The world tilts sideways.

Marcus. Here. Now.

Of all the fucking moments.

"How long have you been standing there?" My voice doesn't sound like mine. It's too high, too thin.

"Long enough." He steps out of the elevator, and I notice things I've trained myself not to see for years. The way his smile never touches his eyes. The calculated looseness of his tie, like he's practiced looking casually disheveled. That cologne—God, that cologne—so strong it makes my eyes water.

Or maybe that's just panic.

Dominic moves, positioning himself slightly in front of me. A subtle shift, but Marcus catches it. His pleasant expression hardens.

"Protective, Kane? That's rich, considering you've been manipulating my wife for days."

"Your wife." Dominic's voice could cut glass. "Is that what she is to you? Because from where I'm standing, she's more like a trophy you've been neglecting in a closet."

"And you're what? Her knight in shining armor?" Marcus laughs, but there's an edge to it. "You don't even know her anymore. People change in ten years."

"Do they?" Dominic's hand finds the small of my back. Possessive. Claiming. "Or do they just get better at hiding who they really are?"

I should move away from his touch. Should put distance between us. Should do a lot of things that aren't standing here letting my husband and my ex-fiancé face off like two wolves over a kill.

But I can't seem to make my legs work.

"Elena." Marcus's attention shifts to me, and I see something flicker in his eyes. Something that might be hurt if I didn't know him better. "Are you going to let him speak for you now? After everything?"

"After everything?" The words burst out of me, sharp and bitter. "What everything, Marcus? Our marriage? Our partnership? Or do you mean the affair with my sister?"

His jaw tightens. "That's not—"

"Don't." I step forward, away from Dominic's touch, because I need to do this without his heat at my back, his cedar scent clouding my judgment. "Don't you dare try to spin this. I have the hotel receipts. The text messages. The fake pregnancy test you helped her stage."

Something crosses his face. Not shame. Marcus doesn't do shame. But calculation. I can see him running scenarios, figuring out his next move.

"Fine." He spreads his hands. "You want honesty? Yes, I slept with Lily. Yes, I knew about the fake pregnancy. But can you really blame me, Elena? You've never been fully present in our marriage. You've always been somewhere else. With someone else." His eyes cut to Dominic. "Or at least, wishing you were."

The accusation lands like a physical blow.

Because he's not wrong.

"That doesn't excuse—"

"No, it doesn't." Marcus's voice turns cold. Professional. The tone he uses in board meetings when he's about to go for the throat. "But let's talk about excuses, shall we? Let's talk about why you married me in the first place."

My heart stops.

"Marcus—"

"You showed up at my apartment ten years ago, crying, saying you'd made a mistake. That you couldn't marry Dominic. That you needed someone stable, someone safe." He takes a step closer. "You were wearing your wedding dress, Elena. Did you tell him that part? That you came to me in the dress you were supposed to wear for him?"

The room spins.

I can feel Dominic's eyes on me, burning into my back.

"I was confused," I whisper. "I was—"

"Pregnant." Marcus says the word like a weapon. "Or at least, you thought you were. Isn't that right?"

The silence that follows is deafening.

I can't look at Dominic. Can't see whatever expression is on his face right now.

"Is that true?" His voice is carefully controlled. Too controlled. Like he's holding himself together with piano wire. "Were you pregnant when you left me, Lena?"

The nickname breaks something in my chest.

I turn to face him, and the look in his eyes—God, the devastation there.

"I thought I was," I manage. "I took a test, and it was positive, and I—"

"And you ran to him." Not a question. A statement. Flat and final.

"I was terrified! I was twenty-two years old, and you were still trying to build your business, and we had nothing, and—"

"And I wasn't enough." He takes a step back. Then another. Like he can't stand to be near me. "Even before you thought you were pregnant, I wasn't enough. That's why you ran. That's why you chose him."

"No! Dominic, that's not—"

"Then what?" He's shouting now, all that careful control shredding. "Tell me, Lena. Tell me what the fuck happened. Because I've spent ten years trying to understand how the woman who said she loved me, who wore my ring, who planned a life with me, could just disappear. Could marry someone else two months later. Could never look back."

"I looked back," I whisper. "Every single day."

"But you stayed with him." The words are knives. "You chose him. You built a life with him. You—" He stops abruptly. "Or were you?"

"Was I what?"

"Actually pregnant." His eyes are steel. "Because if you were, where's the child, Elena? Where's this baby that was so important you had to abandon everything we'd built?"

The room tilts again.

Marcus makes a sound. Almost a laugh. "Oh, this is perfect. You didn't tell him."

"Shut up, Marcus."

"Tell me what?" Dominic moves closer, and I can smell cedar and bourbon and something wild, something dangerous. "What didn't you tell me?"

My throat is closing. I can't breathe. Can't think.

"Lena." He's right in front of me now, his hands on my shoulders, forcing me to look at him. "What. Happened."

"The test was wrong," I choke out. "I wasn't pregnant. I was never pregnant. It was a false positive, and by the time I found out, I was already—"

"Married to me," Marcus finishes. "Already committed. Already trapped."

"Is that true?" Dominic's grip tightens. Not painful, but desperate. "You weren't pregnant?"

"No." The word is barely a whisper.

"Then why—" He stops. His eyes widen. "Someone lied to you. Someone made you think you had to run."

And just like that, all the pieces click into place.

The fabricated photos. The fake pregnancy now. The decade-long manipulation.

Lily.

It's always been Lily.

"Oh my God," I breathe.

"What?" Dominic's searching my face. "What is it?"

But before I can answer, before I can tell him about the photos Lily showed me, the lies she fed me, the sister who's been poisoning my life for ten years—

Marcus speaks.

"Tell us both, Elena." His voice is deadly calm. Too calm. "What really happened ten—"