Chapter 1

It took three years of marriage to understand the engraving inside the ring that never quite fit.

S.Y. stood for Sienna.

She was his one true love.

I took the ring off and placed it on the divorce papers, but he just thought I was throwing a tantrum.

He had no idea this was only the first step of my plan.

Three months later, I walked down the aisle next to the man he hated most in this world.

1.

I had been married to Lucien for three years.

Everyone said I was lucky to marry into the rich family right after graduating from art school.

I never argued with them.

I really did fall for the small bits of kindness he showed me back then.

In the early days, he would bring me a warm latte on his way home from work.

He would sit quietly reading reports while I painted.

Once, I painted until dawn and fell asleep at my easel, only to wake up with his designer suit jacket draped over me.

But he never called me by my name.

"Dinner is ready."

"Go to bed early."

"There is a gala tomorrow, you are coming with me."

Three years and over a thousand days passed like that.

Every sentence was a command, and not once did he use my name.

I thought it was just his personality until my best friend, Celine, visited me last week.

She was sitting on the sofa, scrolling through my wedding photos on my phone.

Suddenly, she stopped.

"Willow, you really look like―"

She swallowed the rest of her sentence.

"Like who?"

"Nothing, I'm just talking crazy," she muttered.

She wouldn't say more, but I couldn't forget the look in her eyes.

That night, while Lucien was working late in his study, I brought him some coffee.

His phone screen lit up.

The wallpaper wasn't me.

It was a girl in a white dress, laughing under a cherry blossom tree.

She looked seventy percent like me, but the vibe was completely different.

Her smile was bright, like the sun in April.

What about my smile?

I stood in front of the bathroom mirror for a long time and tried to smile.

The corners of my mouth went up, but my eyes stayed dead.

It really wasn't the same.

On our anniversary, I made a huge dinner.

He called to say he was working late and told me to eat without him.

I sat alone by candlelight until ten o'clock.

The candles burned out, and the food went cold.

I picked up my phone to call him again, but the screen lit up with a notification.

He had posted on social media.

It was a photo of the airport at night with the caption: "She is finally here."

His friends commented: "Is the real Mrs. Black finally home?"

He replied with a smiling face.

I opened the comment box, typed three words, and then deleted them.

He didn't come home until two in the morning.

He was holding a woman in his arms.

She had long hair and a white dress, leaning against his shoulder with her eyes closed.

She was drunk, her cheeks flushed, clinging to him like a soft cloud.

Lucien helped her upstairs and glanced at me as he passed the dining table.

"Clean this up. Sienna doesn't like the smell of grease."

He called her Sienna.

I stood up and dumped the entire dinner into the trash can.

The sound of plates clattering was loud, but he didn't look back.

I pulled the wedding ring off my finger.

The ring was tight, and because I hadn't taken it off in three years, the skin underneath was a different color.

There was a pale mark on my finger.

I turned the ring over and looked at the inside under the kitchen light.

Two letters were engraved there.

S.Y.

It was Sienna after all.