Regina swept in wearing a lavish vintage gown, spilling out apologies that couldn't hide the smirk tugging at her lips.

"Melanie, I'm so sorry, it just slipped."

As if that wasn't enough, she tipped the last of the red wine "by accident" right over my head.

The alcohol ran into my eyes, and I doubled over on the floor, crying out from the sting. Oliver didn't react at all. His eyes held nothing but delight at Regina's sudden appearance.

"Regina, what are you doing here? You've got wine all over your hands, quick, wipe it off."

Watching her look grow smugger by the second, fury flared through me. I grabbed the wineglass, smashed it to the floor, and swung my hand across her face.

She hit the ground in an instant, cheek red and swelling.

"So sorry. I bumped into you by accident. You're okay, aren't you?"

Broken glass drove into her hand, and Regina shrieked with the pain.

"Melanie Henson, you're insane!"

Oliver couldn't sit still another second. He hauled Regina up and rounded on me. "Melanie, how could you raise a hand to Regina? She only knows you like your wine and was joking around with you."

He had someone fetch a bandage at once and wrapped the cut, the ache in his eyes practically brimming over.

"I shouldn't have joked. I thought Melanie wouldn't mind."

Regina nestled against him, all pitiful and fragile. I wiped the wine away and forced my eyes open, and met the faint disgust in Oliver's gaze.

"Wasn't this a surprise for me? Regina, why are you even here?"

Regina choked on it, at a loss, and it was Oliver who smoothed it over for her.

"Regina wanted to give you her blessing too. She's your best friend, after all."

"The greatest blessing she can give me is leaving right now. Thank you."

I glared at her, and though it clearly galled her, she had no choice but to stand and go.

The dinner was ruined, the air a little awkward, and though Oliver stayed there with me, his mind was on someone else.

A ringtone cut through the tension, and the sullen frown he'd been wearing smoothed away in an instant.

Even as he angled the phone away, I caught the pinned contact at the top: "baby Regina."

He tapped out a text on the sly, and at last a smile curved his mouth.

Just as I'd expected, he turned to me with an apologetic face.

"Melanie, I'm really sorry. I had your tenth-anniversary gift all ready, and I meant for us to open it together, but something's just come up at the company..."

Fine, I'd play along with his little act. I only nodded, all understanding. "It's fine. Go take care of work."

He left in a rush, and I got up at once and followed quietly behind.

He didn't stop until he reached the luxury car down in the garage, where Regina had already been waiting a good while.

"What took you so long? Is Melanie Henson really that fascinating?" Regina rolled her eyes, impatient.

Oliver said nothing. One kiss was all it took to settle her.

She curled into his arms. "Go on, then. How are you going to make it up to me? That slap hurt like hell."

Oliver stroked her cheek gently. "It's all my fault. I don't know what got into Melanie today, going off like that."

"Don't worry. Anything you want, except the seat of Gilbert matriarch, and I'll give it to you."

Oliver popped the trunk right away and pulled out the couture gift he'd prepared.

When she finally broke into a smile, he leaned in close. "That's my surprise. So what did you get for me?"

Regina slid onto his lap and let her whole weight fall against him, the bow at her chest already pulled loose.

"That, of course, you'll have to unwrap yourself. I promise you'll be more than satisfied."

Oliver lost himself completely and buried his face against her chest, and then the light inside the car dimmed.

Their moans reached my ears, and I was sick to my stomach right there on the spot.

My heart hurt as if a thousand needles had run it through. That luxury car was my birthday gift to Oliver, and now it had become the stage for their passion.

I forced down the storm surging inside me. Three more days and it would be over.

Once I was calm, I called the dealership's sales department and put the car in my name. Oliver no longer deserved the right to use this gift.

After I recorded the proof of the two of them cheating, I braved the cold wind and went home. I built up a fire in the back garden and burned every gift Oliver had ever given me.

The wedding dress in the cabinet, the one I'd kept for ten years, I looked at for a long while. Then my heart sank, and I gathered it up and flung it into the flames.

Late that night I was sleeping deeply when Oliver burst through the door.

His face was all worry. "Melanie, I finally found you!"

It was three in the morning by then. They'd tangled together for another six hours. Watching Oliver overdo his little performance, I found it utterly laughable.

"I couldn't find you at the restaurant. I was going out of my mind!"

Oliver played it like a man undone by love, stroking my hair, hot tears sliding down his face.

I pried his hand away and tried to go back to sleep. That was when he noticed the bare band of pale skin on my ring finger. The engagement ring was gone.

"Mel, what happened? We promised we'd wear those rings our whole lives. How could you lose it and not even tell me?"

I forced up a small smile. "It was too cold, so I came back early."

"I lost the ring by accident. It's such a small thing, it didn't seem worth mentioning."

I'd been out in the cold wind too long these past few days, and now I couldn't stop coughing.

"Mel, are you all right?"

Oliver pressed his palm to my forehead and was already on the phone to the best hospital in the city.

"Every one of your doctors is to be there today. If anything happens to Mel, that's on you."

I waved a hand and said I'd just gotten chilled, nothing serious. He insisted on taking me in for a full examination anyway.

"Don't worry. I'll make you well again."

"As for the ring, once you're better we'll fly to Switzerland for the jewelry auction. Whatever piece you want, it's yours."

By six in the morning, the tests confirmed I was fine, and only then did Oliver relax.

"Mel, thank God you're okay. If something happened to you, if you left me, I wouldn't want to live either."

He stroked my forehead carefully, checking my temperature over and over. Seeing how pale I looked, he offered to cook for me himself.

The man who never so much as lifted a finger at home carried bags of groceries off toward the little kitchen off the ward.

I watched his back as he bustled around, and it all felt hazy and false.

I checked the calendar. Two more days and I could leave. My body was fine now, and I planned to go back on my own.

I pulled on my coat and stepped out of the ward. Regina was coming straight toward me. She didn't notice me, though. She just turned and slipped into one of the side rooms.

Something felt off, so I followed. Before I even got close, I heard Regina's voice, sweet and simpering.

"So devoted to Melanie. I've never had you cook for me with your own hands."

Regina teased her fingers under Oliver's chin, a little jealousy in her tone.

"Mel had a coughing fit. I was worried about her."

"Today I'm giving her my full attention. If there's nothing important, don't bother me."

Regina snatched the cooking utensils out of his hand and hurled the soup he'd just finished to the floor.

"What's that supposed to mean? So you're choosing her?"

She made a show of leaving, then flung a lab report out of her bag. "Then me and the baby in my belly will never come back."

Oliver looked startled at first. Then he read the report carefully, his brow smoothing out, and he was so overcome he lifted Regina off her feet and spun her in a circle.

"Something this big, and you're only telling me now?"

"I only came in for tests this morning because of the morning sickness. The doctor said I'm three months along, that I need to rest properly."

"Last night we were really careless. The baby isn't stable yet. I'm scared..."

Oliver held Regina in his arms, looking down at the report with satisfaction, telling her over and over not to worry.

"Don't be afraid. I'll get every doctor here to check again right now. Our baby is going to be perfectly safe."

Regina nodded, pleased, and leaned in close to kiss him.

Oliver caught the scent of his favorite perfume and pressed himself hard against her. His eyes clouded with want as he bent his head and softly circled his arm around her neck.

Their kiss was hot and lingering. Regina ran both hands over his arms, lost in it.

Through the gap in the door I watched the two of them without an inch between them, the news that Regina was pregnant turning over and over in my head.

She was actually pregnant. Ten years ago Oliver had insisted he never wanted children, that he only wanted to spend the rest of his life with me.

His single-mindedness had once moved me. Now it just struck me as absurd. I recorded the two of them and got ready to leave.

They were making so much noise, still oblivious to the utensils clattering on the floor, that the sound drew a crowd, until a young nurse finally came in.

"Mr. Gilbert, is there anything you need? Miss Henson has been waiting for you at the door this whole time."

Their lingering kiss broke off, and they both saw me behind the door.

I had no interest in playing along, and turned to go, but she called out to stop me.

Without a shred of guilt, she cried out, "Mel, what are you doing here? What a coincidence."

Oliver hurriedly hid the report behind his back, his hands going right back to the soup he was making for me.

I asked back, calm, "Regina, why are you at the hospital too?"

"I came to see you, of course. You're my best friend. I was worried about you."

"Regina came specially to help me. She knows what you like. We were just talking about what to cook for you."

Oliver stepped in to smooth it over, but the guilt in his eyes was impossible to hide.

Regina picked up his line and started comforting me. "Mel, you have to take good care of yourself. It's a good thing you're not pregnant, or you'd really be suffering."

A cold laugh rose in me. Their acting was so smooth and natural it fooled everyone around them, and the young nurses kept casting envious glances their way.

Regina put on a caring face and moved to help me up. As she leaned in close, the tattoo of Oliver's English name by her collarbone slipped into view, as if by accident.

I threw off her hand and went back to the ward alone.

"This is all Melanie's fault. Oliver, I hadn't had my fill yet."

Regina cupped his chin and the small of his back, teasing at his lips. His shirt was already half off, his frame taller and more striking for it.

Oliver's eyes were hazy as he kissed his way down her body. Only when his hand found the gentle swell of her belly did he push her back, holding himself in check.

"Pregnant, and still tempting me like this. I'll satisfy you this once. Wait for me in the usual place, like a good girl."

"Don't come looking for me anymore. Melanie almost caught us today."

Regina said, impatient, that of course she'd never find out.

"I just wanted you to stay with me. The baby and I both missed you." She burrowed into his arms, coaxing.

One wall away, I heard every word of it. As the heavy footsteps drew closer, I lay back down and pretended to be asleep.

"Mel, I'm really sorry. Something urgent came up at the company, I'll have to travel for a while…"

When Oliver got no answer and saw I was asleep, his mood lightened considerably.

Behind him, Regina mocked, "Look at that complexion, that scrawny figure. If I were a man I wouldn't want her either. Not a patch on me."

Oliver shut the door softly and left with his arm around Regina. Through the gap in the door I watched their backs recede. This was probably the last time I'd ever see them, for the rest of my life.

On my way out of the hospital, I found Regina's lab report on the floor. I'd long given up on Oliver, so looking at it left me strangely calm.

That night, not a single message from him. I finished packing to leave and kept only one box behind.

It was full of the love letters Oliver had written me and the photos from our wedding, every one of them long since yellowed.

At midnight, a message came from an unknown number, with a photo attached.

'Jealous? Oliver's reward to me. I doubt you've ever laid eyes on anything this expensive in your life.'

'Barely pregnant and already spoiling me this much. I'm nothing like a certain unlucky woman. If you're smart, you'll divorce quietly and step aside. Don't make things hard for Oliver.'

In the photo was a round-trip ticket to Switzerland, and on her hand a ring, round and enormous. It was the largest raw-stone diamond in the world, the one the news had reported sold at auction just five minutes ago.

I remembered Oliver's promise to take me to Switzerland to buy a brand-new diamond ring. Now it belonged to someone else.

The glow of the phone screen lit the bare mark on my right ring finger where a ring used to sit. I didn't reply, blocked the number, and went back to packing.

A full day and night, and nothing from Oliver. He used to call to say he was safe if a trip ran even two hours long. But I didn't care about that anymore.

Night fell, and the day had finally come. Once I was in the car, I looked at the place I'd lived for ten years, then tossed the keys onto the roadside.

The roads were clear the whole way. I stared blankly at my phone screen. Soon more photos and texts came through, and just as I went to open them, a hard brake jolted me.

"This road's lively tonight. Some rich family throwing a party, maybe?" the driver muttered, rolling down his window.

I looked at the dazzling bridge ahead, packed with people singing and dancing, everyone raising a glass in celebration.

Far as it was, I could still make out the two at the very center of it all: Oliver and Regina.

The scene in front of me pulled up the memory of that noisy wedding banquet years ago. But the photos on my phone dragged me back to reality.

In them Regina was beaming, accepting Oliver's proposal as he knelt on one knee, countless lavish gifts arrayed behind her.

The wedding gown on her was a hundred times finer than the one I'd burned, the full set of high jewelry glittering in the night, friends and family all cheering the happiness of the two of them in that moment.

'Oliver insisted on putting this wedding together for me. He loves me and the baby so much. As for you, I imagine he's already forgotten you completely.'

'He's worked so hard these past few days. If I weren't pregnant I'd have rewarded him properly. The next time you see him will be at the divorce. If you still want to keep any face, crawl out of the Gilbert house on your own. Oliver already treats me as the woman of the Gilbert house.'

This time I finally replied: 'Congratulations. Your wish is about to come true.'

The driver started to turn off and go around. Just as I was about to close the window, my eyes met Oliver's for a second.

I didn't care. But Oliver froze, went blank where he stood, the music around him suddenly grating in his ears.

The next second, my phone rang. It was Oliver.