"Your mother was the other woman. So what does that make you?"
Adam Sanchez slid the custom ring onto my finger, then asked me that out of nowhere.
I stared at him, stunned. "Adam, what are you talking about?"
"It makes you the other woman too, babe."
I didn't understand. His expression was dead serious. "I want you to become my secret lover."
"There's a new secretary at the company. She's sharp, she's beautiful, and I want to marry her."
"Then what am I?"
He arranged his face into something resembling regret. "Your mother knew she was a mistress and chose to be one anyway. Why can't you?"
——
It took me a long time to speak. "My mother is my mother. I'm me. I won't be anyone's mistress."
"Is that so?"
He let out a mocking laugh. "Then we're done."
"Fine. Done is done." I had sworn to myself a long time ago that I would never be the other woman. Not in this lifetime.
But Adam didn't know that.
He reached over and stroked my hair, gentle as ever. "Don't be silly. Stop throwing a fit. Without me, how would you even survive?"
"Your mother was cyberbullied until she killed herself. Your father won't even acknowledge you. I'm the only reason nobody dares laugh at you."
I let out a quiet laugh. Who said he was the only reason nobody dared laugh at me?
I had an aunt. Aunt Caroline. Her business had grown enormous, and overseas, she answered to no one.
Last week she'd tracked me down and asked if I wanted to go abroad with her.
I'd said no because I couldn't bear to leave Adam.
Now...
I pulled out my phone and sent Aunt Caroline a message.
Auntie, I've made up my mind. I'll go with you.
She replied instantly: Wonderful. I'll send a private jet for you in three days.
It should have been good news. But the tears slid down my face before I could stop them.
My chest ached, a sharp, venomous sting, like something poisonous had sunk its teeth in.
I had been planning to tell Adam about Aunt Caroline as a surprise.
There was no point now.
Adam saw me crying and assumed I couldn't bear to lose him. He reached over and wiped my tears with his thumb. "See? The second I mention breaking up, you're in tears. If I ever actually left you, you'd probably fall apart completely."
"Throwing tantrums with me won't get you anywhere. The only way you don't end up alone again is if you keep doing as I say."
I sniffled and said nothing.
Adam took my silence as surrender. He turned the key in the ignition, then stopped halfway.
"Oh, right. Starting today, when you ride in my car, you sit in the back. She told me the passenger seat is hers and hers alone from now on. I gave her my word, and I'm not going to break it."
He turned to look at me. "You know me. I've always been a man of my word. I promised to take care of you for the rest of your life, and even though I'm marrying someone else, I'll still take care of you."
A smile spread across his face. "You probably don't know this yet, but in three days, she and I are going to register our marriage. I had to beg her for ages before she finally agreed. I can't afford to upset her again. She's not easy to coax like you are. She says she's a red rose, and if you love the flower, you have to accept the thorns."
Adam was lost in his sweetness with her. But I felt as though those thorns had pierced me instead. A sharp, stinging pain shot through my palm.
I looked down. When I'd been unbuckling my seatbelt, my hand had caught on an earring left on the seat. Its pointed back had broken the skin.
I opened my palm. Blood was already pooling.
Adam saw it too. His voice spiked. "How could you be so careless?"
For a split second I thought he was worried about me. I was about to say it was nothing, that this tiny pain was less than a fraction of what I felt inside.
Then his next words sent me plummeting.
"That's her earring. She's a germaphobe. If she finds out her favorite earring got stained with your blood, she'll be furious."
