"Sorry I'm late."
The sweet voice landed just as the door swung open.
Jane Henson.
This time, both men didn't just turn their heads. They stood up.
"Jane, what are you doing here?"
Dennis rose and walked to Jane's side, wrapping his arm around her waist without an ounce of shame.
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Mick's fist clenching tight.
"I was worried about you..."
"And this is a major life event. I figured I should be here with you."
Halfway through her little speech, Jane turned to look at me.
I smiled faintly, lowered my gaze, and twisted the ring on my finger, pretending I hadn't noticed.
"A mistress clawing her way to the top with this kind of Oscar-worthy performance. Who's the audience supposed to be?"
"When Dennis dies, who knows whose body will be lying next to his."
The moment those words left my mouth, Dennis's eyes went dark, every trace of his smile wiped clean.
"Sarah, watch your mouth."
"I know you can't bear to divorce me. That's why you've dragged this out for two years."
"What, having second thoughts now that we're at the finish line?"
I let out a cold laugh and lifted my gaze to Jane, who stood there wearing her best wounded expression.
"Not this time."
"Dennis, you used to hound me about my first love, remember?"
"Well. He's sitting right in front of you."
I looked toward Mick, one seat away from me.
"You're Sarah's first love?"
"The one she dated for four years? The one who made a whole scene when they broke up?"
Dennis spoke rapidly, his stare fixed on Mick turning strange and sharp.
There was something bitter threaded through every word. Something that tasted like losing.
Mick's spine went rigid. He glanced at me, confused.
I shrugged with a small smile. "Five years of marriage, and you were a thorn in his side the entire time."
"But I kept my mouth shut. He spent five years digging and never found a thing."
Mick raised his eyes slightly, his gaze flicking to Jane for a fraction of a second.
Then he nodded. "A pleasure, Mr. Whitney."
Dennis's face turned ugly. His eyes darted between me and Mick, back and forth, searching.
"Stop looking. You won't find anything."
"Just sign the papers. Don't keep your true love stuck as a dirty little secret forever."
I leaned forward and took the documents from Mick's hands. A thick stack. I signed every page without stopping.
Two years of legal warfare with Dennis. Three, maybe five rounds of mediation.
Every single time, right at the end, I'd backed out.
Not because I loved Dennis. Because I refused to lose to a woman like Jane Henson.
The first time I saw Jane was in Dennis's office.
She'd just graduated, looking for a job.
A clean, high ponytail. A plaid button-down. Canvas sneakers. Youth radiating off her like a glow.
The moment I laid eyes on her, I thought of Mick.
Freshman-year Mick had that same unpolished look, as if he'd wandered into Ashford from some other world entirely.
And I'd fallen for him anyway. Hopelessly, recklessly. Chased him for three solid months.
In the end, he agreed with a scowl. "Sarah, you're like a bandage I can't peel off. You're exhausting."
"Sarah, one year. We date for one year, and then we break up."
We lasted four.
I was the one who ended it. The night before graduation, the day before his birthday.
Mick knelt in the rain and begged me the entire night. I stayed in my dorm upstairs and never went down.
The whole campus talked about how heartless I was. How the rich girl had played Mick Sanchez like a toy and kicked him to the curb when she got bored.
After the breakup, I never saw Mick again.
