He Framed Me to Save His Mistress,Until I Exposed Everything on Live TV

Before the wedding could begin, the groom, Clive Sanchez, was hauled away for questioning. He'd raped his widowed sister-in-law.

I gathered up my wedding gown and rushed after him, desperate to explain, but he stopped me.

"I turned myself in."

"Jade's pregnant. Mom and Dad still hate her for running off with my brother, and they won't accept the child. Her family went to the police to force the Sanchezs' hand."

"I have to marry her. It's the only way to protect my brother's child, and to keep people from talking about them."

He took out the wedding ring and slid it onto my finger.

"You'll have to bear with being my mistress for a little while. Wait nineteen years for me. Once the child is grown, I'll come back to you."

He couldn't stand to see them whispered about, yet he could stand to see me branded the other woman.

Nineteen years. He said it as lightly as nineteen minutes.

"The wedding physical came back. You're pregnant. It's bad timing, so I've arranged the abortion. You'll go right after the ceremony."

The ache in my chest went cold all at once.

In that moment, I came fully awake.

The police car pulled away and disappeared. I worked the ring off my finger, dropped it on the ground, and ground my heel into it.

You thought you could bind me with this. Clive Sanchez, you think far too much of yourself.

…

I made two calls.

The first to my assistant: halt every deal with the Sanchezs. Without my backing, the company would seize up in no time, and Clive would lose everything.

The second to the housekeeper, going down the list of everything in the house that held a memory.

The wall art Clive and I had painted together. The matching pajamas we'd picked out. The couple dolls we'd made in each other's likeness…

At my word, all of it went into the fire.

Watching the flames churn on the screen, I went on. "Pack up Clive's and Jade Jennings's things. Send them back to the Sanchez estate."

I paused, then added, "Leave the throw."

Two months ago, Jade had come back with news of Clive's older brother's death. The Sanchezs wouldn't take her in, her own parents wanted nothing to do with her, and when she had nowhere left to go, I was the one who took her in and let her stay in the wedding home that was in my name.

If Clive meant to marry her, I'd see to it the family welcomed them properly.

"Yesterday, Miss Jennings had morning sickness…" The housekeeper faltered. "Mr. Sanchez used the throw to clean her up, and then he threw it out…"

A sharp pain drove straight through my chest, and my breath caught.

That blanket. I'd stayed up a whole month of nights knitting it by hand.

Clive's skin took offense to so much. Leave him too long against the wrong fabric and it would turn red and itch, until even his chest went tight on him. And of course he loved to curl up on the couch to work. So I'd knitted him a throw, stitch by stitch, soft enough that it would never touch him wrong.

It was the first thing I'd ever learned to knit. Every mistake, I unraveled and started over. Dozens of times. By the time it was finally done, something in my wrist had given out for good, and it still catches me without warning, a pain that bites all the way to the bone.

Clive used to massage my wrist, pained for me, and he'd wash that throw by hand himself, like it mattered.

And now he'd used it to wipe up Jade's vomit and thrown it away like trash. Not a shred of regret.

I laughed at myself and pushed past the swarm of needling pain in my chest. "Never mind."

"There's a pendant under my pillow. Set it aside somewhere safe for me. I'm coming back for it now."

But the housekeeper went quiet for a moment, and when she spoke her voice was tighter still. "Last night, while you stayed at the old estate, I saw Mr. Sanchez take that pendant into Miss Jennings's room. She wore it out today…"

My mind went white. I hung up and called Clive instead.

Once. Twice. Three times…

On the ninety-ninth ring, he finally picked up.

His voice was low, gentle, and unable to hide how little he cared. "I'm filing the marriage paperwork with Jade. Be good, hm? The sooner I wrap things up here, the sooner I'll have time for you."

My fingertips had gone numb with panic. "You took my pendant?"

"That's what this is about?" His patience snapped, then strained back into softness. "Didn't you say the thing was supposed to calm the nerves? Jade can't sleep, so I gave it to her. Your pendant finally getting some use. So you didn't pray for it for nothing, right?"

That easy, entitled tone. As if taking what was mine and handing it to his new wife were the most natural thing in the world. As if I ought to feel honored.

"Don't go bothering Jade over it. I'll buy you ten to make up for it…"

"Who would want them!" I finally broke, the words tearing out of me. "That was my mother's. She prayed for it for me when she was already dying!"

"You took something of mine and gave it to Jade Jennings without my permission. Clive Sanchez, that's stealing!"