“Can you go to New York next week? To meet with some of my executives there?”

“I’d love to.”

This feels like more than winning. It feels like I can trust my gut again. That is the ultimate victory.

30ELISE

I head to the soccer field on a professional cloud nine, ready to root for my husband from the sidelines. I’m going to be the loudest wife there is. Wife. I didn’t think I’d slap that designation on myself ever again.

But being Christian’s wife has been more than fun. It’s been exactly what I needed in some unexpected way. Even though it’s only been a few weeks, I’ve learned that the institution of marriage, in and of itself, isn’t a farce.

Marriage can be a place for honesty, and openness, and communication. I rewind to the way we tease each other, how we talk frankly about nearly everything. I never had that with Eduardo. He was all wine and roses and romantic escapades. He was a master at seduction and he Casanova’d me.

It all felt so thrilling at the time, but as I reach the field and spot the silhouette of a tall, strapping man whose ring matches mine, I’m keenly aware that this marriage of convenience feels infinitely more real. My heart kicks faster when I see Christian, beats harder. Something powerful, something hopeful is brewing inside me. Come to think of it, the brewing is done. It feels more like my heart is brimming. Christian Ellison has done so much more for me than my first husband ever did, and I can’t wait to share my work news, to throw my arms around him, and to holler his name from the sidelines.

When I reach the field, I furrow my brow. He’s talking to a woman, and while that doesn’t bother me, something about her feels eerily familiar.

I don’t know why. Maybe it’s in the way she stands, arms crossed at her chest, jaw tight.

In an instant I know who she is, and I burn. I want to tell that con woman she never deserved Christian’s brother. I want to tell her for him, for me, and for anyone who’s ever been tricked in that sort of nefarious, underhanded way.

Righteous indignation sparks in me as I stride over and wrap an arm around my husband. Possessively. Letting her know we’re together. We’re a team.

She stares at Christian. “Can we please talk?”

“What do you need to say that can’t be discussed in a boardroom?”

Jandy gestures to me. “Is this the new Mrs. Ellison?”

He smacks his forehead. “Oh, wherever are my manners? Jandy, please let me introduce you to Elise Ellison.”

I didn’t take his name when we married, but I don’t mind that he calls me by it now. In fact, I like the sound of it. I wrap my arm tighter around his shoulder as he turns to me.

“Elise, this is Jandy. The woman who broke my brother’s heart.”

Jandy sighs heavily, as if it’s so exhausting to have to hear such a description. She extends her hand to shake. Her skin is cold. “Lovely to meet you,” she says, clearly lying.

“Pleasure to meet you.”

Christian stares at her point-blank then taps his watch. “Why are you here? I have a match, and I know you disturbed Erik during lunch, which pisses me right the fuck off. Can’t you at least let the man have a sandwich in peace?”

I recoil when I hear what she did, and I jump in instinctively. “That’s the least you can do. Let my brother-in-law be.”

Jandy ignores me and speaks to Christian again, her voice shaky. “Can we talk? Can we work something out? I really need to help my sister. Surely, you can understand helping a sibling.”

“I can also understand when someone is full of shit,” he says calmly, and I squeeze his arm, proud of him for giving this woman hell. She deserves hell. “You never said a word about your sister being sick, and all of a sudden you pull this notion out of thin air to prey on Erik’s sympathies. Well, I’ve got none for you. Zero. Zilch. You can’t prey on mine. I checked her Facebook page, and she went tubing down a hill yesterday.”

“That picture was from earlier in the year,” Jandy protests, then seems to shift gears, softening her tone. “Please. Let’s work together.”

He rubs his ear. “What’s that you said? Work something out? How on earth could we work something out?”

“I thought we could strike some sort of deal.” She gestures from him to me. “Like you two clearly have.”

My jaw drops. “Excuse me?”

“Oh, come now. You’ve been married a couple of weeks.” She turns to Christian. “That’s when her picture showed up on your Facebook page. Do you think I’m stupid?”

I laugh then cover my mouth.

Jandy glares at me. “Is something funny?”

I raise my chin. “It’s funny that you would ask that because I don’t think ‘stupid’ is the word anyone would use to describe you.”

She parks a hand on her waist, her elbow akimbo. “What word would you use?”

Oh, she’s walking into this one. “Cold.”

Christian raises a hand. “Callow.”

“Cruel.”

I flash Christian a wicked grin. “Classless.”

Jandy holds up a hand, but my husband gets in the last dig. “Cutting.”

“I second that. You’re totally cutting,” I add.

“You don’t know me,” she says, raising her chin. “You don’t understand what I’ve been through.”

Christian shakes his head, sneering. “Enough of the whole daddy talk. I don’t know what your issues are, and I don’t want to know. But this isn’t how you treat someone who treated you like the world. You were everything to my brother. He gave you his heart, and you stomped on it like it was rubbish.”

Her jaw is set hard, but her eyes are glossy. She seems to steel herself though, speaking through tight lips. “You don’t know me, and this isn’t about me.”

Christian holds up his hands. “Oh, it’s not about you? Then enlighten me. What is this about?”

“I came here because it’s clear this is some kind of sham marriage to trick the shareholders.”

Christian arches a brow. “Sham marriage?”

“Do you two really think they won’t be able to tell you married her simply to try to keep the company?”

“One, my grandfather’s trust outlined precisely how the firm would be handed over. Two, Elise and I are legally married, and three⁠—”

“How dare you suggest you know something about our marriage? You know nothing,” I say.

She snaps her gaze to me. “I know you married only a few weeks ago. And prior to that, I’d not heard you so much as existed.”

I step closer. “And do you know I met Christian more than a year ago? Do you know he asked me out on our first date last June on a boat tour in his hometown? Do you know we were on the same plane flying home? Do you know he courted me for a year?” I grab my phone, click on my handstand photos, and shove the screen in her face, covering his bottom half with my thumb. “Do you know I have pictures of him from that time because I was so utterly transfixed with him, and I believed fate had brought him into my life?”