Chapter 1

Oscar winner Adrian Pierce announced his divorce at midnight.

Hours later, his ex-wife ended a ten-thousand-word farewell with one line for me:

Claire Sutton, you won. Adrian is yours.

By breakfast, half the internet wanted to know why I'd destroyed their marriage.

I wanted to know, too.

After all, I'd been secretly married for eight years.

Why would I want her ex-husband?

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Adrian's statement went up after midnight. I saw it over coffee the next morning.

The news had held the top trending spot for ten hours. Everyone had a theory about why an Oscar-winning actor and his wife of six years had split. Some of Adrian's fans came straight to my page for answers.

Adrian and I had worked together several times. His breakout film—the one that won him his Oscar—had included both of us, though we led different story lines. Publicists had promoted us as friends, and fans liked to say he looked at me as if the cameras had caught something real.

They hadn't.

We were colleagues. Friendly ones, on a good day.

That morning, an entertainment host asked me about the divorce anyway.

"What do you think about Adrian Pierce being single again?"

"I'm watching the drama from my couch like everyone else."

She smiled as if I'd invited the next question. "People have shipped you two for years. Is there any chance you'll date now?"

"None."

"None?"

"Adrian and I are friends. That's all."

The clip went online before lunch. Fans flooded the comments.

Finally, he's free.

Claire only said no because the divorce is fresh.

Friends can become lovers.

I rubbed my temple. Adrian and I had played a couple exactly once, and those characters had broken up before the credits. Somehow, that had produced years of shipping edits.

I finished my coffee and moved on.

Then Vanessa Reed posted her farewell to her marriage.