Chapter 1

I made ninety-nine calls.

My brother, Caleb Reed, lay in the emergency room.

He had a rare blood type, and only my husband, Nathaniel Thorne's, private medical facility's blood bank had a matching supply.

Every call went unanswered.

Finally, his phone went straight to voicemail.

At 3 AM, Caleb stopped breathing.

I knelt in the hallway, my hands still stained with his blood, when my phone screen lit up—Nate Thorne's assistant had sent me a photo.

In the picture, Nate was embracing his assistant, kissing her hair, with a fervor in his eyes I'd never seen in our three years of marriage.

Her name was Sophia Smith.

She was his first love, the student he'd funded for ten years, "the only woman he ever wanted to marry" in his diary.

And I? I was just a stand-in who resembled her, a free, top-tier private physician, used to prolong Sophia's life.

The next day, he rushed back, apologizing while holding me: "Evelyn, my phone fell in the water, I didn't see your calls."

I didn't make a scene. I just smiled and handed him two documents.

He signed them without even looking.

He didn't know they were divorce papers.