"Give it back! Right now! Bring it to me this instant, or I'm calling the police! I'll make sure you two have your wedding behind bars!"

I was shaking with rage, every word barbed.

Benjamin flinched on the other end of the line, then fired back with anger of his own.

"What kind of way is that to talk? I told you it was all for show! I just borrowed it! It's not like I'm keeping it forever!"

"I was going to wait until tomorrow and buy you a few similar ones as an apology gift. But you just had to—"

Fury surged through me. I couldn't stand to hear his voice for another second.

I hung up, walked out the door, and hailed a cab, giving the driver Elise's address.

I grabbed Benjamin's luggage on my way out.

During the ride, my phone buzzed nonstop. Text messages from Benjamin.

"I got a little worked up just now. I said some things I shouldn't have. Maud, I'm sorry."

"How about this—I'll return the bracelet tomorrow, but you have to come to the wedding and be Elise's bridesmaid."

"Think about it. We were supposed to get married, and then I suddenly went and got my marriage license with Elise instead. That doesn't look good for a young woman's reputation."

"If you show up tomorrow as the bridesmaid, nobody will think Elise came between us. And if anyone asks about what happened with us, just cover for me... Tell them you cheated, that you fell for someone else, that you'd been wanting to break things off for a while. Just don't drag Elise into it."

I stared at his messages, and a laugh escaped me. The sheer absurdity of it.

But the laughter didn't last. Tears rolled down and soaked into the hem of my coat.

The driver glanced at me through the rearview mirror and silently handed me a tissue.

I thanked him quietly, pushed open the car door, and dragged the suitcase behind me as I stormed upstairs.

I went straight to Elise's front door and pounded on it with everything I had.

The door rattled like thunder under my fists.

Hurried footsteps echoed from inside, and the door swung open.

"Who the hell—? It's the middle of the night!"

Benjamin stood there in a pink apron, flour dusted across his forehead.

My eyes burned red in an instant.

Benjamin and I had been together for ten years.

I'd watched him go from a penniless student to a respected professor.

The deepest scar he carried was from college, when he'd worked part-time as a kitchen hand at a restaurant to put himself through school. A group of rich kids who resented him had jumped him, pinned him to the ground, and poured leftover food over his head.

"Pathetic little cook. You think you can steal another man's girl?"

After that, he despised the kitchen. Loathed everything about cooking.

Even when I brought him home to meet my mother after our engagement—my mother, who was already gravely ill—all I asked was for him to carry the dishes out from the kitchen. He went cold, slammed the door, and left.

My dying mother wept for me.

Even then, I forced a smile and made excuses for him.

After that, I treated him even more carefully, walking on eggshells around his wounds.

I'd never cooked a day in my life, but I burned and blistered my hands learning, just so he'd never have to.

And now I knew. His scars had already been healed—by another woman.

The moment Benjamin saw me, he froze. Then, instinctively, guiltily, he tugged at the apron.

"Maud... what are you doing here?"

Behind him, Elise's face appeared. Her small features were pinched with anxiety as she peered at me.

"Professor's wife... no... Miss Fox, what are you doing here?"

Tears welled in her eyes as she stepped in front of Benjamin, shielding him.

"Miss Fox, if you need someone to take your anger out on, just hit me. Professor Delgado only did all this to help me..."

Benjamin looked at her with aching tenderness, then turned on me.

"Maud, how can you be so heartless? Elise's family is trying to force her to marry the thug who assaulted her. All I did was step in to protect her. Can't you show a shred of compassion?"

"No!"

My voice trembled with fury.

"If she's so pitiful, that's between her parents and whoever hurt her! She could have said no! She could have called the cops! Why should I be the one to sacrifice my marriage and my happiness?"

"Unless..."

A sob crept into my voice.

"Unless none of it ever happened. Unless you two were already together, and that's why—"

The slap came before I could finish.

Benjamin stood with his hand raised, face twisted in rage. "Don't you dare talk about her like that! I already told you—Elise and I are only getting married on paper! Why do you insist on twisting everything into something ugly?"

Our shouting drew a crowd. Neighbors from upstairs and downstairs poked their heads out, gathering on the landing.

Someone turned to Elise and Benjamin. "Elise, who is this? What's her relationship with your husband?"

Elise stammered, her voice small. "She's his... ex..."

The look on her face said everything she didn't—wounded, long-suffering, victimized.

Understanding dawned on the neighbors' faces. They turned to me with open disgust, and one of them actually shoved me.

"They're about to get married! You're still chasing after someone else's husband? That makes you the other woman! You look decent enough—have some shame!"

"Exactly! Someone get a photo of her! Post it online!"

I laughed—a sharp, bitter sound—and slammed my suitcase down in front of them.

"Benjamin, why don't you tell them who the real other woman is?"

The suitcase popped open on impact. But Elise let out a shriek and crouched down.

Benjamin looked at her leg—at a red, swollen mark no bigger than a fingernail.

His expression changed instantly.

"Maud! When will you stop? Elise and I already have our marriage certificate! So tell me—who's the other woman here?"

I stared at him, stunned, and let out a hollow laugh. "Benjamin. This is what you call a fake marriage? You got the certificate and it's still fake?"

He realized his slip the moment the words left his mouth. Guilt flickered across his face before he deflected.

"All this over some worthless bracelet—you come here and assault people!"

"Maud, I never knew you could be this heartless. This selfish. This cold-blooded!"

My eyes went wide as Benjamin stormed back into the apartment. When he came out, he was holding the bracelet I treasured more than anything in the world.

He hurled it at the ground.

"You want your bracelet so bad? Take your piece of junk and get out!"

"No!" I screamed and lunged for it, hands outstretched, but I wasn't fast enough.

I watched it shatter against the floor, pieces scattering like broken teeth.

My head snapped up. I fixed him with a stare full of something he had never seen from me before.

Not love. Not devotion. Not patience.

Hatred.

Even through his rage, it shook him. For one brief second, panic crossed his face.

But the next second, Elise whimpered through her tears. "Professor Delgado, my leg hurts so much. Do you think it's broken?"

Benjamin snapped back to attention. He scooped her up and strode past me toward the stairs.

"Don't be scared. I'm taking you to the hospital."

He moved fast and hard, and as he passed, he knocked straight into me where I crouched on the floor.

I tumbled down the steep staircase and hit the landing below with a sickening thud.

People gasped. I called out, my voice thin and weak.

Benjamin never looked back.

Before my eyes closed, the last thing I saw was Elise resting her head against his shoulder, looking right at me.

Smiling.

In that moment, something inside my chest cracked open—clean and sharp, like porcelain breaking.

There was a time when Benjamin had protected me the way he now protected Elise.

When those trust-fund boys followed me, catcalling and closing in, and I was shaking with fear—he had charged out and planted himself between us. He told them to back off without flinching.

Then he grabbed my wrist and pulled me through their circle, and we ran.

Later, I learned that Benjamin had been targeted and harassed by those rich kids because of what he'd done.

I found him with tears brimming in my eyes and apologized. He just smiled, patted my head, and said, "Don't worry about it. I just can't stand to see you cry."

The man who once panicked at the mere sight of tears in my eyes could now ignore my pain entirely for another girl's sake.

When exactly had Elise Simmons wedged herself between us?

Maybe it started the day she became Benjamin's graduate student. He talked about her constantly, saying she reminded him of his younger self. But the look in his eyes was nothing like nostalgia. It was pure adoration.

Or maybe it was the time she called him crying, saying a group of male students had cornered her with unwanted confessions. Benjamin, always so calm and rational, had charged in like a hotheaded teenager and thrown punches.

When I went to bail him out, I looked at his split, bruised lip and felt something bitter settle in my chest for the first time.

He explained it away: "Maud, when I heard what happened to her, it reminded me of how you used to get bullied. I just lost it."

But the thing was, when I'd been in that exact situation, all he'd done was quietly walk me away.

...

When I woke up, I was already in the hospital.

The doctor told me with a worried expression that it was a good thing I'd been brought in quickly. I'd hit the back of my head in the fall, and there was bleeding in my brain. A little longer, and I might not have woken up at all.

I thanked him softly, had my wounds treated, and left.

The moment I reached the lobby of my apartment building, a group of men followed me in. Leering. Closing in.

"You're that bitch from the internet, aren't you?"

"You look decent enough on the outside, but turns out you're rotten to the core. Hiring thugs to bully some college girl? You like men that much? Well, today we'll give you a taste of what that's like!"

They lunged at me with ugly grins, tearing at my clothes.

I screamed and stumbled backward, but they were faster. My shirt ripped. Their fingers twisted into my skin, leaving bruises wherever they grabbed.

It wasn't until the building's security guard rushed over and called the police that they finally scattered like rats.

I collapsed to my knees, shaking uncontrollably.

The security guard stood over me, looking down with undisguised contempt.

"You brought this on yourself. Who told you to be so vicious, going after an innocent girl like that?"

My head snapped up. My voice trembled. "What did you just say?"

He scoffed and walked away.

My skull felt like it split open. I fumbled for my phone and started scrolling.

There it was. A public statement Benjamin had posted.

"I'm sorry to take up everyone's time, but I need to set the record straight. The accusations about me bullying a female student were a misunderstanding. My ex-girlfriend, Maud Fox, hired thugs to harass my student out of jealousy, nearly forcing her into a marriage with that animal."

"I took the blame to protect Maud because I felt sorry for her. But she showed no remorse and only escalated her behavior, so I've decided to reveal the truth."

"I will also take responsibility for my student. I intend to marry her and take care of her for the rest of her life."

Elise had commented underneath:

"With you by my side, I'm not afraid of anything."

Blood rushed to my head. My whole body felt like it had been hit by a freight train.

Below that post, the comments were split between congratulations for the happy couple and a torrent of abuse aimed at me. My photos had been edited into obscene, degrading images. People were calling for someone to doxx me, to find my address and "teach me a lesson."

My phone was flooded with messages. Filthy, vile curses, one after another.

I kept trying to explain. I hadn't done any of it. Benjamin was lying.