Blurb：
After five years of marriage, Adrian Vaughn shattered Cora's world at her mother's funeral, demanding a divorce for his young accompanist Hailey. Humiliated and grieving, Cora embraced her secret identity as Aria—the anonymous pianist sensation—vowing to make Adrian regret his cruelty. As her debut tour approaches, the masks come off, and the classical music world will witness the ultimate revenge. When tragedy strikes Adrian, will Cora show mercy or echo his heartless words: "No. Today"? A tale of betrayal, hidden talent, and triumphant comeback.Content：
Five years into my marriage with Adrian Vaughn, he brought his piano accompanist home.He cornered me at the funeral home, just moments after my mother’s cremation, to tell me he wanted a divorce. The scent of wilting lilies and antiseptic hung in the air, a sickening cocktail.
“I connect with someone like Hailey,” he said, his voice devoid of the warmth I once cherished. “Someone with an artist’s soul. Being with you, Cora… it’s just dull.”
Grief was a physical weight, a stone in my chest. I could barely breathe, let alone process his words. Tears I thought I’d run out of pricked at my eyes again. “Can’t we talk about this another day?”
A cruel, dismissive smile touched his lips. “No. Today.”
I took a deep, shuddering breath and nodded, the fight draining out of me. “Fine.”
What he didn’t know was that “Aria,” the anonymous, masked pianist currently taking the classical music world by storm, was me. And that next month, my debut tour was scheduled to begin, where I would finally show my face.
Later, much later, Adrian would be laid up in a hospital bed after a car wreck, his arm in a plaster cast. He’d find me on the day of my wedding, his eyes wild with desperation, and cry, “Can’t it be another day?”
And I, echoing the ghost of his past cruelty, would look at him with a cold smile and say, “No. Today.”
1
Adrian was a pianist. It was the core of his identity. In the years we were married, his life was a blur of concert halls and international tours. Our home was little more than a place for him to store his things between flights.
A few weeks ago, he had a performance in our city. I didn’t tell him I was going; I bought a ticket online and slipped into a seat in the back, just wanting to feel close to him for a night. But as I was leaving the venue, I heard the familiar banter of his friends echoing from the green room.
“Damn, Adrian,” one of them crowed, “you’re really getting the full service from that accompanist of yours. Hailey’s what, twenty-two? You lucky bastard.”
A young woman’s voice, feigning modesty, followed. “Adrian is the brilliant one. I’m just happy to be near him…”
Before she could finish, Adrian’s voice, the voice I knew better than my own, cut in. “Alright, guys, lay off. Hailey’s sensitive. Don’t want to scare her away.”
The jeering continued. “Ooh, protective, are we? What about the ball and chain at home? Isn’t she going to lose her mind when she finds out?”
The air went still for a second. Then came Adrian’s cold, dismissive laugh.
“Why would you even bring her up? She’s the housekeeper’s daughter. Do you really think I don’t come home because I’m busy? The woman is a bore. Seeing her face is a chore. I’m ending it as soon as I get back.”
The world went flat and gray. I don’t remember walking home. I remember the buzzing in my ears, the way the streetlights smeared into meaningless streaks of light. Then, the phone rang. It was the hospital. My mother was gone.
I knew it was coming. The cancer had been relentless. But for both blows to land on the same day felt like a special kind of cosmic cruelty.
There was no time to process Adrian’s betrayal. I threw myself into the grim logistics of death, the endless paperwork and phone calls. The funeral was a blur of hushed condolences and sympathetic looks from people I barely knew.
I had just walked out of the chapel, clutching the small, heavy box of my mother’s ashes, when I saw him.
He wasn’t there for my mother. He was there for himself. And standing beside him, her hand clutching his arm, was the other woman.
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The End