There was only black. I saw nothing and thought about nothing in my dreamless sleep. It was wonderful.

I was woken up by Jace.

"Shit." I gasped, nearly having a heart attack. Jace looked around the mess I'd made of my room and let out a low whistle.

"You do know you share that bathroom with your sister, right?" I looked at the open door to the bathroom. I'd forgotten all about the second entrance. Brilliant. "If you wanted to block yourself in you should have locked her door."

Jace was acting so normal. It made me feel bad about the way I'd told him off. He'd been right. Magnus was no good for me. He was a creep and I couldn't believe how I'd treated my best friend for his sake.

"What are you doing here, Jace?" I didn't mean to sound so resentful when I asked. I just couldn't see anybody. Nobody I'd wronged and nobody who had wronged me. That was pretty much everyone I knew out.

"Izzy said you were majorly torn up about something. I called you to talk about it but some random guy picked up." Jace explained. I just kept looking at the open door and worrying about how just about anybody could have walked in.

"Can you go lock them out?" I asked. I would have got up and done it myself but I didn't want to be the weirdo who got up and trapped his friend in his bedroom. I didn't actually want to move either. Lying on my stomach had been really working for me.

Jace didn't seem happy about it but he went into the bathroom and locked the door anyway. When he came back he swung a leg over my desk chair and rested his arms on the back. A movement which would have been a lot more graceful if I didn't have the chair on its highest setting on account of my long legs.

He was waiting for my explanation and I felt I owed him that much. I was lucky to still have a friend in Jace who would come to check up on me just because my sister said I was in a bad mood. He should have been totally blanking me.

"I gave my phone to a valet. When Magnus' wife kicked me out of their apartment." I told him.

I was glad that I hadn't started to cry over it with Jace there. In all honesty, by that point I felt a little numb to it all. Not like I'd forgotten, don't get me wrong, I was crushed. It was more like my brain couldn't process that it had really happened.

Jace's gold eyes widened. "He has a wife? You're sure?"

"If he doesn't then leaving him alone with that angry madwoman who thinks she is was probably a big mistake." I stared at the bed and started picking loose fluff from the sheets. My own nonchalance had surprised me. I guess being around my friend was keeping me from getting all emotional.

Jace cursed. And cursed again. I blinked at him, confused by the outburst. For somebody who hated Magnus he was reacting pretty oddly.

"I knew I should have said something."

I recoiled. Not Jace, too. I was so done with secrets and betrayal and all that crap. I managed to sit up without making my discomfort too noticeable. "You knew about this?"

"No! I mean, not really." He stumbled uncharacteristically. "It's just, in the coffee shop..."

"What about it?" I urged. I had to know. Even though I wouldn't have been able to handle it if Jace had known about all this. Come to think of it, maybe Izzy had known. All those interviews with Camille she read and Magnus didn't come up at all? But no. She would have told me right away. "You have to tell me, Jace."

"I thought I saw him take a ring off when he saw you, okay? He put his hand in his pocket and then it was gone. But I thought 'No way.'" Jace told me.

I remembered how awkward and suspicious Jace had seemed at JJ's and it started to make sense. I probably would have stared Magnus down too if it had been the other way around; looking for any sign to confirm what I'd seen.

"Why didn't you say something?" I breathed.

"Would you have believed me?"

I was ashamed to admit that I probably wouldn't have. I would have told him he got it wrong; maybe that he saw glitter nail polish in the light and the glint confused him. Come to think about it... When I first met Magnus...

I was so stupid.

"I kinda hoped that if I ran him down enough you'd leave him on your own." Jace said, regrettably. "And we wouldn't have to find out if he was really..."

"Married." I finished for him. Saying the word still made me feel ill. It made me remember Robert - who, hey, I might as well start calling Father again. It's not like he's any worse than me - leaving the house. I kept picturing myself as Annamarie.

Anna realising that there was an age gap.

Anna getting touchy about all the texting.

Anna wishing the wife didn't exist.

That last one was so spiteful but so true. I wished that Camille didn't exist. I didn't hate her, that wasn't it. I just hated the role she'd been cast in. I would have wished any woman (or man) gone. I didn't mean to want what she had. I just did. So much.

"I'm just like her." I said to myself.

"The wife?" Jace raised an eyebrow at me. So natural. It was good to know nothing had really changed between us, at least.

I shook my head at him. "The mistress."

We talked for a long time about that, about how Jace didn't think I was a bad person because I hadn't known. I told him about what Camille had walked in on, what me and Magnus had done together. He was more shocked to hear that his wife was a star like Camille.

When he noticed my packed bag and we talked about that, too. How I didn't want to have to see my Mother knowing what I'd done and what had happened to her. Jace didn't think it was a good idea. He said I'd only worry her if I up and left without an explanation. I reminded him that I was the right age to move out and he reminded me that I didn't have any money. So that plan went out the window.

Jace helped me put my room back in order, seems as I would be staying in there, and offered to be there when I tried to explain myself to my Mother. I told him it was alright so he offered to go get my phone back for me. That one I said yes to and tossed him the keys to the car (Jace drove but he didn't have a vehicle of his own).

A few hasty directions later and he was gone, opening the door to an eavesdropping little sister. I smiled sadly.

There were a few things I had to tell her. She deserved to know what had really happened with our parents and she deserved to find out now that I knew what I was talking about. I'd finally be able to give her a rounded account without sounding like I was trying to make her choose a side; because I wasn't sure there were even sides to choose between anymore.

"Come in, Izzy. I think it's about time I started talking to you again..."

Keeping fingers crossed that this made sense and didn't seem to come out of nowhere! Thank you for reading thus far, everybody, "One and the Same" is coming next.