PART 1

I hired a stranger to pretend to be my boyfriend for one afternoon because my ex-husband was bringing the woman he had left me for.

I expected people to whisper. I expected awkward looks, fake smiles, and maybe pity from the relatives gathered around the pool.

What I did not expect was for that stranger to notice the smallest thing about me—and expose exactly who had taught me to shrink myself.

When Daniel arrived at my house, my first thought was that he looked too good for this plan.

He was tall, confident, dark-haired, and dressed in a crisp white shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He looked like someone who belonged anywhere he walked.

I stood on the porch in my old blue sundress, gripping the doorframe like it could hold me together.

“I’m sorry,” I blurted before he even said hello. “I don’t look like my photos anymore.”

Daniel paused.

Then he said quietly, “You apologized before you introduced yourself.”

Embarrassed, I laughed. “Sorry. I’m Maggie.”

His expression changed slightly at the second apology, but he only held out his hand.

“Daniel.”

Inside the house, my children were yelling about goggles, towels, and who got to sit where in the car. I apologized for that too.

Daniel only glanced inside and said, “Sounds like kids excited for a pool party.”

I had not hired him because I wanted revenge.

I hired him because Ryan would be there.

And so would Lucille.

Three months earlier, Ryan had stood in our kitchen and told me he wanted a divorce. Then he added that he was with Lucille, his secretary.

She was younger, polished, and perfect in the way I had not felt perfect since before motherhood, laundry, sleepless nights, and years of being told I was no longer enough.

Ryan looked at me and said, “You’re not the woman I married. You used to be slim. You’re just not attractive to me anymore.”

After that, he took Lucille everywhere. Restaurants. Work events. Family gatherings. Even his mother Elaine’s house.

So when Elaine invited me and the kids to her Fourth of July pool party, I almost refused.

“You’re still family,” she told me.

“Ryan will be there,” I said.

“I know.”

“With her.”

Elaine was quiet for a moment. Then she said, “Don’t let him push you out of places where you belong.”

I wanted to be brave.

Instead, I hired Daniel.

On the drive, I apologized for traffic, the air conditioning, my daughter’s fingerprints on his window, and anything else my anxious mind could find.

Daniel didn’t comment. He just answered the kids’ questions.

Yes, he had acted in commercials.

No, he wasn’t famous.

Yes, he had once played a pirate at a dental convention.

“With a sword?” my daughter asked.

“With a toothbrush,” Daniel said.

For the first time all day, the car filled with laughter.

Then we reached Elaine’s street.

Ryan’s truck was already there.

Beside it was Lucille’s white convertible.

My stomach twisted.

Daniel noticed, but he didn’t give me a speech. He only asked, “Ready?”

I wasn’t.

But I nodded anyway.

Continue reading