My best friend had a thing for matchmaking.
To broadcast her love story with the richest man in the city, she paired everything in their house: toothbrushes, slippers, you name it. And now, apparently, I was the next item on her list.
"It's called a power couple! My assistant and my boyfriend's right-hand man. A match made in heaven!"
In my previous life, that absurd setup had forced Stan Delgado into marrying me.
For three years after the wedding, he treated me like a queen. He doted on me, spoiled me rotten, and made me believe I'd actually married for love.
Then came the day I went into labor at ten months, hemorrhaging on the delivery table, begging him to come to the hospital and sign the surgical consent form.
On the other end of the line, he laughed. A cold, contemptuous laugh.
"A beggar's bastard? You think that's worth my signature?"
My blood ran cold as he dismantled three years of marriage, word by word:
"Weren't you the one who went along with your little friend's matchmaking game? Annette and I are the real match. As for someone like you, you belong in the gutter with the rest of the trash."
On our wedding night, the man who'd shared my bed was a homeless stranger. Stan had spent three years weaving a web of lies, all to destroy me for Annette Simmons's sake.
I closed my eyes on that operating table, filled with despair and hatred.
When I opened them again, I was back. Right here. The exact day my best friend had insisted on playing matchmaker.
...
Leona Fox was chattering away beside me.
"Jade Kaufman, what do you think of Clyde's executive assistant, Stan Delgado?"
"He's Clyde's most trusted man. Gorgeous, too. You two would be absolutely perfect together!"
I stared at the scene before me, nails digging into my palms until the skin broke.
The sharp sting confirmed it. I was really alive again.
In my last life, Leona had been so eager to show off her relationship with Clyde Henson that she'd dragged me into this ridiculous "power couple" scheme.
Out of respect for years of friendship, I'd gone along with it. Let myself be talked into giving Stan a chance.
Stan was a master of disguise.
He'd played the perfect gentleman, attentive to my every need, thoughtful in every way.
Three years of marriage, and he'd been nothing but devoted. I'd genuinely believed I was a happy woman.
It took bleeding out on an operating table to hear what he really thought of my child.
To finally understand that the man in my bed on our wedding night had been a stranger off the street.
Nausea surged through me. I shoved away the photo Leona was holding out.
"Not interested."
Leona froze.
"Jade, you usually go along with everything I say. Stan's really great, I promise."
I looked her dead in the eye.
"You love matching things so much, go to a pet store and pair up some dogs."
"I refuse to be a prop in your little love story."
Leona's face turned crimson. Beside her, Clyde Henson frowned.
"Jade, Leona meant well."
I grabbed my bag and headed for the door.
"Her good intentions are more than I can afford."
I pushed open the private room door and walked straight into a man.
That scent. Stan's scent.
In my last life, those were the very eyes that had deceived me for three long years.
"Miss Kaufman, leaving so soon?"
His voice was low, almost intimate. My body moved before my mind could catch up, stepping back to put distance between us.
"Move."
Stan Delgado raised an eyebrow, clearly not expecting that kind of reception.
He stepped closer, dropping his voice.
"Miss Kaufman seems to have quite the grudge against me."
"Have we met before?"
I lifted my chin.
"No. But I don't like the look of you."
Stan let out a quiet laugh.
"Speaks her mind. I like that."
"Still, Mr. Henson and Miss Fox arranged this out of kindness. Turning them down so bluntly seems a bit... ungracious, don't you think?"
The corner of my mouth curled.
"My dignity isn't theirs to trample."
I stepped around him and walked out without looking back.
Behind me, Stan Delgado's gaze followed my every step.
