---- Chapter 12 Jeremy Glass POV: | knelt on the floor, the fake charm digging into my palm. The room spun around me, a vortex of regret. | remembered the day the doctors told me Haylie might never wake up. | had sat by her bed, holding her limp hand, and | had sworn to her, to God, to whatever force was listening, that | would be worthy of her sacrifice. | would wait for her forever. A week later, | was drunk in a hotel bar, and Joselin was there, her hand on my knee, her voice a sympathetic purr in my ear. One thing led to another. The memory was a sour, putrid thing in the back of my throat. | remembered my father's cold logic: "A comatose wife is a tragedy. A cheating husband is a scandal. We need to control the narrative." | had let him. | had let him annul my marriage to the woman who was fighting for her life in a hospital bed, the woman who had given me a second chance at life. | had let him convince me it was a "temporary measure." Then | had married Joselin. | had brought her into Haylie' s home. | had slept with her in Haylie' s bed. | had let her wear a charm that was meant to be a symbol of my devotion to Haylie. ---- A wave of nausea so intense it buckled me over washed through me. | retched, a dry, painful heave. "Jeremy!" Joselin cried, rushing to my side. She tried to put her arms around me. "Don't touch me!" | roared, shoving her away. The revulsion | felt was a physical thing, a poison in my veins. "We' re getting a divorce." Her face, a mask of concern just a moment before, crumpled into shock. "What? Jeremy, no! You can' t!" "| can," | said, my voice raw. "I'm going to get her back. I'm going to get Haylie back." Joselin fell to her knees, grabbing my legs, her tears flowing freely. "Please, don't do this to me! | love you! I' Il do anything! I 1l even... ' Il even take her place! |' Il marry the man in the coma if it means you can be happy! Her words, meant to sound selfless, were a fresh stab of guilt. | had done this to her. | had used her, allowed her to be used, and now | was casting her aside. For a moment, | saw the last year through her eyes-the stolen moments, the secret meetings, the belief that she had finally won. | pulled my legs away from her grasp. "This marriage was a mistake, Joselin. My father' s mistake. My mistake. It has nothing to do with you." | was lying, to her and to myself, trying to absolve myself of some small fraction of the guilt. ---- She saw the flicker of weakness in my eyes and seized it. She threw her arms around me, burying her face in my chest. "Then don't divorce me," she sobbed. "Please. |' m so scared. | have no one else." | stood there, rigid, as she clung to me. | didn' t push her away, but | didn' t hold her either. My mind was a battlefield. | saw Haylie' s disappointed face, her cold eyes. | saw the pure, unwavering love she had once given me, a love | had carelessly tossed away. | looked out the window, at the gray, unforgiving sky. "| was wrong," | whispered, more to myself than to her. "I was So, so wrong." | finally looked down at the woman in my arms. "You have to understand, Joselin. It' s always been her. It will always be her." "| know," she whispered, her voice muffled against my shirt. "| don't care. As long as | can be with you, | don't care if your heart belongs to her." | closed my eyes. The path of least resistance was so tempting. Stay with Joselin. Let Haylie go. Avoid the pain, the fight, the inevitable rejection. But | couldn't. | owed Haylie more than that. | owed her the truth. "| need to think," | said, finally untangling myself from her embrace. She nodded meekly, wiping her tears. "Okay. |' II wait." ---- She walked out of the room, a picture of heartbroken obedience. But as she turned away, | could have sworn | saw a flicker of something else in her eyes. A cold, calculating glint. Her hand drifted down, resting for a moment on her flat stomach. A new plan was already forming. Another lie was about to be born.