"Get some rest, Dr. Bennett."
"You too," Clara said. "Everyone did great tonight."
Six hours of emergency surgery. It had wiped out the whole team. Clara Bennett stood in the hallway, her legs so heavy she could barely move.
She made it back to her office. The clock on her desk read 2:41 a.m.
She picked up her phone and saw a message waiting. It was from Sophia Mitchell, a video link with a single line of text: "Look at this."
Clara frowned. She'd never liked Sophia, and the feeling was mutual. The reason wasn't hard to figure out. The girl was in love with her stepbrother, which happened to be Clara's husband, Ethan.
The entertainment headline was long and breathless: *Ethan Mitchell Spotted Late Night with Mystery Woman, Source Says "Big News Coming Soon!"*
Clara raised an eyebrow, pulled a chocolate bar from her desk drawer, and tapped the link.
The video showed Ethan walking out of a hotel with a woman tucked under his arm. A suit jacket covered the woman's face, but her legs were long and her wrist pale where it caught the light. Bodyguards pushed through the crowd ahead of them. Ethan walked steady and calm, looking completely at ease.
A paparazzo shoved forward and jammed a mic in his face. "Mr. Mitchell, can you tell us who this woman is?"
Ethan answered without missing a beat, which was rare for him. "Once it's official, we'll let the press know."
Good news. As Ethan's secret wife, a placeholder, Clara had always known this day would come. She wasn't exactly surprised. Just a little hollow in her chest.
She looked back at the screen. Five years of marriage had taught her every expression on Ethan's face. The man in the video was in a good mood. Not just good. Great. She'd never once seen him look at her that way. Relaxed brow, soft eyes, the corners of his mouth actually turned up.
Then her phone rang. Ethan.
"Come pick me up." His voice was low and rough, like it never occurred to him she might say no.
Clara leaned back in her chair. "Not happening. I just finished surgery. I'm dead on my feet."
"Come on." He said it again, his tone dropping a degree.
She hated how much he still got under her skin. She took a slow breath and pushed it all down. "Ten thousand dollars."
Two seconds of silence. Then a short, cold laugh.
"You've got thirty minutes. Not a cent if you're late."
He hung up.
Clara tied her shoes, grabbed her keys, and headed for the parking garage. The early morning air rushed through the car window and blew her hair across her face, scattering her thoughts.
She thought about how she'd ended up married to Ethan Mitchell. Honestly, it was kind of a ridiculous story.
She'd been flat broke back then, working two jobs just to stay in med school, a kid with no family who'd nearly gone hungry more than once. That kind of childhood teaches you fast what money actually means. So yeah, she'd always envied people who made it look easy. People like Ethan.
He was Fluvipolis royalty, the Mitchell heir, always in the headlines with Lily Bennett on his arm. Everyone said they were perfect together.
Then they broke up. And that same night, Ethan got drunk and ended up in bed with Clara.
That was how the arrangement started. One million dollars a year. Plus, as a bonus, she got to sleep with the guy who'd topped every "Sexiest Man Alive" list going. A pretty good deal, honestly. It would've been perfect if she hadn't gone and fallen for him.
Clara pushed the car hard and pulled up in front of the club at exactly the thirty-minute mark.
The moment she parked, a cluster of people spilled out through the entrance. Bodyguards formed a wall around the outside, and in the middle of it all walked a man and a woman.
He was tall and lean, almost unfairly good-looking. Dark eyes that caught the light even under the dim glow of the street lamps. Who else would it be except Ethan?
Sharp nose, a mouth that was somehow both hard and sensual, that effortless arrogance he carried everywhere like a second skin, and underneath it an edge most people never noticed.
Right now, he was smiling. Not the cool, detached smirk he usually wore. A real smile, one that reached his whole face. To Clara, it hit like a punch to the gut.
She shifted her gaze to the woman beside him. That face. Yes, the same one from the video. Small frame, delicate features, hair falling soft over her shoulders, glowing in the light like something out of a dream.
Then Clara got a clear look at her, and something lurched hard inside her chest.
She knew that face.
Lily Bennett. Ethan's first love. His ideal. The woman he'd once called his forever.