Chapter 1
Chapter One
Aislinn
MY HUSBAND’S FUNERAL is crowded. Not with people who loved him or genuinely miss him, but with Washington, DC’s elite, politicians and bankers and investors who have shown up to supposedly pay their respects as they all play the same game of pretending they care.
Just like Dexter would have wanted.
I shake someone’s hand, listen to their lies about what a great man Dexter was. I bite back the bitter words that clog my throat and simply nod. Hopefully most will chalk it up as grief or at least have the decency to pretend like this is a normal funeral.
Pretend like most of us in this room aren’t glad Dexter is dead.
I can feel them watching me. Once upon a time I would have felt the weight of every curious gaze, every suspicious glance and pitying smile.
Would have been thinking of the newspapers’ lurid headlines speculating if Dexter Simpson’s wife, a woman nearly half his age who married him in a whirlwind romance just months before his unexpected death, had a hand in his demise.
Now, I feel nothing. Just emptiness. An emptiness that has helped me survive the past ten months since Dexter slithered into my life. Ten months since I had to cut the two people I loved most in this world out of my life.
Tears finally prick my eyes. Diana has texted me faithfully once a week. I hope one day I can tell her how much those texts have meant to me, gotten me through some of the worst days of my life.
And Liam…
My heart twists, tightens. I can’t think of Liam. I owe Dexter nothing. But thinking about my friend I’ve been secretly in love with since I was seventeen while greeting people at my husband’s funeral is a low I have no desire to sink to.
A couple moves forward in the endless line, older and dressed in black couture. They tell me how sorry they are. Out of the corner of my eye, I see my parents hovering.
Adoptive parents, I remind myself. Dexter threatened to destroy Liam and Diana’s careers if I didn’t sever our friendship. But he wanted my parents as close as possible. He couldn’t exploit his familial connection to a US senator if I didn’t maintain a relationship with my family.
I did think of them as family once. Thought I was the luckiest girl in the world to be adopted just before I aged out of foster care, and by a renowned politician and his wife no less.
A fairy tale come true. I thought the man I called “father” was different.
A politician of integrity, working toward a better world for the people he served.
God, I was so naive.
Senator Eric Knightley is no saint. He has secrets, dark ones Dexter collected and held over my head all the way to the altar.
Given how involved his wife, Stephanie, has been in his campaign, including managing donations, I can’t imagine a scenario where she’s not at least partially aware of what Eric did to secure his office.
I’m consciously trying not to wipe the palms of my hands on my pants when I hear it.
That deep, melodious rumble I’ve imagined so many times whispering words of love to me.
Not the sisterly affection he’s shown me for the past eleven years, but passionate words, a declaration that he feels the same way I do.
Out of the corner of my eye I see him. Tall, handsome as sin in a tailored black suit, his face comprised of sharp angles and lines that border on beautiful.
When he turns on the charm, which is often, his smile is big and bright.
But on the rare occasion I’ve seen him angry, the cut of his cheekbones and the slash of his jaw can go from sculpted to menacing in an instant.
If I would have told Liam that Dexter blackmailed me into marriage, he would have moved heaven and earth to help me.
But I couldn’t risk Dexter making good on his threats.
He wouldn’t have just revealed my adoptive father’s secrets.
He would have destroyed Liam and Diana, too, simply because he could.
The line shifts, and I see Diana is next to him. A different kind of ache takes hold. I may have developed other friendships over the years, but Diana will always be my first and truest friend. She’s trusted me with her deepest secrets over the years, as I have mine with her.
Well, all but one. I don’t want my feelings for Liam to ever come between Diana and me.
And I know, with how deeply she cares for both of us, she would be caught between knowing Liam never wants to settle down and my love for him.
Even if he saw me as more than a sister, he’s made it clear he has no interest in ever settling down.
I would love to have a life with him, but I want my future to include marriage.
Kids. Even now, after everything that’s happened, a part of me still clings to the slim hope that those dreams are still possible.
I push that aside. I accepted long ago that Liam and I would never be. I still have his friendship, and Diana’s, even after ignoring them for months on end. I’m not out of the woods yet. Dexter may be dead, but I don’t know who else may have the information he was holding over my head.
I couldn’t care less if the information sinks my adoptive father’s political career or not.
But I do care about the bill we’ve worked so hard on for the past two years, one that could improve the lives of foster children around the country.
Just a few more months, and once it passes, I’ll truly be free to move on with my life.
Maybe that step will include renewing my friendship with Liam and Diana.
I bite down on the insides of my cheeks to keep myself from smiling. I can’t smile at my husband’s funeral. But God, it’s going to be so good to talk to them, even if it’s just for a few hurried seconds. For the first time in nearly a year, it doesn’t feel like the world is ending.
“…congratulations on your engagement.”
It takes a moment for the words to penetrate the rise and fall of conversation around me. I swallow hard, try to fight the sudden fluttering panic inside my chest.
It can’t be. It’s not possible.
I turn to look, just in time to see Liam slipping an arm around Diana’s waist and pulling her against him.
My heart shatters. For one moment, I feel it all. Heartbreak, grief, fury, jealousy.
Why her? Why not me?
Knowing he would never settle down had made watching the parade of women streaming in and out of his life tolerable.
But this…this is more painful than anything I’ve ever experienced.
All these years I told myself Liam would never settle down, would never see me as more than a friend.
It made it easier when his picture appeared in the paper or online with yet another woman on his arm at some gala or fundraiser.
Made forcing myself to date and picture a life with someone else bearable.
And now he’s engaged to one of my best friends. How can I renew our friendship now? How can I pretend like I’m happy for them, stand up at their wedding, hold their children…
My stomach pitches up. I can’t. I can never be friends with them again.
I’ve lost everything.
Then, as if my will has asserted itself over my heart, everything vanishes. The shock, the anger, the heartache. All that’s left is a yawning emptiness. I slip into that blank space, embrace the nothingness.
“Aislinn?”
I blink. Stephanie is in front of me. The couple I was talking to have moved off to the side but are looking at me with concern, as are several people in line. Including Diana and Li—
No.
Stephanie reaches out and grabs my hand. I start to pull away but force myself to stop. Hurt flares in her eyes, but I ignore it. “Are you all right?”
I nod and gently pat the back of her hand. “Yes. Just tired.” I force a tiny smile for the benefit of anyone watching before I withdraw my fingers from her grasp. “As well as I can be.”
“You can take a break.”
“No.” I swallow, tamp down my anger. “I just want to get through this.”
I angle myself away before she can push me anymore. Angle toward Liam and Diana as I steel myself against the storm of emotions seething inside my chest.
Diana’s tentative smile nearly breaks me as she clutches her hands in front of her. The ring glitters, taunts. “Hi, Aislinn.”
Strong. I have to stay strong. I’ve been stronger than I ever realized I could be these past few months.
Just a little longer, I promise myself. Then you can rest. “Hello, Diana.”
Her face falls. She glances at Liam, but he doesn’t look at her. Instead, he’s staring at me, suspicion evident in his ice-blue eyes. It makes it easier to steady myself. To put him in the role of villain instead of the just-out-of-reach hero he’s played for so long in my dreams.
“We’re sorry for your loss,” he murmurs, his voice cool and formal.
“Thank you.” I force out my next words. “Congratulations on your engagement.”
Diana blinks, a tiny furrow appearing between her dark brows. “You… Did you not know?”
I thread my fingers together. Focus on the pain of squeezing my hands together so hard my knuckles turn white. “No.”
Diana glances up at Liam, but he continues to stare at me, his gaze probing. Assessing.
I stand my ground and stare right back. Yes, I’ve lied, covered for a man who sold his vote for a ticket to a senator’s office. But Liam lied, too. He lied to me since the first week I met him when he told me he would never get married.
Pain and anger push at the edges of my control. I push back. I need the emptiness. Need to not only get through this but erase any feelings I ever carried for Liam Whitlock.
Diana clears her throat. “Maybe we could all get together in a few weeks.”
Her invitation, coupled with her shy smile and the glimmer of hope in her eyes, makes me tremble. Waver. She’s innocent in all of this.
Then her hand comes up to brush a stray lock of hair out of her face. The ring glimmers in the light. Maybe once I would have been capable of putting Diana and whatever happiness she’s found with Liam above my own heartbreak.
But the woman I’ve had to become isn’t.
“Perhaps.” I nod to the line behind them. “I wish I could talk longer now, but—”
“Of course.” I swallow back a bitter taste in my throat as Diana grabs Liam’s hand and tugs him forward. “Just…we’re here, Aislinn. Always.”
I nod, not trusting myself to speak. I meet Liam’s gaze one final time.
Emotions surge. Loathing tangles with love.
I stare at his face, the familiar dark lashes framing ice-blue eyes, the faintest hint of the dimple in one cheek, the strong point of his chin.
Remember the countless movie nights, dinners and festivals we attended, the midnight conversations as we shared our dreams for our futures.
And then I turn my back. They’re no longer a part of my future.
Copyright ? 2026 by Emmy Grayson