Chapter 4

Three days before the wedding, the planners delivered our wedding bands.

Austin was in the middle of a video conference in the study, so he asked me to sign for them first.

I signed the receipt and carried the heavy box into his study.

He was listening to a subordinate's report, his face stern.

The moment he saw me walk in, his expression softened, and he gestured toward the corner of his desk, indicating I should set it down.

I placed the box on the desk.

As I turned, my elbow accidentally knocked over a stack of documents.

Papers spilled across the floor, exposing a design sketch that had been buried underneath.

I bent down to pick them up.

My hands froze the moment I saw what was on the page.

It was a sketch for a custom ring design.

The center stone was an exquisite pink diamond, and the inner band bore a cursive engraving: Only One.

The date at the bottom was from just two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, the wedding ring I had just signed for featured a standard white diamond, engraved with S&A for Shannon and Austin.

Austin slipped off his headphones and walked over. "What's wrong?"

Following my gaze to the sketch, his posture stiffened. Smoothly, he pulled it away and slipped it into a folder.

"It's nothing. Just a discarded draft."

His tone was completely natural as he draped an arm around my shoulder. "Did you try the ring on? Does it fit?"

I looked at him and smiled. "Not yet. I'll try it tonight."

At two in the morning, the man beside me was breathing evenly in deep sleep.

I slipped out of bed on quiet feet and padded into the study.

I unlocked the safe—the passcode was my birthday.

Inside lay two identical navy-blue boxes.

I opened the one on the left.

A pink diamond, dazzling and brilliant, inscribed with Only One.

I opened the one on the right.

A white diamond, inscribed with S&A, utterly ordinary.

Austin once told me: "Shannon, you are my one and only."

Turns out, his true "Only One" was never me. It was the rightful owner of that pink diamond: Chloe.

I took out both rings.

And swapped the boxes.

I placed the pink diamond into the box meant for the wedding ceremony, and put the white diamond into the box destined for Chloe.

Once finished, I locked the safe back up.

Back in the bedroom, Austin rolled over, his arm instinctively reaching out to pull me close.

I dodged his touch and lay down right at the edge of the mattress.

Moonlight spilled across the floor, illuminating the calendar on the nightstand.

A date was circled in bold red ink.

Three days left.