It was a long time before Madison could bring herself to stand. She moved slowly, gathering her things. The closet held everything she'd prepared for the baby—tiny clothes, little shoes, and the handmade patchwork quilt her mother had sewn stitch by stitch. She was taking all of it with her.

But the moment she opened the closet doors, her blood ran cold.

Everything inside had been ransacked. The clothes were gone. Every last piece.

She went straight downstairs and found the housekeeper. Her voice came out trembling and ice-cold.

"Where are my things?"

The housekeeper's eyes darted away. She stammered, wouldn't lift her head, and glanced involuntarily toward the garden.

Madison's stomach dropped. She followed the faint sounds of laughter across the lawn, and what she saw made her vision blur red.

Alexis stood on the grass, cooing at the dog at her feet. The dog was wearing the baby clothes Madison had prepared for her child.

The patchwork quilt her mother had sewn was cut to ribbons. One piece had been tied around the dog's neck as a drool bib.

And the good-luck charm—the one her mother had prayed for at the temple and given to her for protection—was clamped between the dog's teeth, being torn apart.

Alexis giggled, scratching behind the dog's ears.

"Little Maddie is such a good girl! You look so pretty in your new outfit!"

"Good dog, Maddie."

Maddie.

That name—it was the pet name Joel used for her alone. His word. He used to hold her close and murmur it against her ear.

Madison's fists clenched so tight her knuckles went white. The rage crawled up her spine like something alive.

Every ounce of fury she had swallowed, every humiliation she had endured in silence—it all shattered at once.

She crossed the distance in three strides and slapped Alexis across the face.

The crack rang out, sharp and clean.

"Madison Maddox, have you lost your mind?!"

Alexis clutched her cheek and shrieked, tears spilling instantly.

Joel came storming out of the study at the commotion. The first thing he saw was Alexis, sobbing, hand pressed to her face.

The moment Alexis spotted him, she threw herself into his arms, trembling.

"Joel! She hit me—and she hurt little Maddie!"

Joel's expression darkened. "Madison, you—"

Madison's voice tore out of her, hoarse and shaking.

"How dare you let her touch my things!"

Joel's face turned to stone. "Your things? A pile of rags and scraps. Alexis letting the dog wear them was more than they deserved."

Madison's chest heaved. Her eyes burned as she lunged past him toward the dog, desperate to save the good-luck charm.

Before she could reach it, the dog bared its teeth and launched at her, snarling, sinking its jaws into her calf. White-hot pain shot through her leg. Its front paws clawed at her knees, scrambling upward toward her stomach.

In that instant, Madison forgot the pain. She summoned every ounce of strength she had and kicked the dog away.

It yelped, tumbled across the grass, and curled into a whimpering ball.

Blood seeped from the wound on Madison's calf. Warm liquid trickled down her shin. A sharp cramp seized her lower abdomen, and she doubled over, unable to move.

"Madison!"

Joel hadn't expected her to actually fight a dog for that charm. Seeing her crumpled on the ground, his mind emptied of everything but alarm. He rose to his feet and started toward her.

He hadn't taken a single step before Alexis grabbed his arm, wailing.

"Joel! Maddie's mouth is bleeding—what's wrong with her? Is she going to die?!"

His hand froze in midair. His gaze drifted to the dog whimpering on the ground. He hesitated for one long moment, then steadied Alexis on her feet.

"Don't be scared."

He picked up the dog, took Alexis by the arm, and walked out the front door without looking back.

Madison watched him go. She bit down on her lip until she tasted iron, refusing to let herself cry. She told herself over and over that he wasn't worth it. He wasn't worth a single tear.

She staggered upright, called a cab, and went to the hospital alone.

The moment she walked through the emergency room doors, everything she'd been holding together finally gave way. Her vision went black, and she collapsed.

When she opened her eyes again, it was the next day. Her wound had been bandaged. She was cleared to leave.

When Madison walked through the door, Alexis was nestled against Joel's side, playing lady of the house as she barked orders at the servants.

Joel heard the sound and lifted his gaze toward Madison.

"Starting today, Alexis is the woman of this house. Everyone answers to her." His eyes settled on Madison. "Including you."

His stare was ice. Not a trace of warmth.

Because she'd kicked Alexis's dog, he was using his so-called amnesia as an excuse again, handing her title as Mrs. Delgado to someone else.

He expected her to rage. To lose control. To break down and then give in, the way she always had. He expected her to still care.

But she no longer wanted to be Mrs. Delgado. And she no longer cared whether his amnesia was real.

Madison said nothing. She turned and headed for the stairs.

Alexis stepped into her path, eyes glittering with triumph and contempt.

"There's still so much I don't understand about running this house. I was hoping you could teach me, sis."

Before Madison could respond, Alexis grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward the bar counter.

Madison's custom coffee machine, the one she'd waited months to have shipped from Italy, had been wrecked beyond recognition.

Rage blazed through her. She wrenched her hand free.

"Who told you you could touch that?"

Alexis only smiled, smug and unhurried, lifting a steaming cup of coffee from the counter.

"You still think you're the high-and-mighty Mrs. Delgado? Joel stopped loving you a long time ago. You're nothing."

The words barely left her mouth before she hurled the coffee straight at Madison.

Scalding liquid hit her neck and slid beneath her collar. Madison flinched, her skin burning.

The bitter-sweet stench of coffee flooded her nostrils. Her stomach, already wrecked by morning sickness, revolted instantly. She clamped a hand over her mouth and doubled over, retching.

Everything in her stomach came up, all over Alexis.

Alexis froze for a few seconds, then let out a piercing scream.

Joel came running. He found Madison half-collapsed on the floor, dry-heaving, tears squeezed from the corners of her eyes by sheer reflex.

His body moved before his mind caught up. He rushed toward her, reaching out to help her stand.

Instinct. The kind carved into bone. For a split second, he forgot he was supposed to have amnesia.

Alexis watched him and felt her chest seize. She cranked up her sobbing.

"Joel, I only asked her how to use the coffee machine, and she threw coffee at me and vomited on me."

Her voice cracked into a pitiful whimper. "I know she doesn't like me. If she wants me gone, I'll go. But why does she have to humiliate me like this?"

Joel's brow furrowed. The concern drained from his face, replaced by cold disgust.

"Madison, you never learn. I told you she's the woman of this house."

Madison wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. She looked up at him, and when she spoke, her voice could have cut glass.

"The woman of this house? Whose name is on the marriage certificate, Joel? Hers?" She held his gaze without flinching. "Did you forget how to read along with everything else?"

Joel went still. He had never seen this version of Madison before.

Alexis recovered first.

"Joel, she's deliberately provoking you. She doesn't respect you at all."

That hit the nerve it was meant to. Fury swallowed whatever was left of Joel's reason.

"Drag her outside. She kneels for one hour and thinks about what she's done."

Two bodyguards moved immediately, seizing Madison by the arms.

She struggled against their grip, staring at Joel's cold, indifferent face. It overlapped with the face in her memory, the one from before.

The Joel who used to hold her like something precious. Who stayed up all night at her bedside when she was sick. Who noticed every small thing about her.

Who once whispered, in a moment so tender it ached: "Madison, I'll love you until the day I die."

His love had been so brief.

Numbness and pain crashed through her in equal measure as the guards forced her to her knees outside the front door of the villa.

Then Madison raised her voice, sharp and clear, aimed straight at the living room.

"Joel Delgado. If you make me kneel out here, and your mother finds out how you've treated me, do you really think your little secretary will live to see tomorrow?"

Her voice wasn't loud, but every word landed with absolute certainty.

Joel's eyes narrowed. His mother had always taken Madison's side.

And the Delgado family's rules left no room for a woman like Alexis to set foot through the front door, let alone claim the house as her own.

The air went still. They stared at each other, neither willing to look away.

The sky split open without warning, and rain came crashing down in sheets.

Water soaked through Madison's clothes in seconds, plastering the fabric to her skin like ice. Yet she stood in the downpour with her spine ramrod straight, her gaze fixed on Joel through the living room windows. There was no plea in her eyes. Not a trace.

Something twisted in Joel's chest, sharp and unbidden. A terrible thought surfaced.

Did she want to leave him?

He crushed it almost instantly. She couldn't leave him. She loved him too much.

His eyes went cold.

"Madison, you really think this is your house to throw tantrums in? Don't you dare use my mother to strong-arm me!"

He wrapped his arm around Alexis's waist and headed for the stairs without a backward glance, leaving Madison standing in the rain.

The downpour only worsened, each drop hammering against her body like a fist.

The bodyguards moved toward her, ready to force her to her knees. Madison lifted her gaze and pinned them with a stare that could cut glass.

"You know what Mrs. Delgado is capable of. If I kneel today, do you really think you'll be alive tomorrow?"

The color drained from their faces. They exchanged a look, and the old woman's reputation did what Madison's words alone could not. They released her, stepping back with grudging reluctance.

Madison stumbled back inside. Every step sent a dull, dragging ache through her lower abdomen.

She made it to the second floor. Joel's bedroom door was ajar, and through the gap she saw something that made the world tilt sideways.

Joel had Alexis pinned against the headboard. Their bodies were tangled together, moving in a rhythm that left nothing to the imagination.

Alexis looked up. Through the crack in the door, her eyes met Madison's.

A slow, triumphant smile spread across her lips, mockery spilling from her gaze like venom. Then she draped her arms over Joel's shoulders and let out a breathy, theatrical moan.

Something hot and metallic surged up Madison's throat. She clamped both hands over her mouth, barely keeping the blood from spilling past her lips.

She couldn't watch. She turned and fled to her own room like a hunted animal.

The moment she locked the door behind her, a mouthful of blood poured into her cupped palm. Bright red. Violent against her skin.

She slid down the door and crumpled to the floor, still wrapped in her soaked clothes. The cold seeped into her bones as pain folded her body in on itself. Her vision blurred at the edges, then began to dissolve.

Time lost its shape. The chill burrowed deeper.

She fumbled for her phone and dialed Joel's number on instinct. Once. Twice. Again and again. No one picked up.

She dragged herself out of the room on her hands and knees. From behind the bedroom door, the sounds hadn't stopped. Rise and fall. Rise and fall.

When she opened her eyes again, she was in a hospital bed. A doctor stood beside her, his expression grim.

"Miss Maddox, you spiked a hundred-and-two-degree fever. Between the rain exposure and the severe emotional distress, your pregnancy is extremely unstable. You cannot endure any further stress. If you do, we may not be able to save the baby."

Madison stared at the ceiling and nodded.

Not long after, a commotion erupted in the hallway. Every member of the medical staff was summoned away.

The nurses chattered as they rushed past her door.

"Mr. Delgado's Miss Pruitt got admitted. Apparently things got too rough in the bedroom. He called in every doctor in the hospital to see her!"

"And look at Mrs. Delgado in there. Pregnant, burning up with fever, and not a single person looking after her. That amnesia of his sure is selective. Seems like the only person he forgot is his wife."

"When it comes down to it, the one who isn't loved is the real other woman. Miss Pruitt is the one Mr. Delgado actually cares about now."

Every cruel word found its way into Madison's ears, precise as a blade.

She turned her head toward the window. Outside, the rain had stopped. Her eyes held nothing but emptiness.

In the days that followed, Joel stayed at Alexis's side, tending to her every need. He never once learned that his wife was in the hospital too.