Chapter 1
The first time I heard my husband had another wife, he was lying unconscious in a hospital bed, and his three-year-old son was crying for him.
The second time I heard it, I was listening to a recording that revealed how my husband planned to destroy my life.
But neither of those moments was the worst.
The worst came three weeks later, when I discovered the truth about the little boy.
A truth so horrifying that even my husband’s mistress broke down when she heard it.
And by the time his parents realized what I had uncovered, it was already too late for any of them to escape the consequences.
My name is Jacqueline Ross. I’m thirty-six years old, and for seven years, I believed I was happily married to a man named Alistair Finch.
I was wrong about almost everything.
But there was one thing my husband had never understood about me.
I could forgive someone for breaking my heart. I would never forgive someone for deliberately destroying my life.
And Alistair had been planning something far worse than an affair.
It was almost seven o’clock on a Thursday evening when my office phone rang.
I was reviewing a divorce settlement when my assistant appeared at my door.
“Jacqueline, there’s a hospital on the phone. They say it’s about your husband.”
My stomach tightened.
I took the call immediately.
A woman from St. Mary Care Center informed me that Alistair had been involved in a serious car accident on Interstate 35W.
He had suffered a severe concussion, a fractured wrist, and several other injuries.
He was conscious but confused, and the hospital needed a family member to come immediately.
I barely remember leaving my office.
I grabbed my purse, abandoned my unfinished paperwork, and drove across Minneapolis with my heart pounding so violently that I could feel it in my throat.
Throughout the drive, I imagined the worst.
What if he couldn’t remember me?
What if he never walked again?
What if I had kissed him goodbye that morning without realizing it would be the last time?
I loved Alistair.
Or at least, I loved the man I believed him to be.
When I finally reached the hospital, I hurried toward the intensive care unit.
A nurse intercepted me outside the glass doors.
“Excuse me, ma’am. Who are you here to see?”
“Alistair Finch. I’m his wife.”
She glanced at her clipboard.
Then she looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, but Mr. Finch’s wife and son are already with him.”
For a moment, the entire hospital seemed to fall silent.
“His what?”
May you like
“His wife and son. They’re inside with his parents.”
I stared at her.
