Chapter 2

Adeline's POV

Knox drives fast, and the car fills with a silence so thick it's suffocating.

Knox can't stand the quiet. "Addie, come on, guys mess around sometimes, that's just how it is. Winnie's just some kid, Beckett's just having a little fun. You're his wife, the real deal. Why bother getting worked up over some girl?"

"Does she know he's married?" I ask flatly.

Knox falters, clears his throat. "That's... look, just stay in your lane and be a good wife. Don't worry about the rest of it."

I let out a cold laugh. That girl doesn't even know she's the other woman.

Beckett. You lied to me for eight years, and now you're lying to some girl who's barely started out in the real world.

Knox's phone buzzes like crazy. He picks up, and his face drops.

"What? Mount Sinai? We're on our way!"

He yanks the wheel around and heads for the hospital.

"What happened?" one of the friends in the back asks.

"Winnie found out he's married, tried to break up with him, grabbed the wheel in the car, they crashed!" Knox curses. "Why's this girl got such a temper?"

The car pulls up outside the ER. Knox drags me along as he runs inside. "Addie, come up with me. If Beckett loses it, you're the one who calms him down."

The hospital room door sits half open, and the sound of a heated argument spills out from inside.

"You lied to me! You said you were single, you said you'd marry me! Beckett, you liar!" Winnie's voice cracks with tears.

Knox pushes the door open. Inside, Winnie sits on the bed, a bandage wrapped around her forehead, her face pale. Beckett stands beside the bed, his collar loose, looking rattled.

"Winnie, calm down. My marriage to Adeline's been dead for years. You're the one I love." Beckett reaches for her hand.

"Don't touch me!" Winnie pulls away, her eyes landing on me as I walk in.

She looks at me, then down at herself, and a bitter smile spreads across her face. "That explains it. That's why you always had me wear white. That's why you kept staring at my profile. Beckett, I'm her replacement, aren't I?"

Beckett's face goes dark. "Winnie, don't start imagining things."

"Imagining things?" Winnie rips the gold chain off her neck, a gemstone pendant hanging from it.

The moment I see that pendant, something in my chest still aches.

Beckett bought that at an auction for my twentieth birthday, paid a fortune for it. He told me he'd take care of me for the rest of my life.

Later, the pendant went missing. He said he'd lost it.

Turns out it ended up around another woman's neck.

"You gave this to me. You said it was the most precious thing you owned!" Winnie's eyes burn with resolve.

"Winnie, put it down!" Beckett's voice turns sharp.

"Take it back!" Winnie hurls the pendant at the floor, and it shatters.

Beckett stares at the pieces on the ground, the corner of his eye twitching hard.

He turns and glares at me. "Happy now, Adeline? You won't rest till everyone's miserable?"

I look at the broken pieces on the floor. It's like looking at eight years of my youth, shattered.

It takes a while, but Beckett finally calms Winnie down. Then he pulls me out of the room, his face set hard.

I watch that patience vanish the instant he turns to me, and I say evenly, "Beckett, let's get a divorce."

Beckett steps up close. "You're threatening me with divorce again? Quit acting so high and mighty. Back when you wanted into the Wexford family, you sold off your own studio without blinking. Now that I've got someone else in my life, suddenly you can't handle it?"

I open my mouth, then meet his eyes, already set with judgment, and swallow the words back down.

I've said the same thing so many times over the years. He's never once believed me.

Forget it.

Beckett's eyes are full of scorn. "You think you can survive without me? That broken little studio of yours runs on my money every month. Walk away with nothing, and how are you gonna feed yourself, let alone your parents?"

"That's not something you need to worry about," I say.

"Good. Great." Beckett grits his teeth. "We'll see how long that attitude lasts."

That's when a nurse screams.

Beckett's face changes instantly. Winnie's gotten hold of the fruit knife off the nightstand somehow, and there's a deep cut across her wrist. The white sheets are turning red, inch by inch.

"Even if it kills me," Winnie says, her face bloodless, staring straight at Beckett, "I'm not gonna be anyone's side piece."

"Winnie!" Beckett lunges at her like a man possessed, pressing down on the wound. "Doctor! Get a doctor in here!"

The room falls into chaos. Knox and the others rush out, shouting for help.

I stand there and watch Beckett, his eyes red, holding onto Winnie, watch him fall apart over another woman.