The Wife He Paid to Leave

The watchmaker switches off the bench lamp in the dark shop, the green coat on its hook behind her.

The photo stayed face down in the drawer. The coat stayed on its hook. Neither one of them was me.

I caught my own face in the dark shop window on the way out. This time I didn't look for her in it.

Let Vivienne keep the picture. The work had my name on it, and that was the part nobody could take.

The Wife He Paid to Leave

Chapter 8 of 19

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Synopsis

I married Declan Pryce to save my watch shop. He married me to keep his family shares. I told myself the contract was enough. 'It was only a marriage on paper,' he says. Then his first love comes home, and he ends it with papers and a check. I take the papers. I leave the check. He sees my work in his own auction house. He hears Vivienne call me a copy of her. I don't beg. I don't break. Now he wants to know what was real. I need him to prove he can love the woman he paid to leave.