Melissa Peterson

In front of everyone, they gave the family heirloom to his cousin, hoping to watch me fall apart. I smiled instead. In six years of marriage, my husband Beau’s family had never truly accepted me. At my own welcome dinner, my mother-in-law, Caroline, placed the locket that symbolized the lady of the house around the neck of Daisy-Mae, Beau’s cloying cousin, and announced that she was the true soul of the family. My husband, a man who’d made a lifetime habit of avoiding conflict, simply stood silently to the side. Everyone was waiting for me to make a scene. What they didn’t know was that I was smiling because my exit strategy could finally begin. I made an elegant departure—not to our bedroom, but to the airport. By the time Beau received the divorce papers from my lawyer the next day, I was already on a flight to Venice. Goodbye, Mr. Beauregard. You and your family were now just a failed project on my otherwise flawless resume, a structure I had just......

Blair, the woman Jax had never gotten over, was back in Texas after her divorce. Everyone was waiting to see me, the Mexican immigrant, get thrown out on the street. After all, I had spent seven years as the unofficial fiancée of Jax Caldwell, heir to one of Texas’s wealthiest oil families. I had even given him a son. But then, out of the blue, he proposed. I hadn't even had a moment to feel the joy before I overheard him on the phone with his family’s attorney. “Why not just wait for Blair?” the lawyer asked. Jax’s voice was pure ice. “Blair needs to maintain her dignity. I’ll marry Elara first. In two years, once she has her permanent green card, we can get a clean divorce. No financial entanglements.” “It’s the perfect solution.” The attorney sounded skeptical. “Will she agree to a sham marriage?” A low, soft laugh came through the phone. “Of course she will.” “For a green card? She doesn’t have a choice.” … I stood frozen outside the stu......

Blair, the woman Jax had never gotten over, was back in Texas after her divorce. Everyone was waiting to see me, the Mexican immigrant, get thrown out on the street. After all, I had spent seven years as the unofficial fiancée of Jax Caldwell, heir to one of Texas’s wealthiest oil families. I had even given him a son. But then, out of the blue, he proposed. I hadn't even had a moment to feel the joy before I overheard him on the phone with his family’s attorney. “Why not just wait for Blair?” the lawyer asked. Jax’s voice was pure ice. “Blair needs to maintain her dignity. I’ll marry Elara first. In two years, once she has her permanent green card, we can get a clean divorce. No financial entanglements.” “It’s the perfect solution.” The attorney sounded skeptical. “Will she agree to a sham marriage?” A low, soft laugh came through the phone. “Of course she will.” “For a green card? She doesn’t have a choice.” … I stood frozen outside the stu......

I once had a best friend. She was so good to me, it felt like a performance. She married my ex-boyfriend, whose family was fantastically wealthy. She told me all rich men were terrible, so she was taking a bullet for me. She sold the Cartier wedding set he gave her, then told him the money was for my birthday gift. She maxed out the Amex Centurion card her husband had given her, then told him it was to pay off my gambling debts in Las Vegas. She was pregnant, but after sleeping with her husband's younger brother, she began to hemorrhage. She told everyone I’d been sleeping with strangers, and when she tried to talk some sense into me, I’d pushed her, causing the miscarriage. In the end, her husband dragged me to an abandoned warehouse outside the city and handed me over to some of his brother's criminal associates to make me "pay the price." I was violated there, and left to die in that wasteland. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day she cheated......

Blair, the woman Jax had never gotten over, was back in Texas after her divorce. Everyone was waiting to see me, the Mexican immigrant, get thrown out on the street. After all, I had spent seven years as the unofficial fiancée of Jax Caldwell, heir to one of Texas’s wealthiest oil families. I had even given him a son. But then, out of the blue, he proposed. I hadn't even had a moment to feel the joy before I overheard him on the phone with his family’s attorney. “Why not just wait for Blair?” the lawyer asked. Jax’s voice was pure ice. “Blair needs to maintain her dignity. I’ll marry Elara first. In two years, once she has her permanent green card, we can get a clean divorce. No financial entanglements.” “It’s the perfect solution.” The attorney sounded skeptical. “Will she agree to a sham marriage?” A low, soft laugh came through the phone. “Of course she will.” “For a green card? She doesn’t have a choice.” … I stood frozen outside the stu......

Blair, the woman Jax had never gotten over, was back in Texas after her divorce. Everyone was waiting to see me, the Mexican immigrant, get thrown out on the street. After all, I had spent seven years as the unofficial fiancée of Jax Caldwell, heir to one of Texas’s wealthiest oil families. I had even given him a son. But then, out of the blue, he proposed. I hadn't even had a moment to feel the joy before I overheard him on the phone with his family’s attorney. “Why not just wait for Blair?” the lawyer asked. Jax’s voice was pure ice. “Blair needs to maintain her dignity. I’ll marry Elara first. In two years, once she has her permanent green card, we can get a clean divorce. No financial entanglements.” “It’s the perfect solution.” The attorney sounded skeptical. “Will she agree to a sham marriage?” A low, soft laugh came through the phone. “Of course she will.” “For a green card? She doesn’t have a choice.” … I stood frozen outside the stu......

I once had a best friend. She was so good to me, it felt like a performance. She married my ex-boyfriend, whose family was fantastically wealthy. She told me all rich men were terrible, so she was taking a bullet for me. She sold the Cartier wedding set he gave her, then told him the money was for my birthday gift. She maxed out the Amex Centurion card her husband had given her, then told him it was to pay off my gambling debts in Las Vegas. She was pregnant, but after sleeping with her husband's younger brother, she began to hemorrhage. She told everyone I’d been sleeping with strangers, and when she tried to talk some sense into me, I’d pushed her, causing the miscarriage. In the end, her husband dragged me to an abandoned warehouse outside the city and handed me over to some of his brother's criminal associates to make me "pay the price." I was violated there, and left to die in that wasteland. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day she cheated......

I once had a best friend. She was so good to me, it felt like a performance. She married my ex-boyfriend, whose family was fantastically wealthy. She told me all rich men were terrible, so she was taking a bullet for me. She sold the Cartier wedding set he gave her, then told him the money was for my birthday gift. She maxed out the Amex Centurion card her husband had given her, then told him it was to pay off my gambling debts in Las Vegas. She was pregnant, but after sleeping with her husband's younger brother, she began to hemorrhage. She told everyone I’d been sleeping with strangers, and when she tried to talk some sense into me, I’d pushed her, causing the miscarriage. In the end, her husband dragged me to an abandoned warehouse outside the city and handed me over to some of his brother's criminal associates to make me "pay the price." I was violated there, and left to die in that wasteland. When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day she cheated......