MY LAST WISH WAS TO FORGET HIM

I used up my last wish after the paparazzi caught my husband taking his first love to a prenatal appointment in Paris. I want to forget Dominic Vandermere.

At eighteen, I wished for him to fall in love with me. At twentytwo, with his business in ruins, I wished for him to rise again.

At twentyeight, I smiled into the cameras and told the paparazzi I would be stepping aside for his first love.

Behind me, Dominic held his anger down. "She's talking nonsense." Chapter 1 Dominic slid an arm around my waist. His chest was warm against my back.

He still seemed to be exactly what he had always been. The head of the family's real estate empire, a man who loved his wife more than his own life.

He turned a warning look on the photographer who had spoken so bluntly. "Which tabloid are you with? Watch your mouth.

I don't want to see anything made up in the papers tomorrow." Then he took my hand and laced his fingers through mine, in front of everyone.

A moment later he tipped his head down to kiss me. Just before his lips reached mine, I turned my face away, easy as anything. Dominic went still.

The arm around my waist tightened a little. He looked down at me. "What, you don't actually believe that nonsense, do you?" He knew me too well. I loved Dominic.

From the day I met him, I had believed every word out of his mouth. After we married, the tabloids ran one story after another about him. He only ever said he was playing a part.

He was proud, I knew that. He thought too highly of himself to want any of those women who came and went.

It stung, but all he had to do was coax me a little and I would soften and let it go. Every time. Dominic made a small gesture to his assistant.

Security dragged the photographer off. I knew his tabloid would be gone from Los Angeles by tomorrow.

I looked up at Dominic and changed the subject without letting anything show. "How did the deal go?" Dominic let out a breath.

He had taken what I said about stepping aside as a joke. Something eased in his face when he heard the question.

He stopped worrying entirely. "Evie, you don't need to worry about business. You just have to be a good Mrs.

Vandermere." "Did you have a good time at your birthday party?" He had arranged all of it in advance. The party was enormous, no expense spared. Only the leading man wasn't there.

I carried my glass over to a corner, and the talk came through clearly. "Mrs. Vandermere really is a lucky one.

Married all these years, no children, and he still doesn't hold it against her." "What's the point of a party this size when her husband's out of the country?" "Haven't you seen the gossip?

Ms. Iverson's already showing, and he took her to her prenatal appointment." "She just wasn't blessed, is all.

The wife has the title and nothing else, and still can't produce a child.

Once that other baby is born, who knows how they'll end up dividing the Vandermere fortune." I took a deep breath. Then I turned and went to find Bianca.

She was in a bright dress, leaning against the terrace railing, flirting lazily with some real estate family's heir. "Give me your phone." She bit her lip and hesitated before she put it in my hand. "You… you can't get mad when you see it," she said under her breath.

My phone had been custombuilt on Dominic's orders. It filtered out every piece of gossip about his love life, every negative story, every rumor.

I used to think that was just how thoughtful he was, that he couldn't bear to have me troubled by any of it. Chapter 2 It never occurred to me that he only wanted me in the dark.

Bianca was a spoiled, delicate rich girl. She set her sights on Dominic while she was still in school. He was young, and already married. She made trouble for me a few times.

Whatever Bianca felt for Dominic came fast and went just as fast. It was that straightforward streak in her that did it.

After all the circling and scratching, somehow we ended up friends. I took Bianca's phone and typed in the keywords. The top result on the trending list was hard to look at.

The photo hit me full screen, every detail sharp. Dominic in a crisp black suit, standing straight, expensive down to the line of his shoulders.

He was turned slightly, shielding Tamsin at his side, careful about it. There was no one in his eyes but the woman in front of him. His face was gentle. Almost reverent.

The caption was blunt. [DOMINIC VANDERMERE TAKES FIRST LOVE TO PRENATAL CHECKUP — LOVE CHILD ON THE WAY?] I handed the phone back to Bianca.

I could still pull up a smile. "It's a good picture." "The paparazzi make things up," Bianca said quietly. "It doesn't have to be true.

Don't take it to heart…" But this time it was true. I knew that better than anyone. Tamsin was different. She was the one Dominic had buried deep in himself and never gotten over.

Everything that had to do with her was real.

Every woman Dominic had ever been linked to had one thing about her that was like Tamsin. "Paris was rushed, but we closed a big one." There was indulgence in Dominic's face. "Evie, I bought you a vineyard estate over there.

And I brought back two bottles of their best reserve." I looked at the extravagant gift box without saying anything. He had forgotten that I don't like grapes.

Those first years in Los Angeles, scraping by with him, I ate a lot of grapes that were sour and half rotten because they were cheap.

Dominic kept smiling and kept producing gifts, handing them to me one at a time. "And this perfume." He sprayed it into the air. A heavy aquatic scent. I couldn't help sneezing.

Of every kind of perfume there is, aquatic is the one I can't be around.

Dominic apologized over and over. "The sales associate must have packed the wrong one." Then he brought out a couture handbag. "Hermès, from the archive collection.

I brought it back specially for you." I glanced at it. The colors were loud. Nothing like what I wear. I couldn't say I liked it.

But it would turn into a beautiful string of numbers. I let a small smile touch the corner of my mouth.

When he finally saw me smile, Dominic, who had been tense all day, let it all go. He reached over and gently ruffled my hair. "That's better.

There's nothing I like more than seeing Evie smile." His voice had that low, easy weight a grown man's voice gets. A handsome face, deepset features.

I looked at him quietly, and for a moment everything went hazy. Ever since the day of that wish, his face had been growing fainter in my mind.

The lean, blazing boy he had been was gone. Years of riding the market had turned him into the head of the Vandermere family.

One of the most powerful men in Los Angeles, steady and untouchable.

Dominic saw the box of wish candles still sitting out on the nightstand. "You used the last wish?" He had bought that box the year he was eighteen, off the counter at a corner convenience store.

Just something small to round out what he was already buying. He had happened to see me backed into a corner by a group of thugs.

He shoved the box into my hands to make me feel better. There were only three candles inside. Three wishes. That was when I made the first one.

He laughed with his whole face back then. Dominic really did fall in love with me.

We were building something in Los Angeles, and just as it started to take off, his business was hit hard. Chapter 3 I made the second wish.

I wished for him to come all the way back, for his business to rise higher than it ever had. The last wish, I meant to keep for the rest of my life.

Because I was already the happiest person in the world.

He laughed softly. "So what did you wish for this time?" I put the printed divorce agreement in front of him. "Sign it and I'll tell you." Dominic took it without thinking.

Then he saw what it was. The smile went out of his face by inches. That handsome face turned dark. "Evie, this joke isn't funny." Dominic