Chapter 2

I didn't wait for Julian to finish. I yanked the door open and bolted out like I was fleeing for my life.

In the car, watching the scenery slide backward past the window, the blank fog in my head slowly filled with old memories.

When Julian and I first got together, he and Chloe couldn't stand each other.

They bickered the second they were in the same room, and I was always stuck in the middle, soothing one and then rushing off to calm the other.

Then somewhere along the way, the two of them got quiet around each other.

When Julian and I went out, he'd often suggest bringing Chloe along.

"She's home all alone with nothing to do. Let's invite her."

We'd eat out, and Julian would order Chloe's favorite dishes.

We'd watch a movie, and Chloe would act all coquettish as she squeezed into the seat between us.

He'd even swap out her ice water for warm ginger tea in a thermos when she had her period.

And I just smiled through all of it, never noticing a thing.

I'd actually thought, how nice, those two have finally made peace.

Now I was waking from the dream.

They'd made peace, all right. I was the one left out in the cold.

Back at the university, I sat alone by the lake and thought the whole night through.

I didn't believe it.

I couldn't believe that the little sister who'd trailed after me my whole life, swearing she'd protect me, would do something to hurt me.

She must have some reason she couldn't say out loud.

The next day I called Chloe and asked to meet.

The same coffee shop.

The same cup of coffee.

This time Chloe didn't hold anything back. She drained her coffee in long gulps and slid me a sideways look.

"Vivian, I won't dance around it. Julian started cheating with me ages ago. He says when he was chasing you, he thought you were the best woman in the world. Then he caught you, and realized you were nothing special after all."

My heart clenched hard.

Five years ago, Julian had chased me so loudly the whole city talked about it.

He set off fireworks in the heart of downtown.

He confessed to me on the giant screen above the square.

He had a whole sky of roses rain down for me.

I'd said, "Julian, I'm dull, I don't know the first thing about romance, and I'm older than you. You like me now, but it's just the thrill of something new. Once —"

I never finished. Julian kissed me before I could.

Then, in front of every camera and reporter there, he dropped to one knee and asked me to marry him.

I was so overcome the tears spilled over, and I threw my arms around him on the spot.

For five years after the wedding, he was good to me.

He never once forgot an anniversary gift, and even living half his life on business trips, he brought home a little surprise every time.

I was never good with people. I stayed on at the university after I graduated, and thanks to his care and protection I poured myself into research and became the youngest associate professor on campus.

I thought we were made for each other, two people who brought out each other's best.

I thought my marriage was flawless.

But now the bare, brutal truth had smashed my beautiful dream to pieces.

Across from me, Chloe was waving a little keychain around, gloating.

"Julian brought this back for me last month. Officer Judy, from Zootopia."

"He's got the matching one. Nick the fox."

A loud ringing went off in my skull, and my whole mind went blank.

He'd brought me a little gift just like that too.

Mine was a Flash keychain, the sloth.

He'd said I was just like Flash in the movie, slow but sweet.

I'd curled up in his arms, smiling, never once realizing the keychains were a couple's set.

They were the couple.

I was the outsider.

I gripped the keychain so hard my knuckles went white.

"Why?"

It took everything I had just to get the word out.

I wanted to know the answer, and I was terrified to hear the truth.

Chloe only let out a mocking little laugh.

"I'm not like you. You're dull, no sense for romance. Me, I like a thrill."

"And there's no bigger thrill than sleeping with your sister's husband, is there, Vivian?"

The last sliver of hope shattered. My throat swelled, raw and aching, and I couldn't get a single word out.

"I always said he was no good. Otherwise, why would he come running the second I crooked my finger?"

"Or maybe life with you was just so suffocating that he was sick of you long ago."

My heart felt like it was being eaten alive, an unbearable, splitting pain.

But Chloe just grinned, as if she couldn't see the agony on my face at all.

Then, slowly, she pulled out an ultrasound printout and laid it in front of me.

"Intrauterine pregnancy. Six weeks. Heartbeat normal."