Chapter 1 - The Photograph on the Floor
Audrey Calder had rehearsed six different ways to tell her husband she was pregnant.
None of them survived the moment she opened their bedroom door and saw another woman barefoot on the rug, wearing Dominic Calder’s white dress shirt, with both arms wrapped around his neck.
The ultrasound picture slipped from Audrey’s fingers.
Neither of them noticed.
For three terrible seconds, nobody moved.
Rain tapped softly against the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Gold Coast penthouse, forty stories above Chicago. Audrey could still feel the cold November air in her hair. She had rushed home so quickly after leaving her doctor’s office that she had forgotten to zip her coat.
She had imagined Dominic lifting her off the floor.
She had imagined his rare smile.
She had imagined placing his hand against her stomach and whispering, “We finally did it.”
Instead, Serena Voss slowly turned her face toward the doorway.
Audrey knew her immediately.
Everyone in Dominic’s world knew Serena.
His former fiancée.
The woman whose name people stopped saying whenever Audrey entered a room.
Serena’s lipstick was smudged.
Dominic’s hand was at her waist.
And Serena smiled.
Not warmly.
Triumphantly.
“You said she wouldn’t be home until seven,” Serena murmured.
Dominic dropped his hand as if he had touched fire.
“Audrey.”
“Don’t.”
Her voice came out so quietly that Dominic actually stopped.
Audrey had seen men twice her size go silent when Dominic Calder walked into a room. She had watched politicians change tables in restaurants to avoid being photographed near him. She had watched armed men lower their eyes when he passed.
But she had never seen Dominic afraid.
Until now.
“Audrey, this isn’t—”
“Don’t insult me with that sentence.”
Serena folded her arms.
Dominic looked at her.
“Get out.”
Serena blinked. “Dominic—”
“Now.”
Something in his voice changed.
Serena’s confident expression tightened.
She picked up a black dress from the edge of the bed.
Audrey almost laughed.
Almost.
“You can let her finish getting dressed,” Audrey said. “I’ve already seen enough.”
She turned away.
Dominic reached her before she made it to the hall.
He caught her wrist.
Audrey looked down at his hand.
“Take your hand off me.”
He released her immediately.
That hurt almost as badly.
Because Dominic Calder did not obey people.
But he obeyed her when he knew he had no right to stop her.
“Audrey, give me five minutes.”
“I gave you four years.”
His face changed.
Four years.
That was how long they had been together.
Two years dating.
Two years married.
Four years of learning how to sleep beside a man whose phone sometimes rang at 3:00 a.m. Four years of pretending not to notice the armored SUV waiting outside restaurants. Four years of learning which questions he could answer and which questions would make his jaw tighten.
She had never asked Dominic to become harmless.
She had asked him to become honest.
He had promised her that much.
Apparently, even that had been too expensive.
Audrey walked toward the elevator.
“Audrey.”
She kept going.
“I made a mistake.”
She stopped.
Slowly, she looked over her shoulder.
There was no confusion on Dominic’s face now.
No clever excuse.
No denial.
Just guilt.
That was worse.
“How long?”
Dominic said nothing.
“How long, Dominic?”
Serena appeared in the hallway behind him, now wearing her dress.
Audrey stared at him.
Dominic finally spoke.
“Six weeks ago.”
The room seemed to tilt.
Audrey put one hand against the wall.
“One time?”
“Yes.”
“Was that supposed to make it better?”
“No.”
“Did you sleep with her?”
Dominic closed his eyes for half a second.
“Yes.”
There it was.
One word.
A marriage collapsing in one syllable.
Audrey nodded slowly.
She had expected screaming if this day ever came. She had expected herself to throw something. She had expected rage.
Instead she felt terrifyingly calm.
May you like
“Thank you,” she said.
Dominic frowned. “For what?”
