Chapter 1

I had just blown out the candles on my twenty-eighth birthday, alone, and picked up my fork.

Then John Sanchez sat down across from me.

He ignored the shock on my face and slid a property deed toward me.

"For you. Happy birthday."

The fork slipped out of my hand and clattered onto the table.

The deed was for a downtown mansion. Five thousand square feet. Twenty million dollars.

Today was the fifth birthday I'd had since marrying John.

It was the first one he'd ever shown up for, and the first gift he'd ever given me.

Before I could get out the word "why," he pushed a second document across the table. A divorce agreement.

"Yola's back. Her child needs a father."

So we were getting divorced.

It took me one second to accept it. I nodded, calm.

"Fine. I'll sign right now."

John had never let go of his first love, the one waiting overseas. I knew that.

What he didn't know was this.

I hadn't let go either.

1

I pushed the birthday cake aside, picked up the pen, and wrote my name.

Clean, unhesitating, done in one stroke.

I'd barely let out a breath.

Then John's hand came down on top of mine, his eyes studying me.

"Agreeing this easily?"

"April Finch, think it through. Once you sign, there's no taking it back."

"You'll never be the envied Mrs. Sanchez again."

I turned those last words over in my head, and I laughed.

So that was what he thought.

That for five years I'd been the envied Mrs. Sanchez.

He had no idea. In all those party corners he never saw.

How many people had thrown wine in my face.

Called me the shameless bitch who'd stolen another woman's first love.

Even though that first love had walked out on him first, gone abroad, married someone else, had a child.

Even though John and I were husband and wife, married in full public view.

He had never once set the record straight.

He had never even known.

I glanced at the deed on the table. A mansion worth twenty million. Wasn't that enough to make me sign without a fuss?

"If I'm not mistaken, you must be very busy today."

I capped the pen and looked down at my watch.

"Hurry up. Sign, and you can go sooner. This whole table of food's going cold."

Even as I said it, I hadn't forgotten to tuck the deed into my bag.

He caught the lightness in my voice.

John's face darkened a few shades.

"Our marriage means less to you than a table of food?"

I blinked. "Doesn't it?"

I had only agreed to the marriage in the first place to get the two million dollars from old Mrs. Sanchez.

After all, a gentle, obedient wife who took good care of her husband.

That was what earned Cindy Sanchez's ten thousand a month in living expenses.

So from where John stood.

Five years of marriage, and I'd been meek, submissive, swallowing everything, even throwing myself at him.

But I didn't love him.

So it never bothered me that he'd never come to a single one of my birthdays.

I didn't care that he'd never given me a gift.

John didn't see it that way.

He thought the divorce had rattled me, that my brain just hadn't caught up.

Or that I was faking calm out of spite.

"April Finch, you…"

He stared at me, livid, wanting to say more.

But I'd already gone back to cutting my cake, eating, taking pretty selfies, like he wasn't even there.

He stood beside me with no sign of leaving.

He sat on it a while before he managed to force out one line.

"Is this how you spend every birthday? Alone? With a sad little cake like this?"

Sad little cake?

This year's cake was the nicest one I'd had in five years.

John had never cared, so of course he had no idea what my birthdays looked like.

I was about to answer when a soft woman's voice came from behind me.

"John!"

Yolanda Reyes was holding a little girl. "It's the baby's birthday today. She says she wants the cotton candy her daddy makes with his own hands."

John went straight over, crouched down, and tweaked the little girl's nose.

"Okay. Daddy will make it for you, all right, my little sweet tooth?"

Yolanda lifted her head and gave me a taunting little smile.

Then, deliberately, "John, these past five years you were always giving her million-dollar birthday gifts. It's too extravagant."

"Now that we're back home, let's keep everything simple this year."

I froze, and cake smeared onto my chin. No wonder that in five years, John, my husband, had never once come to my birthday.

Only because my birthday fell on the same day as Yolanda's child's.

"That won't do. Her birthday gift is already all set."

Yolanda was curious. "What is it?"

John held up the divorce agreement and gave it a little shake.

"I'm giving the baby a father."

I let out a scoff. So much for a nice birthday. I'd lost my appetite entirely.

I just called the waiter over to box up the food.

John was still cozying up to the two of them and didn't notice me turn and walk out.

I'd just stepped out of the restaurant when my phone rang. A courier.

"Is this Miss April Finch?"

"There's a delivery here for you. The note says 'birthday gift.'"