Chapter 1
In their third year of marriage, Emma’s wedding certificate was accidentally ruined by spilled coffee.
When she went to the county clerk’s office to replace it, the clerk typed a few keystrokes and looked up with a puzzled expression. “Ma’am, your marital status shows as single.”
She froze, certain she’d misheard. “That’s impossible. My husband and I got our license right here three years ago.”
The clerk checked again, her expression growing increasingly awkward. “The system confirms you’re single, but Mr. Chase is listed as married….” She hesitated. “His spouse is registered as another woman–Stella Reed. Do you know
her?”
Emma’s mind exploded with white noise, her ears ringing sharply.
Everyone knew Emma and Dominic Chase had grown up together. She was his first love, the one he’d protected iercely since childhood.
And Stella Reed?
She was the replacement Dominic had found during the two years Emma studied abroad–someone to fill the void
when he missed her too much.
Emma clutched the coffee–stained fake marriage certificate as she numbly got into her car.
Her phone vibrated twice, and Dominic’s message appeared on the screen.
Baby, I ditched a billion–dollar deal, bought your favorite roses and that strawberry cake you love, just so I could ome home early to be with you. I miss you so much. Do you miss me?]
he stared at the message and let out a hollow laugh that quickly dissolved into tears streaming down her cheeks.
or three years, he’d asked her that same question daily, expressing his supposed devotion.
ut all along… he’d been legally married to someone else behind her back.
he remembered when they were children, how Dominic had fallen from a ten–foot tree trying to retrieve her kite, reaking his arm but still smiling as he handed her the kite, saying, “Don’t cry, Em. It doesn’t hurt.”
he remembered her fifteenth birthday, when he stood in the rain outside her house all night just to be the first to rish her happy birthday when she woke up.
he remembered her eighteenth birthday celebration, when he rented an entire amusement park and knelt eneath exploding fireworks, saying, “Emma, when I turn twenty–two, will you marry me?”
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Chapter 1
She remembered when she left to study abroad, how he’d pressed her against the airport wall, his voice trembling. “Two years. I’m only giving you two years, and then I’m coming to bring you back.”
During those two years overseas, he video–called almost daily.
Once when she was too busy with essays to answer for three days, she discovered he’d been hospitalized for alcohol poisoning
Through the screen, his bloodshot eyes pleaded: “Baby, I can’t live without you.”
She always reassured him: “I’ll be home soon. Just wait a little longer.”
The day she returned, she didn’t tell Dominic, wanting to surprise him.
Instead, when she pushed open the door to his private club room, she found him passionately kissing a girl whose profile looked strikingly similar to her own.
Her bag dropped with a thud, and she fled.
Dominic chased after her like a madman. When she wouldn’t answer his calls, he bombarded her with messages.
When she refused to see him, he stood in the rain outside her apartment, explaining over and over.
“It’s not what you think!”
“I missed you so much these years when you wouldn’t let me visit, so I found someone who reminded me of you…
‘I swear, we just hugged and kissed, nothing more!”
‘Emma, I was wrong, but I truly love you to the point of insanity…”
Finally, after he stood in the rain for three days and nights, collapsing with pneumonia and still refusing to leave he hospital, her heart softened, and she forgave him.
Afterward, he treated her just as wonderfully as before.
Until after they married, when she discovered his assistant had been replaced by Stella Reed. That “replacement” he
laimed to have sent away.
He explained again: “Her parents are sick, and they struggled adjusting to the city life. She begged to come back to North Bay…”
‘She applied for my assistant position without my knowledge.”
‘She’s exceptionally qualified and passed all the selection rounds. I can’t just fire her without cause.”
So Emma tolerated it again.
Never imagining that her tolerance would turn her into the butt of a cosmic joke.
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Chapter 1
As her car pulled into their gated community, Emma’s tears had dried.
She took a deep breath, about to push open the front door when she overheard Dominic talking with his friend in
the living room:
“I just came from the hospital. Stella’s fine, just some minor scrapes. You should stay home with Emma, don’t worry.
Dominic lounged on the sofa, his black shirt unbuttoned at the collar, long legs crossed. He frowned and extinguished his friend’s cigarette, his voice low and cold: “How many times have I told you not to smoke in my
house? Emma hates the smell.”
“Tine, fine, you obsessive husband,” his friend teased. “But I really don’t understand–if you love Emma so much, why did you insist on marrying Stella? Honestly, is she more than just a replacement to you?”
The air stilled for several seconds.
Then Dominic’s deep voice broke the silence:
“What if she is?”
“I used to think she was just a stand in until Emma returned. Then I wouldn’t need her anymore.”
“But after sending her away, I dreamed about her almost every night.”
“Eventually I couldn’t stand her not being near me, so I brought her back as my assistant.”
“I can’t live without Emma, but Stella… I can’t let her go either.”
“Emma gets my public devotion, while Stella stays in the shadows with a marriage certificate as compensation. What’s wrong with that?”
His friend sighed. “Aren’t you afraid Emma will find out? With her personality, if she ever discovers this, you could
die at her feet and she’d never look back.”
Dominic fell silent, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed hard. “Then she’ll never find out.”
Emma stood frozen outside the door, feeling her blood turn to ice. She’d expected to break down sobbing, but found
she couldn’t even squeeze out a tear.
So this was what absolute pain felt like–like having your heart carved out while it still beat.
she thought about how Dominic had tenderly kissed her forehead that morning before leaving; how he’d hold her when drunk and murmur, “Baby, I can’t live without you“; how he’d warm her cold hands against his chest, saying his heart beat only for her…
But it was all a lie.
On her way home, she’d even wondered if he had some desperate explanation.
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Chapter 1
Now she knew–he hadn’t chosen between two women. He’d wanted both: one as his public beloved, one as his legal
wife.
Fine!
If Dominic feared her finding out, she’d show him what “never looking back” truly meant.
She turned and left, immediately doing two things…
۵
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