Chapter 4

After the reception, Fabian's company collapsed almost overnight, its cash flow snapped, and bankruptcy was declared.

He was buried under a mountain of debt, and Zoe wasted no time. She emptied what money there was and vanished without a trace.

Word had it that Fabian and Sapphire were now renting a top-floor unit in a building with no elevator, and creditors came pounding on their door every single day.

When the news reached Jessica, not a ripple stirred in her.

They had brought all of this on themselves.

Her own life went on, calm as still water.

Only, something between her and Gerard seemed to have shifted, quietly, in ways she couldn't quite name.

He no longer looked straight through her the way he used to.

At meals he would say a few words to her now and then, ask what she had done with her day.

When he caught her rubbing her eyes after too long with a book, he had the butler get her a pair of blue-light glasses.

On a night of thunder and rain, knowing she was frightened of the thunder, he even let her carry her pillow in and sleep on the couch in his bedroom.

Jessica knew this probably wasn't love, only the basic courtesy a man extended to the woman who was his wife in name.

But to a heart that had frozen over long ago, these small drops of warmth were already enough.

That day was Grandpa Roman's eightieth birthday.

Gerard took Jessica back to the old Roman estate.

It was a Chinese-style manor, grander and more forbidding than the villa.

The Roman elders regarded this granddaughter-in-law who had appeared out of nowhere with suspicion and disdain.

Gerard's stepmother, Gabriella Lawrence, most of all.

"Gerard, this is nonsense! Marriage is a serious matter. How could you treat it like a game? Dragging home some woman off the street with a murky past. Is the Roman name worth nothing to you?"

"And a divorcée, I hear, one who can't even bear a child. The Roman family may not be counting on you to carry on the line, but must we really take in someone this 'defective'?"

Every word out of Gabriella was a barb.

Jessica kept her head down, her fists clenched, her nails digging deep into her palms.

"She is not some woman with a murky past." Gerard's voice went cold. "She is my wife, the rightful young Mrs. Roman of this family. From now on, anyone who disrespects her disrespects me."

He took Jessica's hand, in front of everyone.

"We're leaving."

At that suffocating family dinner, Gerard, against all habit, drank a great deal.

On the drive back to the villa, he stayed slumped against the back seat, eyes shut, brow drawn tight, his face paler than usual.

Jessica knew it sat heavy on him too.

Back at the villa, he had barely stepped out of the car when he stumbled and nearly went down.

Jessica caught him quickly.

He was burning hot against her, the smell of liquor mixed with a good, clean scent of cedar washing over her.

"Let me get you to your room."

She struggled to walk him up to the bedroom, and just as she meant to lower him onto the bed, his eyes flew open and he yanked her down.

The world spun, and she was pinned beneath him.

Those deep eyes of his were startlingly bright in the dark, churning with something complicated she couldn't read.

"Jessica..." he rasped, saying her name.

Everything that happened that night was like a dream that had slipped its reins.

The next morning, when Jessica woke, the place beside her was already empty.

On the nightstand sat a cup of warm water and a check.

On the check was a string of zeros she couldn't finish counting.

Beside it lay a note, in Gerard's bold, sweeping hand: Last night was an accident. Forget it.

In an instant, half the warmth drained out of Jessica's heart.