Chapter 1

After I woke from my vegetative state, Patrick James and I held our wedding all over again.

The little flower girl pulled out the ring box, took out the snap-pops inside, and hurled them at me.

"I don't want some cheap woman like you stealing my daddy!"

The snap-pops burst against my wedding dress, one shrill crack after another, until they scattered into little flecks of ash.

Stiffly, I turned to look at Patrick.

Following the dark line of his gaze, I saw Lucy Henson, half-hidden behind a pillar, one hand cradling her pregnant belly.

Five years ago, she was the one who ran me down and left me a vegetable.

"Poor sweetheart, no one is going to take Daddy away from you."

"This wedding is just for show. Your mother, Lucy, will always be the wife Daddy legally married."

The one lifting the little flower girl into her arms, hushing her so tenderly, was Patrick's mother.

Only yesterday she'd told me to give her a grandchild as soon as possible after the wedding, so her old age wouldn't be so dull.

"These past few years Lucy and Patrick have been so happy. You never should have woken up."

The one who walked up to me and said this, all reproach, was my best friend.

When I'd first come back to consciousness, she had cried until she could barely breathe.

"Irma Gilbert, Patrick may have held this wedding with you, but in our hearts Lucy is the real Mrs. James."

The one warning me in that cold voice was Patrick's close friend.

The same man who'd once sworn that if Patrick married anyone but me, he'd cut all ties with him.

So this was what happened during the five years I lay unconscious.

Patrick had not only failed to press charges against the woman who hit me, he'd given her a home.

Everyone had chosen forgiveness on my behalf.

Only I was kept in the dark, like a clown.

1

With every eye in the room on us.

Patrick walked straight over to Lucy.

"Why are you out here, in your condition?"

"You had such a hard labor with our first, I knelt outside the delivery room all night praying you and the baby would be safe. How can you still not be careful this time?"

In the silent banquet hall, his words carried to my ears, neither loud nor soft, and the color drained from my face in an instant.

Five years ago, on the eve of our wedding, a drunk Lucy sent me flying.

Blood ran from my belly, and Patrick had held me and screamed at her.

"If anything happens to Irma and the baby, I'll grind your bones to dust!"

Now, watching the care and doting in his eyes, everything in front of me blurred.

My best friend, Barbara Fox, followed my gaze, envy she couldn't hide in her eyes.

"The only reason Lucy hit you back then was that she loved Patrick a little too madly."

"She gave up her entire savings to pay my mother's medical bills. How bad could her heart really be?"

"Irma, you're not going to force your way between them and be some shameless third wheel, are you?"

Her tone of persuasion carried a thread of contempt, of mockery.

Just like five years ago, when she happened to see it.

Lucy, my assistant back then, ducking her head shyly, almost kissing Patrick where he'd dozed off at midday.

I'd rushed over like a little whirlwind and slapped her hard across the face.

"Irma sponsored you for ten years, and here you are, shamelessly coveting her boyfriend."

"Is this how your mother taught you to repay kindness with betrayal?"

Now, watching the corner of her mouth curl up.

It was as though something had closed around my throat. My face flushed dark with the effort, and still not a single word would come.

Patrick's close friend, Rodney Delgado, looked at me and frowned.

"Irma Gilbert, this wedding is something Lucy pushed Patrick to hold specially for you, to make up for what you missed five years ago."

"She's so kindhearted. Surely you don't mean to push your luck and tear their family apart?"

The disgust in his eyes came and went in a flash.

He was no longer the man who'd once sought me out on purpose to warn me.

"Are you a fool, ma'am? You brought that sponsored girl Lucy in as Patrick's assistant. Isn't that like burying a hidden bomb right beside him?"

"One look at that woman and you can tell she's no good!"

Now even Patrick's mother, the little flower girl in her arms, kept her patience and pressed me.

"Five years ago you couldn't finish your wedding with Patrick, and today all this trouble happens too. It's proof enough that you and our Patrick were never meant to be in this life."

"Irma, don't be so stubborn about things."

My whole body swayed, ready to fall.

Step by step, I walked up to Patrick and stared at him, my eyes burning.

"I don't care what anyone else says."

"I only want to hear your explanation!"