"And who might this be?"

I looked past Edith's scrutinizing gaze and locked eyes with Patrick, whose pupils contracted sharply.

I was curious how he'd answer.

He looked like someone who'd been dragged out of a beautiful dream. The smile that had been playing at the corners of his mouth flattened into a hard line, then dissolved into a resigned sigh.

"My wife. Tracey Galloway."

His tone carried a grim satisfaction, the kind that came from a wound you inflicted on yourself just to hurt someone else.

"You know how it is. Nobody waits around for someone for three years without a safety net. I've got the entire Sanchez family behind me. I couldn't afford to gamble."

Edith was clearly unprepared for that answer. Her fingers twisted into the hem of her clothes, and she forced a smile that looked worse than tears.

"Oh! So you're the little wife. I'm Edith Pruitt. I used to be Patrick's neighbor. You can call me Edith, just like he does."

Something seemed to occur to her, and she added with a coy pout of regret, "Actually, Patrick never really called me by my full name. He always used a nickname. He was such a tease back then."

I couldn't be bothered to dissect the barbs hidden beneath Edith's silk-soft words. Instead, I stared at Patrick in surprise, a warmth rising unbidden in my chest.

I let myself believe it. Pathetically, shamelessly, I let myself believe it. He'd acknowledged me in front of the one that got away. Maybe he did care about me. Maybe today really had been nothing more than a good deed.

Patrick cut through her rambling.

"Don't talk about the past. If I could, I'd rather I'd never met you at all."

Then he turned to me, his voice softening.

"Babe, ignore her. If it weren't for old times' sake, she could drop dead on the side of the road and I wouldn't spare her a glance."

Edith seemed to catch the meaning beneath his words. She assumed he still resented her for disappearing without a word all those years ago. Her small face crumpled with helplessness. She pressed her lips together, said nothing, and quietly slipped into the back seat.

Patrick strode to the driver's side. I turned my head to watch the scenery blur past the window. From the back seat came Edith's bitter, self-mocking laugh.

"Patrick, why am I so pathetic? I threw away the best years of my life for a man who wasn't worth it."

Silence filled the car.

Edith seemed to steel herself. Her gaze burned into the back of Patrick's head, and when she spoke, her voice was solemn.

"The truth is, I came back for someone important. I thought seeing him again would be difficult, but it seems fate had other plans."

Patrick's voice cut through the air, cold as cracked ice.

"Maybe in that person's eyes, your return is nothing but trouble."

Edith's face went white. She stopped talking.

I'd just been savoring a flicker of sweetness over Patrick's loyalty when I noticed his hands on the steering wheel. His knuckles were bone-white, veins standing out like cords.

A heaviness settled over my chest for no reason I could name. Instinctively, I cracked the window open, desperate for a breath of fresh air.

The gap was barely an inch wide before Edith erupted into a violent coughing fit.

Patrick's expression tightened. He shot me a glare and slammed the window shut.

His voice was angrier than I had ever heard it.

"Tracey! You're a nurse, for God's sake. You don't know that a woman who just gave birth can't be exposed to cold air?"

I apologized in a small voice, my heart pierced by a thousand invisible needles.

There was a time when he'd taken my side just like that.

At a family dinner, his half-brother had played a cruel little game with me. The moment I reached for something with my chopsticks, a plate of picked-over leftovers would slide right in front of me, perfectly timed.

Patrick noticed the malice. He flipped the entire table.

In the stunned, fearful silence that followed, he said, ice-cold, "If nobody wants to eat properly, then nobody eats."

After that, no one in the family dared disrespect me again.

I never imagined the next time I'd see that same ferocity, it would be aimed at me, warning me not to mistreat the person he cared about.

Edith suppressed her cough and spoke up gently.

"Patrick, don't talk to her like that. My health has always been fragile. It's not her fault."

As if realizing his tone had been too harsh, a flash of irritation crossed Patrick's face. He lowered his voice in apology.

"Sorry, babe. I'm just in a rush. Is there anything you've had your eye on lately?"

The implication was clear: he'd foot the bill.

When I ignored him, Patrick slammed his foot on the gas. His expression darkened like a storm cloud.

His voice turned cold. "I'm taking you to the hospital first, so you can't try to pin anything on my wife."

Patrick swerved between lanes again and again, cutting off cars and nearly causing a collision. Edith's already pale face went a shade whiter.

Afraid he'd cause an accident, I spoke up quickly. "Slow down. You're going to get us killed."

Patrick didn't hear me. The car wove through traffic like a bolt of lightning.

Edith gripped her seatbelt with white knuckles, her voice trembling on the edge of tears. "Patrick, please stop. I'm scared."

The car slowed immediately.

And my heart sank right along with the speedometer.

The same request. He only ever heard it when it came from her.

My throat tightened as I watched the faint smile tugging at the corner of Patrick's mouth. Something in my gut told me he didn't actually dislike Edith. Not even close.

In the end, Patrick dropped me on the side of the road and took Edith to her checkup alone.

His reasoning: Edith had just cleared her name of being the other woman. Exposing his real relationship with me right now would undo all of that. I'd just have to bear with it for a while.

Edith settled into the passenger seat, all soft and delicate, and clenched her fist over her heart like she was making a solemn vow. "Don't worry, sweetie. I'll keep an eye on him for you. I won't let any other woman swoop in while you're apart."

Standing outside the car, I didn't bother looking at the way her fingers kept drifting over the silver ring Patrick had put on her finger, that seemingly absent-minded caress. My eyes were fixed on Patrick.

"Do you even remember what you promised me today?"

Patrick looked at me with that indulgent, helpless expression, like he was coaxing a child who'd been denied candy.

"Edith's reputation is what matters right now. Can you just cut me some slack? Please?"

Every single word dripped with indifference toward me and unmistakable devotion toward Edith.

And the worst part was that he thought this was perfectly normal. He even thought I was the one being unreasonable.

When Edith noticed the tension crackling between Patrick and me, she pushed open the car door and forced a smile. "Patrick, maybe you should pay more attention to how she feels. I can always hold another press conference and come clean about my mistakes to the public."

She paused, her voice going thin. "I've already been through one failed relationship. I don't want you to end up the same way because of me."

Watching her spiral into self-deprecation, a layer of frost settled over Patrick's face. But the raw ache in his eyes betrayed exactly how he really felt.

All those tangled emotions finally condensed into a single, desperate question.

"Do you really have to leave me?"

Edith glanced at me nervously, gauging my reaction, and then, under Patrick's insistence, reluctantly climbed back into the passenger seat.

Patrick turned to me. His voice was laced with ice.

"Don't make me regret choosing you."

I stared at him in disbelief. This was who he really was.

It felt like someone had torn a gash straight through my chest, and the cold wind was howling right through it.

Then came his final verdict: the public announcement of our marriage would be postponed. A punishment.

"I want you to use this time, while I'm taking care of Edith, to think long and hard about what you've done wrong. When you figure it out, come find me."

I stood there, numb, watching Patrick pull a blanket from the back seat and drape it over Edith with the tenderness of a man cradling something precious he thought he'd lost forever.

He hit the gas and disappeared down the road, swallowed by the blur of my stinging eyes.

For a long time, I just stood there. Then, with trembling hands, I pulled out my phone and sent Patrick a message.

I told you before we got married: I don't share. It's me or Edith. You can only pick one.

The message sank like a stone. Patrick didn't reply all night.

My marriage to Patrick started three years ago at an alumni mixer.

Back then, I'd seen enough of the ugly side of human nature working in obstetrics. I had zero interest in finding a partner. But the organizer happened to be a close friend of mine, and she badgered me relentlessly until I caved.

The moment I stepped into the private room, my eyes landed on Patrick. He radiated an aura that practically screamed stay away. My friend nudged me, eyebrows waggling, and pulled me aside to gossip.

He was a year ahead of us in school, now the CEO of Sanchez Group. Not only was he devastatingly handsome, but his romantic history was a complete blank slate. A prime catch by every measure.

I didn't take the bait. My gut told me the more captivating the man, the more dangerous he was.

The night the mixer ended, a friend request popped up on my phone. Patrick Sanchez.

The instant I accepted, he sent me a location pin for the county clerk's office and a time.

"Hello. Would you be willing to enter a secret marriage with me?"

My fingertip froze in midair, trembling. I didn't dare move, convinced I was dreaming.

It turned out Patrick's grandfather was on his deathbed. The old man's only dying wish was to see his grandson married before he passed. That was why Patrick had suddenly shown up at the alumni mixer.

His reason for choosing me was simple. I was in medicine, out the door before dawn and home after dark. We'd barely cross paths. And since I'd already grown numb to the world's cruelties at the hospital, he assumed I wouldn't be interested in romance.

It felt like someone had thrown a bucket of ice water in my face. I was about to refuse when another message came through.

"I know a secret marriage isn't fair to you. I'll give you a divorce agreement with the date left blank. The moment you want out, I'll sign. And for every year the marriage lasts, five million dollars will be deposited into your account."

When I thought about how I could work my entire life and never earn five million, yet all I had to do was marry a handsome, restrained man for one year to get it, I was ashamed to admit my heart wavered.

In the second year of our marriage, our relationship shifted. We went from two strangers coexisting under the same roof to exchanging small daily check-ins, casual concern, quiet warmth.

Then one night, he came home drunk from a business dinner. The second he walked through the door, he pinned me beneath him and murmured Edith's name, his voice thick with longing.

My heart lurched. Instinctively, I wrapped my arms around him. But the moment our lips touched, I remembered: he had someone else. The one that got away. The woman he'd never stopped wanting.

I shoved him off. Hard. And I laid it all out before things went any further.

I didn't share. Not ever. If anything happened between us tonight, then from this point on, I had to be the only woman in his heart.

Patrick clung to me, stealing kisses between sloppy, mumbled agreements.

As time went on, I started pressing him. When are we going public?

To prove I was serious, I tore up the divorce agreement right in front of him and made a vow: As long as you don't leave, I won't either.

Looking back now, that unreadable flicker in his eyes must have been pity. Or mockery. He'd been laughing at me for reading too much into us.

I gagged as I canceled the couples' trip to the Maldives—flights, hotel, all of it.

The first year, we had no feelings for each other, so there was no anniversary trip.

The second year, things between us had gotten visibly better. With his quiet approval, I'd planned every detail of the vacation. Researched restaurants, mapped out itineraries, bookmarked sunset spots.

But a phone call came right before boarding. Patrick left and never came back.

That day, every headline was buzzing about how Patrick Sanchez had lost his mind—how he'd ignored everyone trying to stop him, ordered the artificial lake in the city center drained, and then jumped in himself to fish something out.

The third year, I planned to go public with our relationship first, then take the trip.

But fate had another cruel joke waiting for me.

It wasn't until I saw Patrick bring up the past with my own eyes that I finally understood. I was the fool. The complete and utter fool.

In Patrick's heart, Edith would always come first.

All she had to do was stand there, and I'd already lost.