My first glimpse of Damien is hampered as Celia rushes towards him. A second, later she moves to his side and I see him. My heart lurches. Oh, Damien! He’s sitting up on the hospital bed and a side of his head is covered in a white bandage. I barely take him in before Celia holds his face in her hands and kisses him right on his lips.

“NO!” I yell, the blood draining out of my face as my husband, my Damien, kisses another woman.

My heart is shredding with every second that passes. Averting my eyes from them, I run towards the elevator, jabbing the button hard, ignoring Gabe’s frantic voice calling out to me. He grabs my hand and drags me inside an empty waiting room.

I push him away. “Liar! You both are liars!”

Tears flow down my cheeks as I scream at him. “How could he do this to me? He ruined my life. If she is his wife, then who am I?”

“Aaliya, it’s not like that,” Gabe implores.

I take a menacing step in front of him. “Explain to me what just happened out there. Explain why another woman is kissing my husband like she has a claim on him.”

Gabe pinches his forehead. “I don’t know, Aaliya. I don’t know what Celia is up to. But I can assure you that she is not his wife.”

“I don’t believe you!” I sink into a chair and put my hands on my face. The visual of Damien kissing that woman plays on loop in my head. It makes me want to throw up. What has my life come to? In the space of a few days, my entire reality has changed.

Gabriel kneels in front of me again. “Celia is a known manipulator, Aaliya. She only does things for her own convenience. I swear to you upon all that I hold holy that Damien married only one woman in his life and that is you. Celia was his late brother’s fiancée.”

And that’s why she looked so familiar!

She was in the funeral photographs I’d seen on the Internet that fateful night when I learnt about Damien’s accident and his truth. She was the one crying in his arms in that picture.

“What just happened?” I ask, still unconvinced.

“Stay here,” Gabe orders, “I’ll go and find out.”

Damien