Chapter 2

"I was afraid you'd still be upset and wouldn't come," Lila said, hooking her arm through mine before I could step away.

"Please don't hold that day at the hospital against my guards. I was eight months along, and he got a little overprotective. Come inside. Meet my friends. Let's start over."

She pulled me through the sliding door and into the glare of the chandelier.

"Everyone, look who I found!"

The chatter died.

Hale, Jesse, and Rory turned at the same time. The smiles slid off their faces, and what was left was pale and stiff, like people caught somewhere they couldn't explain.

"This is Rory, my best friend," Lila said, beaming, completely unaware of the silence. "She's a psychologist. She got me through the whole pregnancy. You two must know each other from the hospital?"

Rory's eyes flicked to Hale before she gave me a tight little nod.

"Dr. Marrick."

She said my name like a stranger's, and for a second I wondered if I'd imagined the whole thing.

But I hadn't. Two nights ago, we'd been sitting on my living room floor, splitting a bottle of bourbon.

Lila then steered me toward my brother.

"And this is Jesse. We go all the way back to college. He's the one who wrote up the complaint to the hospital board. I told him he went way overboard, but that's lawyers for you. No hard feelings, okay?"

Jesse swallowed. He looked like he wanted the floor to open up.

"Sis..." It came out barely above a whisper. The music drowned it, and Lila didn't hear.

Then she slipped into Hale's side and laid her hand on his chest.

"And this is my husband—"

"Hale Corbin," I said. "He owns this house."

I smiled at her and ignored the warning in Hale's eyes.

Lila blinked, looking between us. "How did you know that? Do you two know each other?"

I laughed.

"Know each other? He's my fiancé. We've been together seven years. The wedding is next month."

I looked around at the glass walls, the stone fireplace, the view I used to love.

"He gave me this house for my thirtieth birthday. Six months ago, he told me the hospital expansion had stalled and he needed the property as collateral or the whole deal would fall apart. So I signed the deed back to him."

I turned to Lila. "I guess that never came up."

Her eyes filled instantly.

"Dr. Marrick, why would you say something so cruel?"

She looked up at Hale. "We had our ceremony a year ago. On the beach. How can you be engaged to her?"

For the first time all night, panic cracked through Hale's composure. But he didn't look at me. He turned all the way toward Lila.

"Lila, sweetheart, listen to me. I can explain—"

That did it. The man who'd left me on the side of the highway an hour ago for not trusting him was now begging another woman to trust him.

Whatever was still alive in my chest stopped right there.

I kept going. I didn't care what burned down with it.

"He has a scar along his left ribs. Four years ago, he came out to my field hospital in Kandahar for a two-week rotation. The compound was shelled, and he took shrapnel covering me. The St. Luke medal he wears every day? I had it engraved for him when he got home. You're not his wife, Lila. You're the woman he's been hiding."

"Wren, that's enough!"

All three of them said it at once.

Hale pulled Lila behind him. His face had gone hard and cold.

"She didn't know anything. You want to be angry, be angry at me. But you don't talk to her like that."

Rory stepped forward. "Let it go, Wren. What he has with Lila is real. Can't you see that?"

And then Jesse, my little brother, finally found his voice. He used it to protect the woman who'd replaced me.

"Just go home, Wren. Lila almost died giving birth to that baby. Whatever you say tonight, you're not breaking up their family."

Every word landed like a fist. My eyes burned, and I could barely see them through the tears I refused to let fall. These three people had been my whole world.

"So all of you were in on it?" My voice cracked and climbed.

"You turned a routine IV into a malpractice complaint. You let her guard break my hand so she could play the victim and get me out of the hospital. She's a liar, and every one of you helped her!"

Rory grabbed a glass off the bar and threw it in my face.

The whiskey hit my eyes and stung like fire. It soaked my hair and ran down my neck into my collar.

"Wake up, Wren." Rory set the empty glass down. "The only one who got thrown away here is you."