Our Thirtieth Wedding Anniversary is His First Love’s Birthday

For thirty years, Hermione has served Richard as a devoted wife, raising their children and grandchildren while he built the Hawthorne Group. When a high fever leaves her alone and a yellowed marriage certificate falls from the bedside table, she discovers that Richard registered his marriage to her own older sister, Margareth, twenty-five years ago. Every time she asked for a certificate, he dismissed it as a mere piece of paper.

Now Margareth has returned, and Richard plans a grand fifty-eighth birthday party for her aboard a new yacht, timed to their thirtieth wedding anniversary. He even buys negative news to ruin Hermione's reputation. Her children side with their father, and Hermione finally accepts a job offer from Margot, asking only that Margareth's past thirty years be investigated.

With a one-way ticket booked for five days later, Hermione prepares to leave the family that never truly claimed her.