Before I could process what had happened, a shadow streaked past the corner of my vision. Hubert hauled Clarissa out.

He didn't give me a chance to speak. His face was stone. He drove his foot into my stomach and sent me skidding three yards across the dirt.

His voice was low, thick with fury. "Lavinia. I gave you a chance."

"Take her to the basement. She comes out when she apologizes. Not before."

Bodyguards dragged me to a car. As they pulled me away, I watched Hubert guide Clarissa into his vehicle with exquisite care, one hand hovering at the small of her back.

Two cars of very different worth drove off in opposite directions.

Just like the distance between Hubert and me. Growing wider with every passing second.

The entire time I was locked in that basement, I refused to apologize.

The sealed space made it hard to breathe. All I could do was curl into myself as tightly as possible, searching for some small scrap of comfort.

Then a pair of leather shoes appeared in front of me. Hubert stood over me, looking down. "Ready to admit you were wrong?"

I thought of the graves, leveled to nothing, and the stubbornness in me held. "I wasn't wrong. Hubert, you know that plot of land—"

He cut me off before I could finish. "I know."

"Clarissa wanted it. So I gave it to her."

I stared up at him, eyes wide. "You gave it to her?"

In that moment, I felt like I was looking at a stranger.

Hubert shrugged it off. "Clarissa is beautiful and kind. If she hadn't carried me out of those mountains, I probably wouldn't be alive today."

"Lavinia, all you have to do is admit you were wrong, and I'll let you out."

The mountains? Clarissa saved him?

Three years ago, when Hubert was stranded in the mountains, I was the one who hauled him out. Step by step, his weight on my back, through the snow. He survived. I ended up in the hospital for two weeks. When I finally woke up, the first thing I learned was that he'd been cheating on me. That was what ended our marriage.

But how had the person who saved him become Clarissa?

I opened my mouth. "Hubert, maybe you should look into—"

"Mr. Stephens, please don't be hard on her. It's all my fault. I lost my footing and fell on my own. She absolutely did not push me…"

Clarissa clicked over in her heels and positioned herself at Hubert's side, instantly pulling every ounce of his attention.