Chapter 1

My husband set a monthly quota of twelve for his mistress.

Twelve nights a month. That was the deal he'd made with his kept woman.

This month he'd been too busy. He'd only managed eleven.

So the girl had thrown a fit. She spent the whole day crying, refusing to eat or drink.

And Julian Sterling, in order to pacify his little songbird, came begging to me. His wife. The original one.

"Baby, just tell her for me. Just tell her I didn't sleep with you this month. One sentence. That's all I'm asking."

He wasn't wrong about that part. There hadn't been anything between us in years.

Three years ago, when he first cheated on me, something inside me broke. I developed a physical reaction to him. If he touched me, my chest would seize up and I couldn't breathe. He'd tried a few times in the beginning. Each time ended with paramedics and an oxygen mask.

After that, he stopped trying. But he still told me, every chance he got, that I was the love of his life.

He just also never stopped cheating.

I picked up the phone and called the girl. My voice was calm.

"Julian has belonged to you, and only you, for a long time now. That's never going to change."

When I hung up, Julian thought I was jealous. He tried to soothe me.

"You're still in my heart. You always will be."

But I don't want you anymore, Julian. We've been living in separate wings for almost two years. The court is going to grant our divorce.

He didn't know that yet.

The girl wasn't placated. She didn't believe a word of it. She sent him back out of her apartment like a scolded dog.

Julian came home defeated, at a loss for what to do, and started working on me again.

I asked him directly, "Julian. What do you want me to do?"

He saw I was calm. No anger in my voice. So he laid it all out without a second thought.

"Let a doctor examine you. There are specialists for this kind of thing. Don't worry, I'll get a female doctor. A full exam. They can tell whether a woman has been intimate recently."

He paused. His voice softened, the way you'd talk to a child.

"She's got this one idea stuck in her head. This is the only way she'll believe me. Don't hold it against her."

He reached out, his eyes going tender, as if to stroke my hair.

"You're always the reasonable one. Not like her, making a scene over nothing."

Something in my stomach turned. I recoiled before I could stop myself, backing away from him until there was real distance between us.

My chest was tight. That suffocating pressure came back in waves.

I'd been done with him for a long time. Emotionally, I'd checked out years ago. But this—asking this of me, for her sake—this was a kind of cruelty I hadn't seen coming.

The way I flinched from him used to wound him deeply. In the early days. But he'd grown used to it over the years. Now he just stepped back to give me space, almost considerate.

He spoke gently. "Think of it as a routine physical. Don't make it into something."

The nausea climbed higher in my throat. I pressed a hand to my chest and let out a bitter laugh.

"Julian. You've gone too far."

"Just give me the mercy of a divorce and be done with it."

I lost my temper with him. Something I rarely did.

He knew he was in the wrong. He didn't push. His voice went soft and coaxing.

"Don't say things you don't mean. You've always been the most important person in my life. Just... calm down for a bit."

It was always the same line. Always. I'm the most important one. While he climbed into her bed over and over again.

He had money. He had power. He had a name that opened every door in Manhattan. He genuinely believed I would tolerate a three-way marriage indefinitely.

After all, I'd fought my way through a phalanx of his admirers to become Mrs. Sterling. He was convinced I'd never walk away from the life he'd given me.

What Cinderella ever wants to leave the castle?

What he didn't know was that this particular Cinderella had been quietly building her own escape fund. I had more than enough to never need him again.

His phone started buzzing. A specific ringtone—one he'd set just for her. The song was called The One.

Even with me standing there, mid-argument, he picked up.

I could hear her on the other end, sobbing.

"Julian! I've been with you since I was eighteen! You're a liar! You owe me this! You promised me twelve a month. You promised you wouldn't touch her. That was the deal. That's why I agreed to be your kept little songbird."

"You're a fraud. We're done. I'm not giving you another chance to hurt me."