Chapter 1

1: 1

My mother had fallen critically ill without warning, and we had traveled a long way for treatment.

The first thing I did was rush her to the private hospital owned by the Hensons.

When I couldn't cover the bill at the payment desk, I gritted my teeth, signed Jack Henson's name, and slid the paperwork back through the window.

"Please put the charges under Jack Henson's account. I'm his wife."

The nurse rolled her eyes at me right there.

"Have you no shame? If you want free treatment, just say so. Playing Mrs. Henson now? At least think up a lie that holds together. Mr. Henson's wife is at this hospital every single day. Everyone here knows her face."

The patient card slipped from my fingers to the floor, and the blood in my veins turned to ice in an instant.

I left my mother in a security guard's care and followed the direction the nurse had pointed, step by step, toward the ward.

The door stood ajar.

I stopped in the doorway and saw Jack Henson, who was supposed to be in a meeting at the company, sitting at the bedside.

He was leaning over to tuck the blanket around the patient, his movements patient and gentle.

And the woman he called his brother's fiancee.

She was nestled happily in his arms, one arm wrapped around his waist.

In that moment, I forgot how to breathe.

1

"Jack, stop fussing, take a rest. Look at you, working all day and helping me take care of my dad on top of it. You've worn yourself thin. It breaks my heart."

Jack turned his head, reached up to stroke her hair, and spoke in a tenderness I had never once heard from him.

"Silly. Your dad is my dad. If I don't look after him, who will?"

"If you really feel for me, then spend more time with me. Just seeing you makes even the worst exhaustion worth it."

Standing outside the door, watching all of it, my eyes flooded in an instant.

Five years of marriage, and Jack had dropped me for Evangeline Pruitt more times than I could count.

He'd told me Evangeline was his brother's fiancee, that the brother had heard the Hensons owned a hospital and asked him to look out for her.

But in five years, I had never once seen this brother he spoke of.

Every time I asked, he said I was making a fuss over nothing, that I couldn't even trust his brother's fiancee.

By the end, I had even started to doubt myself.

Only in this moment did I understand. There had never been any brother at all.

I pushed the door open, my hands shaking.

When he saw me, something like surprise flickered through his eyes.

Then his brow furrowed. He stood, walked over, and pulled the ward door shut behind him.

"Why are you here? Who let you come up?"

No explanation, no panic. His first words were to demand why I had shown up.

I stared at him, my voice trembling.

"Why shouldn't I be here?"

"My mother is dying. I brought her in for treatment, and when I went to pay, the nurse said I was a fraud. She said the real Mrs. Henson was right here in this ward!"

"Jack, tell me. Is she your brother's fiancee, or is she your mistress?"

Evangeline came over, red-eyed, and pulled at my arm.

"Don't misunderstand. Jack and I... it isn't what you think."

"I wasn't talking to you."

I shook her hand off and kept my eyes locked on Jack.

"I'm asking you."

His brow knit tighter. There wasn't a trace of guilt on his face, only impatience.

"And if she is? Evangeline's father is gravely ill. She can't carry it all alone. What's wrong with me lending a hand?"

"Cicely Swanson, marrying into the Henson family is more luck than you deserve. I've never asked you for a divorce, never left you wanting for food or clothes. Would it kill you to keep your place and be Mrs. Henson quietly? Do you have to drag everyone through the mud?"

I felt like I'd heard the biggest joke in the world, and I laughed until there were tears.

"Five years of marriage, and I've never taken a cent from you. What you give me barely covers the household. My mother's treatment back home, I paid for every bit of it myself. My family has never gotten a single thing out of this marriage."

"That's the luck you're talking about? Here, you take it. You want it?"

His expression darkened at once.

"Don't twist things around. You're the young Mrs. Henson. Who out there would dare not show you respect? If it weren't for how sensible you've been, do you think you'd have gotten to sit where you are today?"

"I don't want it!"

The words had barely left my mouth when Evangeline dropped to her knees in front of me with a thud, tears streaming down.

"Jack, don't fight with her. It's all my fault."

"I'm sorry. I never meant to tear your family apart. Right now, no one but Jack can save my father. I just want my dad to live."

"Just take pity on me and let me stay by Jack's side, please? Jack and I truly love each other. I don't want anything. I swear I will never set foot inside the Henson house. I'm begging you, please, show me mercy!"