really important meeting tonight."

His voice was always so gentle, so easy to be swept up in.

"I ordered a table of food at the riverside restaurant, all your favorites. It should get there soon, all right?"

"Fine. Got it."

I kept my voice even and agreed.

Before he hung up, he asked in that perfectly caring tone.

"You don't sound like yourself. Are you coming down with a cold?"

"No. Probably just sat under the AC too long."

I put the phone away and sat by the floor-to-ceiling window facing the street, watching the rain come down in sheets.

Half an hour later, my best friend Myra Floyd called.

"Kay, where are you? Off being romantic with your man again?"

I twisted my lips into something like a smile and answered, my voice rough.

"No. I'm still sitting here at the shop."

"Your voice... something's wrong. I'm coming right now—"

Myra hung up before she'd even finished.

A dozen or so minutes later, a black Maserati pulled up outside the café.

She pushed through the door out of the pouring rain, and by the time she reached me her face was stunned.

"Did something happen at Scott's company?"

I didn't say a word, just looked at Myra, tears sliding slowly from the corners of my eyes.

She stepped closer and pulled me into her arms.

"It's okay. It's okay..."

The more she tried to comfort me, the harder I cried.

I don't know how long it went on before I wiped away the snot and tears, past caring how I looked.

"My husband's cheating."

Ten years of marriage. I knew him too well.

Some things didn't need to be asked out loud for me to know exactly what had happened.

Myra's mouth opened and closed, and she asked me in disbelief.

"Has he lost his mind? How could he dare?"