The Wife He Asked to Keep Smiling (The Wives Behind the Applause #1)

He asked her for twelve more minutes.

Twelve minutes to walk onto the victory stage.

Twelve minutes to become governor.

Twelve minutes after his wife caught him kissing another woman.

For years, Dr. Adrienne Bell Kincaid has stood beside Wes Kincaid while he built a political future on her patience, her reputation, and the smile his cameras demanded.

She tolerated the interrupted shifts, the private sacrifices, and the campaign strategist who seemed to understand her husband better than she did.

Then Adrienne discovers the truth.

Five months of secret calls. Deleted messages. Intimate details about their marriage shared with Laurel Shaw. And two kisses Wes insists never became an affair.

Adrienne gives him one final chance to choose her.

He chooses the stage.

By the time the applause fades, Adrienne is gone. She takes back her name, builds the medical career his campaign tried to control, and begins creating a life in which she is no longer useful to anyone but herself.

Winning her back will require more than apologies, flowers, or a public confession. Wes must surrender the privileges that protected him, expose every lie he once called pressure, and prove that his love can survive without ownership, access, or applause.

But even if a powerful man learns how to change, the wife he betrayed is under no obligation to return.

An emotionally intense marriage-in-crisis romance featuring a powerful husband, a morally complicated other woman, emotional infidelity, public consequences, hard-earned grovel, open-door passion, and an original-couple HEA.