After her miscarriage, Elise Emery became exactly the wife Colsen Locke had always wanted: she stopped asking where he had been, stopped crying when he chose another woman, and stopped expecting him to come when she needed him.

Chapter 1

Seven days after being arrested for something she hadn’t done, Elise walked through the iron gate of a downtown Boston precinct wearing the same cream sweater she had worn when police brought her in. It hung loosely from her shoulders now. She had lost weight during the week, though she doubted anyone at home had noticed she was missing.

A black Mercedes sedan jerked to the curb. The rear door opened before the driver could get out, and Colsen Locke emerged in a charcoal suit that probably cost more than most people’s monthly mortgage. At thirty-eight, he still carried himself with the cold confidence of a man accustomed to boardrooms going silent when he entered.

“Elise.”

She stopped.

Colsen came toward her, irritation and concern warring across his face. “Why didn’t you call me?”

Elise studied him for a moment. “Would you have answered?”

Seven days earlier, an elderly man had collapsed in front of her car near Beacon Hill. The moment Elise stepped out to help, he grabbed her wrist and shouted that she had struck him. A witness called police, the man insisted she had tried to flee, and before security footage could be located, Elise had been taken into custody.

She could have made bail immediately if someone had come for her.

The police found her husband’s number.

They called repeatedly.

His phone had been turned off.

Now Colsen’s jaw tightened. “Bella got sick that night. I took her to Massachusetts General. She had severe stomach pain, and she hates phones going off when she’s scared, so I shut mine down.”

Bella Kirk.

Even hearing the name used to feel like a blade slipping beneath Elise’s ribs.

Now it felt like hearing the weather report.

“I see,” she said.

Colsen frowned. “That’s it?”

“What else would you like me to say?”

“You were in jail for seven days.”

“Yes.”

“And you’re not angry?”

Elise almost smiled. “You explained why you didn’t answer.”

His expression changed. Her calmness disturbed him more than any accusation ever had.

Before, Elise would have demanded to know why Bella needed him at midnight. She would have reminded him that Bella was his former fiancée, not his wife. She would have cried, argued, pleaded, and finally apologized for making him uncomfortable.

Colsen had spent five years telling her she was too emotional.

Now she gave him what he had always asked for.

Silence.

“I’m tired,” Elise said. “I want to go home.”

Inside the car, she sat beside the window watching Boston slide past in streaks of evening light. Colsen sat several feet away, but she never once turned toward him.

He remembered how she used to fill every drive with conversation. She would tell him about a difficult client at the architectural firm, a funny thing she had overheard at lunch, a building she wanted to see, a restaurant she hoped they might try. Even when he answered with little more than a grunt, she kept talking because simply being near him made her happy.

Tonight, she seemed perfectly content to pretend he wasn’t there.

Finally he said, “You’ve changed.”

Elise looked at him.

“Have I?”

“Yes.”

Her gaze remained calm. “Maybe people are different when they stop loving someone.”

Colsen stared at her.

Before he could answer, his phone rang.

Bella.

He hesitated, then answered.

Her voice was loud enough that Elise could hear every word. “Colsen, where are you? I went shopping on Newbury Street and bought way too much. Come pick me up.”

Colsen glanced toward Elise.

She was looking out the window.

“Bella, call a car.”

“You always come when I ask.”

“That was before.”

“Before what?”

“Before I was married.”

Bella laughed. “You’ve been married five years. That never stopped you before.”

Colsen’s expression darkened.

“Don’t start.”

“Fine. I’ll ask Owen to come. He’s been begging to take me out anyway.”

The change in Colsen was immediate. His fingers tightened around the phone.

“Stay there.”

He hung up.

For several seconds he said nothing.

Then he turned toward Elise. “I’ll take you home first.”

She was already leaning forward.

“Pull over.”

“What?”

“I’ll take a cab.”

“Elise—”

“Go get Bella.”

The chauffeur pulled to the curb. Elise opened the door before Colsen could stop her.

He followed her onto the sidewalk and grabbed her wrist.

“There’s nothing between us anymore.”

Elise looked down at his hand until he released her.

“I know.”

“Our families have known each other forever. I can’t just abandon her.”

“I understand.”

There was no sarcasm in her voice.

That made him angrier.

“You keep saying that.”

“Because I do understand.” Elise raised a hand, and a passing cab slowed. “You don’t need to explain yourself to me anymore.”

She climbed inside.

Colsen stood on the curb watching the cab disappear into traffic.

Ten minutes later, Elise’s phone rang.

“Ms. Emery?” her company’s human-resources director said. “I have good news. Your transfer to our Geneva office was approved. They want you there next month.”

Elise closed her eyes.

For the first time in weeks, she felt something close to relief.

“There’s one concern,” the woman continued. “This is an indefinite placement. Have you discussed it with your husband?”

“I won’t have a husband by then.”

Silence.

“Elise?”

“I filed for divorce three months ago.”

“You did?”

“The court should finalize it any day.”

“But you loved him.”

“I did.”

Everyone knew that.

Elise had loved Colsen since she was nineteen, when she first saw him giving a speech at a university scholarship ceremony. He had been brilliant, wealthy, impossible to approach, and hopelessly devoted to Bella Kirk.

Bella had been his childhood sweetheart.

She had also left him at the altar nine times.

The ninth time, she called from Paris the night before the wedding and told him she still wanted to travel, date, and “find herself.”

Colsen finally stopped chasing her.

His family persuaded him to date other women.

Elise managed to arrange an introduction.

Knowing his weakness, she wore a pale blue dress almost identical to one Bella had once worn.

Colsen stared at her for a long time.

Then he said, “Marry me.”

Elise knew exactly whom he had seen when he looked at her.

And she said yes anyway.

Five years followed.

He gave her a beautiful home, expensive clothes, jewelry, cars, and impeccable public respect.

What he never gave her was his heart.

Sometimes, when Elise wore her hair the way Bella did or chose a perfume Bella favored, Colsen would pull her close with an intensity that made Elise believe she had finally reached him.

Then he would whisper Bella’s name.

Elise pretended not to hear.

She might have continued pretending forever if Bella had not returned while Elise was three months pregnant.

The day everything ended, Elise had been standing in the foyer of their home when sudden pain tore through her abdomen. She reached for her phone, intending to call an ambulance.

Bella appeared at the front door.

“So you’re Elise.”

“Not now,” Elise whispered. “Please.”

Bella blocked her way.

“I heard you took excellent care of my place while I was gone.”

Elise tried to move around her.

Bella grabbed her.

Elise pulled free.

Bella stumbled backward and struck the edge of a console table. Blood appeared along her temple just as Colsen entered the house.

He saw Bella bleeding.

He saw Elise standing over her.

And he made his choice.

Colsen locked Elise in an upstairs bedroom while he rushed Bella to the emergency room.

Elise pounded on the door until her hands bruised.

“Colsen! Please! Something’s wrong with the baby!”

No one came.

Eventually she collapsed onto the floor.

When she woke in the hospital, the child she had already begun talking to every night was gone.

Colsen sat beside her bed.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “But Bella has a bleeding disorder. When I saw the blood, I panicked.”

Elise stared at him.

“We can try again,” he continued. “When you’re better.”

She began to laugh.

Then she cried.

“How do we try again for that baby?”

Colsen had no answer.

That was the last time Elise begged him for anything.

Now, sitting in the cab three months later, she touched the faint scar on her wrist where the hospital bracelet had rubbed her skin.

“I don’t love him anymore,” she told the woman from human resources.

When she arrived home, Bella was standing in Elise’s foyer.

She had one hand buried in the white fur of Snowy, the Samoyed she and Colsen had adopted years before.

Bella smiled.

“Funny, isn’t it? After all these years, Snowy still knows who her real family is.”

Elise walked past her.

Behind her, Bella’s smile vanished.

Minutes later, Bella followed Elise upstairs.

She whistled for Snowy, pointed toward Elise, and snapped her fingers.

“Get her.”

At first the dog hesitated.

Bella urged it forward.

Snowy lunged.

Its teeth sank into Elise’s calf.

She cried out and grabbed the dresser for support.

Bella smiled.

“You took care of him for five years, and even the dog still chooses me.”

Elise looked down at the blood running toward her ankle.

Then she raised her eyes.

“You forgot about the cameras.”

Bella froze.

“The halls, stairs, and common rooms are recorded twenty-four hours a day.”

Elise opened her bedroom door.

“If you want Colsen to see tonight’s footage, keep bothering me.”

She shut the door in Bella’s face.

Hours later, Elise woke choking.

Smoke had filled the room.

She opened the door and saw flames racing along the hallway.

Then, through the smoke, she saw Colsen running toward her.

For one foolish heartbeat, she thought he had finally come for her.

She stretched out her hand.

“Colsen…”

He ran directly past.

Snowy was trapped near the far wall.

Colsen scooped the dog into his arms and disappeared down the stairs.

Elise stared after him as fire swallowed the hall between them.

Then she understood something with perfect clarity.

If she waited for Colsen Locke to choose her, she was going to die.