Chapter 2

Three years.

I stood in the kitchen, staring at breakfast getting cold. The eggs were getting rubbery, and the coffee had that gross film on top. Outside, it was pouring rain, and the sky looked as shitty as I felt.

Today was special, though Lucas never gave a damn. Every year on this day, he got even more distant than usual.

"Morning, Lucas." I heard him coming downstairs and fixed my apron real quick. For three years, I'd tried to be a good wife, even though he barely noticed I existed.

Lucas walked into the kitchen in his black suit, looking grim as always. Those blue eyes of his looked right through me like I wasn't even there.

"I made your favorite—bacon and eggs..."

"I'm busy," he said, grabbing his keys and heading for the door.

I gripped my apron. "Lucas, it's pouring out there. Just eat something..."

The door slammed.

I stood there listening to his car drive away. Three years of this shit. Every single day. I was like a ghost in my own house, walking on eggshells.

The rain got worse. I sat in the living room all day, waiting for him to come home for dinner, waiting for him to say literally anything to me. But it got dark, and he still wasn't back.

At two AM, I heard the front door.

Lucas was back, but something was wrong. His suit was soaked, his hair was a mess, and his eyes were all red like he'd been crying. Weirdest part? He smelled like flowers and... dirt?

"Where were you?" I got up from the couch, getting a bad feeling. "Why do you smell like flowers?"

Lucas stopped and slowly looked at me. His eyes were empty, like he was seeing something that wasn't there.

"None of your business."

Those words hit me like a slap. I watched him stumble upstairs and disappear.

Every year on this day he takes off... Maya must have meant everything to him.

Next day, Lucas left early. I stood at the upstairs window, watching his car disappear into the rain. Then I remembered something—he never let me in his study.

For three years, that room was totally off-limits. Today... maybe I should see what he's hiding in there.

The study door wasn't locked. I pushed it open and just stood there, shocked.

Pictures of Maya everywhere. On every wall.

Her laughing in the sun, running on a beach, in a wedding dress... She looked so happy in every single one. I looked closer and saw dates and Lucas's writing on the back: "My moon," "Forever," "Never apart again"...

My hands started shaking. In his desk, I found a huge stack of letters. All addressed "To my Maya," but none of them had been mailed.

I opened one. Lucas's handwriting covered the page:

"My moon, if I could go back, I'd never let you leave. Every night I pretend you're still here. I know it's selfish, but I'd give up everything just to have you back..."

I started crying. I kept looking and found out Lucas had written down everything about Maya: she loved strawberry cake, she was scared of thunder, her birthday was April 15th...

Wait. April 15th?

Holy shit—today was my birthday too. My twenty-fifth birthday.

And Lucas had no clue.

I sat in that study for hours, surrounded by Maya's pictures and Lucas's love letters to her. So I really was just a replacement. He couldn't remember my birthday, but he remembered every little thing about some woman who'd been dead for five years.

When it got dark, I heard his car.

I didn't move from the study. I sat there with those letters, waiting for Lucas to come home. I needed answers. Real ones this time.

I heard him on the stairs, then he was standing in the doorway. When he saw me in his study, his face went white.

"What the hell are you doing in here?"

I held up the letters. "It's been three years, Lucas. Have you ever actually looked at me? Have you ever tried to love me?"

His face got dark. "Those aren't yours to read."

"Not mine to read?" I stood up, tears running down my face. "I'm your wife! I deserve to know what's going on in your head!"

"Wife?" Lucas laughed, but it was cold and mean. "You could never be Maya. She's gone, but she's still the only woman I'll ever love."

It felt like getting hit by a truck. Everything started spinning.

"Then what am I?!" I screamed.

Lucas looked at me with dead eyes. His voice was scary calm:

"A... business arrangement."

A business arrangement.

Not a wife, not a girlfriend, not even a friend. Just business.

I felt like I couldn't breathe. Three years of trying, hoping, hurting—it all exploded right then.

I ran out of the study, down the stairs, not knowing where to go. I just had to get out of that cold house, away from this man who'd never love me.

The basement door was open. I stumbled down there, looking for somewhere to hide in the dark.

That's when I saw it.

In the corner, some kind of stone was glowing. Soft blue light that looked almost like... moonlight.

I walked over to it, feeling something weird in the air.

What the hell was this thing?