Chapter 3

The smile on Kelsey' s face felt like a plaster mask, cracking at the edges. A cold sweat broke out on her forehead, and the chattering voices of the party guests faded into a dull roar. She had to get away.

She mumbled an excuse and fled to the powder room, the gilded wallpaper seeming to close in on her. She stared at her reflection in the ornate mirror. Her face was pale, her eyes haunted. This wasn't the confident, poised Kelsey Jensen everyone knew. This was a stranger, a woman hollowed out by grief.

She splashed cold water on her face, trying to quell the nausea rising in her throat. The pain in her chest was a physical weight, a crushing pressure that made it hard to breathe. It felt as if her heart was literally breaking.

As she dried her face, she heard a soft sound from the adjoining sitting room, a room rarely used during parties. A giggle, followed by a low murmur.

Her heart stopped. She knew that murmur.

She pushed the door open a crack. The sitting room was dimly lit, but she could see them clearly. Bennett had Aria pressed against a bookshelf, his mouth devouring hers. It wasn't a gentle kiss; it was hungry, possessive.

Aria's soft moans filled the small space. "Bennett," she breathed, her hands tangled in his hair. "Someone will see us."

"Let them see," he growled against her lips, his hand sliding down her back, cupping her bottom through the red silk of her dress. "I want to show you off." He pulled back slightly, his eyes dark with a lust Kelsey hadn't seen directed at her in years. "With Kelsey, it's all about the mind, the soul. With you... it's this." He gestured to their bodies, pressed together. "This is what's real."

The words sliced through Kelsey, a final, brutal confirmation of her deepest fear. She wasn't just being replaced; she was being devalued, her love and companionship dismissed as something cerebral and passionless.

"Be a good girl for me tonight," Bennett whispered, his lips tracing her jawline. "And I'll buy you that little Cartier bracelet you wanted."

"Yes, Bennett," Aria purred, her head tilting back in submission.

He gave her one last, hard kiss and then they moved towards the door. Kelsey scrambled back into the powder room, her heart hammering against her ribs. She watched them leave, his arm possessively around Aria's waist, and a wave of agony, so profound it was physical, washed over her.

She remembered their own intimacy, how it had always been careful, restrained, almost reverent. He had always claimed it was because he was so afraid of hurting her, of a passion that might lead to a pregnancy that could kill her. It was a lie. He wasn't afraid of passion. He just didn't feel it for her. He had been saving it for someone else. For the young, pliant girl who looked just enough like her to be a fantasy, but different enough to be an escape.

She felt a surge of cold, bitter understanding. Of course he was obsessed with Aria. She was the one thing Kelsey couldn't be: young, unburdened, and, in his mind, fertile. A blank slate on which he could write his own future, free of the Randolph family trauma.

The pain was a living thing inside her, a beast clawing at her insides. She somehow managed to compose herself, to walk back out into the glittering party, the mask of the perfect hostess sliding back into place.

She saw Aria across the room, a triumphant flush on her cheeks. A small, dark mark, a love bite, was visible just above the collar of her dress. The sight of it was a fresh torment.

Aria caught her eye and, to Kelsey' s shock, made her way over. She looked nervous, clutching a champagne glass.

"Mrs. Randolph," she began, her voice a little shaky. "The champagne... it's a bit too strong for me. Could you... could you get me some water?"

The audacity of it was breathtaking. The mistress, fresh from a secret tryst with her husband, asking the wife to fetch her a drink.

Kelsey' s insides coiled into a tight, furious knot. Her hand, the one with the sprained arm, trembled.

And then, disaster.

Aria, perhaps sensing the shift in Kelsey' s demeanor, took a nervous step back. She bumped into a tall, tiered display of champagne flutes, a centerpiece of the party. The tower wobbled precariously. For a horrifying second, it seemed to hang in the air, and then it came crashing down in a deafening cascade of shattering glass and foaming champagne.

Kelsey was directly in its path. She threw up her good arm to shield her face, but it was useless. Sharp shards of glass rained down on her, slicing into her arms and shoulders. One large piece struck her forehead, and a warm gush of blood streamed down her face. She cried out, stumbling backward, and fell hard onto the marble floor.

Through the ringing in her ears, she saw Bennett. He was running, his face a mask of terror. For a fleeting, foolish moment, she thought he was running to her.

But he ran right past her.

He went to Aria, who had been splashed with champagne but was otherwise unharmed. He pulled her into his arms, shielding her with his body as if she were the one in danger.

"Aria! Are you okay? Did you get hurt? The baby!" he cried, his hands frantically checking her over.

He ignored Kelsey completely. She lay on the floor, bleeding and broken, invisible to him. He looked down at her once, his eyes cold and annoyed, as if she were merely an inconvenience, a mess to be cleaned up. Then he turned his back on her, his entire focus on Aria, murmuring soft reassurances into her hair.

Kelsey lay on the cold, champagne-soaked marble, the shards of glass digging into her skin. She looked at the wreckage of the champagne tower, a perfect metaphor for her shattered life. The pain from her cuts was sharp, but it was nothing compared to the agony of being so utterly and completely abandoned.

She managed to pull herself up, her black dress now stained with blood. She walked out of the party, leaving a trail of bloody footprints on the pristine white marble. No one stopped her. No one even seemed to notice she was gone.

She took a cab to the nearest emergency room, the same one she had been to just a week before.

"Are you here alone, ma'am?" the triage nurse asked, her eyes full of professional pity as she looked at the gash on Kelsey's forehead.

"Yes," Kelsey said, her voice a hollow whisper. "I'm fine on my own."

From her curtained-off cubicle, she could see them. Bennett had brought Aria to the same hospital, to a private room down the hall. He was fussing over her, tucking a blanket around her shoulders, his face a picture of tender concern.

He stroked Aria' s cheek, his thumb gently wiping away a non-existent tear. "Don't you worry about a thing," he murmured, his voice carrying down the quiet hallway. "I'll take care of everything."

It was a painful echo of the words he had once said to her. The nurses on the floor were whispering, commenting on how devoted he was, what a loving partner he seemed to be.

Kelsey watched them, a spectator to the life that should have been hers. She saw him as he truly was now: a man who didn't just want a replacement, he had already replaced her. In his heart, in his life, she was already gone.

And in that cold, sterile hospital room, Kelsey knew she had to make it official. She had to disappear. For good.