The moment Gavin left, I got in the car and drove to his hometown.

I stood at the entrance to the courtyard, my nerves wound tight as I peered inside. A young girl, about five or six years old, was bouncing around the yard playing by herself.

She spotted me and shouted toward the house. "Mom, someone's here!"

My heart seized.

Elise Carver slowly walked out, with one hand cradling her swollen belly. She looked even softer in person than she had in the wedding photos, wearing pajamas and slippers with an easy smile on her face.

From the size of her belly, she couldn't have been far from her due date. She had a spatula in her hand as if she'd been in the middle of cooking. Everything about her radiated the image of a devoted wife and mother.

I stared at her, my brows creasing. The ring on her finger was identical to the one on mine.

"Can I help you?" She smiled at me pleasantly, as though she had no idea who I was.

My throat felt raw. "Who are you to Gavin Prescott?"

Elise was about to answer when the girl beat her to it, bouncing with excitement. "He's my daddy!"

Elise nodded along, confirming it like it was the most natural thing in the world.

So it was true. The reality of the situation hit me like a wall.

"When did you two get married?"

Irritation flickered across Elise's face. "What does that have to do with you?"

"It has everything to do with—"

But before I could finish speaking, two older figures rushed out from inside, their expressions guarded and hostile. They were Gavin's parents. They positioned themselves in front of Elise like a shield and looked at me like I was a threat.

"You're not welcome here. Leave."

I was so furious that I almost laughed. "Why should I? You owe me an explanation."

"There's nothing to explain." Gavin's father, Paul Prescott, grabbed a broom and leveled it at me, his eyes full of warning.

"Elise is carrying our grandchild. She doesn't need this kind of stress from you. Get out. Now."

They were treating me like I was the intruder in their perfect little family, an enemy at the gates.

Elise looked genuinely confused. "What's going on here? Are you looking for my husband? He's away for work and won't be back until the weekend.

"If you're a friend of his, you're welcome to stay for dinner. It's really no trouble, just one more plate at the table."

She looked like a woman completely wrapped up in her own happiness. My heart twisted so hard that I couldn't breathe. She was nearly full-term. If I destroyed everything right now, the consequences would be more than I could bear.

I turned around and left, feeling completely numb. When I got home, Gavin was already waiting in the living room. His parents must've messaged him.

"Why did you go to my hometown? She's about to give birth. She can't handle that kind of shock. If you have a problem, you take it up with me. She's innocent in all of this."

Fighting back my tears, I sat on the couch and stared at him coldly. He dropped to his knees and started slapping himself across the face, hard, again and again.

"Sienna, I'm so sorry. This is all my fault. Please, just give me another chance."

"She's really your wife? You actually have children together?"

He clenched his jaw and nodded.

The blood drained from my face, and my voice shook. "Between the two of us, who is your wife?"

His expression turned grim, and he told me the truth piece by piece.

He and Elise had grown up together as childhood sweethearts, but he'd fallen for me at first sight in college. During our second year together, he went home for the holidays, got drunk, and ended up sleeping with her.

"You were so focused on your career back then. You hadn't made time for me in forever, and I just... I slipped.

"And you never wanted kids. My parents resented you for it. I was stuck in the middle with no idea what to do.

"Then that one night got her pregnant, and my parents were thrilled. They threatened to disown me if I didn't let her keep the baby.

"I figured that since you didn't want to get pregnant anyway, I wouldn't push you. So I just let it happen."

I was so furious that I laughed.

I questioned, "So you built a second family with her back home?"

Gavin nodded.

"Sienna, you have to believe me. You're the only one I love. If I had feelings for her, I would've been with her from the start. Why would I have chosen you?"

He was desperate to prove his loyalty, but all I felt was revulsion. I stared at him coldly. Was this really the same man I'd fallen in love with?

After we got married, he'd treated me so well. He knew I didn't like spending time with his parents, so he never once pressured me to visit his hometown. He was always trying to smooth things over between the two of them and me.

If either of them said a single bad word about me, he'd shut it down immediately. He'd even spent three straight years celebrating the holidays with my parents instead of his, and he didn't care when his own mother and father called him in a fury over it.

I would never forget how he'd stood in front of my parents and sworn, with absolute conviction, that he would never let me down and never let me be hurt.

And the entire time he was making those promises, he'd had another family waiting for him back home. He'd lied to me for five full years. Every trip back was to see his other wife and daughter. He'd even gotten his childhood sweetheart pregnant a second time.

The happiness I thought I had was nothing but a joke, something I'd invented in my own head.

"Sienna..." Gavin reached for my hand. "I'm begging you. Don't leave me."

I shook him off in disgust, swallowing down the nausea rising in my throat. "You don't want a divorce?"

Hope flickered across his face.

"Then what about your sweetheart and your daughter?"

"She doesn't care about any of that. All she wants is stability. She has my parents and the kids. She doesn't care who I come home to, as long as you don't make a scene back there and embarrass her.

"She'll take care of my parents, and it'll be one less thing you have to worry about."

I couldn't hold it in anymore. I grabbed the trash can next to me and threw up. "So what, she's your mistress tucked away in the countryside? You're both disgusting."

I slapped him across the face, got to my feet, and shoved him out the door. He knelt outside, begging and pleading, and it went on for what felt like forever until his tone suddenly shifted to panic.

"Sienna, my daughter's being bullied by the kids at her preschool. I have to go check on her." And then he was gone.

I stared at my reflection in the mirror. My face was as white as a sheet, and my eyes were bloodshot. My head was pounding so badly that I collapsed onto the bed and passed out.

I slept until the middle of the night, and Gavin still wasn't home. But my mind was sharper than it had been in days. I couldn't keep living like this. I needed to divorce him.

I dug up the phone number I'd saved from Gavin's phone, the one belonging to Elise, and sent her a message.

"I'd like to talk to you about Gavin's bigamy."

Her reply came almost immediately.

"Okay."

We met at a KFC near his hometown. I looked up at Elise, and my heart ached for her despite everything. I told her the whole truth, every last detail, and held nothing back.

"I've already talked to a lawyer. What he's done is bigamy. We can press charges."

Elise's expression stayed perfectly calm. "And then what?

"Sienna, you don't actually think I had no idea he married you, do you?"

I froze, and a chill crawled down my spine.

Elise let out a mocking little laugh. "I've known since college that he fell for you and married you."

"Then why did you still—"

"Because I don't care. Everyone back home knows that we grew up together. As far as they're concerned, we're the real couple, and you're the shameless homewrecker who broke up a family.

"And here's something you probably don't know. Your marriage certificate is fake. I'm the one on his real marriage license. I'm his legal wife, and I'm not about to help you prove that he committed bigamy."

For a moment, I couldn't speak. "Regardless of all that, he still cheated on you."

She shrugged like it meant nothing. "He doesn't even have real feelings for you. Why would I care? He was only doing it so that our daughter and I could have a better life."

I asked, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Elise replied, "Exactly what it sounds like. He never loved you.

"Gavin and I have been together since we were teenagers. When he chased you in college, when he sweet-talked you, all of that was for your family's money and connections.

"And while I was pregnant, you were handling his needs for me, like some free whore. So really, why would I care?"

Elise looked down at me like I was beneath her. "You're the mistress I signed off on. As long as my position as the real wife is secure, I couldn't care less about you."

I was stunned by the sheer audacity of her words. She looked thrilled with herself.

"I'm carrying the Prescott family's firstborn son. His parents only recognize me as their real daughter-in-law. If I wanted to, I could have you thrown out tomorrow.

"Sienna Sanches, to us, you're nothing.

"If your family didn't have money or if you couldn't fund Gavin's business, he wouldn't have given you a second look. We grew up together. I gave myself to him the day I turned 18.

"He's told me more than once that every time he touched you, it made his skin crawl. He had to take pills just to get it up.

"And your family almost going bankrupt? That wasn't bad luck. He deliberately funneled your family's key projects to a competitor, all because you were clinging to him, and I got a little jealous.

"Plus, that million dollars he borrowed from you, the one he said was for a business emergency? He spent it on my engagement ring and our wedding. Because I was the one worth investing in, and you were just the fool giving it away for free."

Elise's smirk widened. "So why would I waste my time worrying about someone as worthless and embarrassing as you?"

I was shaking with rage. I raised my hand to slap her, but she moved faster.

She slapped herself hard across the face, once, twice, until her cheeks were red and swollen. Then she dropped to her knees, wrapped her arms around my legs, and burst into tears.

"Ms. Sanches, you have all the money and power in the world. It would be so easy for you to destroy me. But I'm begging you, for the sake of my baby, please stop going after my husband.

"My husband only has eyes for me. Even if you try to throw money at us to tear us apart, we will never give in."

I stood there, completely blindsided. And where no one could see, Elise dug her nails into my thigh so hard that I yelped. The pain was so sudden and sharp that I kicked out on instinct.

She crumpled to the floor, clutching her stomach, her face going pale. "Ms. Sanches, just because you want my husband doesn't mean you can try to kill my baby! Are you trying to drive me and my child to our deaths?"

Every pair of eyes in the restaurant turned on me, filled with hatred. I was shaking from head to toe. A few people rushed forward, pulling Elise behind them protectively and shoving me back hard. I stumbled and hit the ground.

Before I could even get up, someone spat on me and kicked me. "Disgusting homewrecker. You make me sick."

My head struck the leg of a chair, and everything went black.

When I came to, I was in a hospital. It was dark outside, and there was a message from Gavin on my phone.

"Daily check-in photo. I'll be home tomorrow."

The photo looked completely ordinary, like he'd never been living a double life at all. A wave of grief washed over me.

Right then, a message came through from an unknown number.

"Do you know what Gavin is doing right now?"

I tapped in and saw that the person had sent me a photo of a birthday cake. It was Elise's birthday, and the whole family was celebrating together.

Gavin's parents were in the picture, along with every one of his close friends. It made one thing perfectly clear. Elise was the one they all considered Mrs. Prescott.

And me? I had truly become what they called the mistress—the shameful secret no one wanted to acknowledge.

Rage and pain hit me at the same time. I pulled my knees to my chest and sobbed.