Chapter 1

I froze in the doorway as the world tilted beneath my feet.

The air in Room 509 was thick with the scent of sweat and expensive cologne, Nathan's favorite.

The sounds... God, the sounds.

Skin against skin—Sophie's breathy gasps.

And Nathan's low, guttural groans, which I used to think were only for me.

My hand gripped the doorframe so hard that the wood creaked.

For a second, neither of them noticed me.

Sophie's legs were wrapped around Nathan's waist, her nails digging into his back the way mine had a hundred times before.

Nathan's hips snapped forward in that familiar rhythm I knew too well.

The same rhythm he used when he told me he loved me.

"Oh, fuck, Sophie—I'm coming—"

That was when Sophie's eyes fluttered open and locked onto mine.

Her face went pale.

"Nathan—" she choked out, pushing at his shoulders.

He didn't stop right away.

One more thrust.

Two.

Then he froze, and confusion flickered across his flushed face before he turned his head.

Our eyes met.

The silence that followed was worse than the moans.

"Baby..." Nathan's voice cracked. He pulled out so quickly that Sophie winced. "This isn't—it's not what it looks like—"

I laughed. It came out sharp and ugly, like broken glass.

"Not what it looks like?" My voice didn't even sound like mine. "You're buried balls-deep in my best friend, and it's not what it looks like?"

Sophie scrambled for the sheet, trying to cover herself.

Her lipstick was smeared. Nathan's ring—the one I'd slipped on his finger five years ago—glinted on his left hand as he reached for his boxers.

I felt something inside my chest crack open.

"How long?" I asked quietly.

Neither of them answered.

"How long? Tell me!"

"Three months," Sophie whispered, her eyes glassy. "I'm so sorry. I—"

"Three months?" The laugh came again, this time hysterical. "I was in the fucking hospital, Sophie. You brought me flowers yesterday. You held my hand and told me that everything was going to be okay."

Nathan stepped toward me, still half-naked, with panic etched across the face that I once thought was my home. "Please, just let me explain—"

SMACK!

I slapped him.

The sound echoed louder than any moan.

"Don't you dare come near me." My voice shook, but I didn't cry. Not yet. "Both of you can rot."

I turned and walked out, leaving the door wide open behind me.

Their frantic voices followed me down the hallway, calling my name, making excuses, and begging, but I didn't stop.

The elevator ride down felt endless.

My reflection in the mirrored walls looked like a ghost: Pale. Hollow. Broken in ways I didn't know a person could be.

By the time I reached the lobby, the tears finally came.

I had gone to the hotel expecting a mistake.

A wrong number. A cruel joke.

Instead, I found the end of my marriage.

It was also the end of the only friendship I thought would last forever.

I bolted out of the hotel room, the laughter of Nathan and Sophie, still echoing behind me.

It cut through me like a knife, piercing my very bones.

"Let her die," Nathan said in a low, calm voice. "The insurance money will finally be ours."

I had terminal cancer and should have been too weak to run, but my survival instinct drove me to race down the stairs, through the lobby, and out the revolving doors into the rainy night.

The icy rain instantly soaked my clothes, and my expensive, Italian, high-heeled shoes—a gift Nathan had once given me—had now become a burden.

One heel got stuck in a slippery crack in the pavement, and I stumbled and lost my balance.

Just then, a hand shoved me hard from behind.

The force was heavy and laced with undisguised malice.

My body lunged forward, sending me tumbling into the middle of traffic.

Blinding headlights flared like the eyes of a beast. Through the curtain of rain, I saw a black sedan swerve sharply.

Its tires screeched piercingly through the puddles, and the brake pads ground violently against the pavement.

The air filled with the acrid smell of burnt rubber.

I saw the chrome-plated front end loom larger and larger as the roar of the engine mingled with the sound of the rain flooding my ears.

The next second, I felt a violent jolt through my shoulders and head.

My body was flung out like a tattered rag doll and slammed hard onto the road.

The excruciating pain lasted only a moment, and then the whole world went dark.

There was none of the agony I'd expected from being crushed under the wheels, only cold rain and the smell of blood flooding my nostrils.

The last sounds I heard were the chaotic screech of brakes, the screams of passersby, and the faint sound of footsteps coming from the entrance of a distant hotel.

Then, everything fell silent.