Chapter 3

The shy look on her face almost made me demand an explanation.

If she'd just told me straight out that she loved someone else, I'd have let her go and wished her well.

Instead, every inch I'd given her over the years had bought me nothing but this.

When she turned away to keep talking, I spat the pill into my hand.

Her laughter drifted in from the hall in pieces.

I expected the grief to flatten me.

Instead I felt strangely calm.

Sometimes it only takes a second to be done.

I was drifting off when something cold touched my back.

I sat straight up.

Sabrina yelped.

"Ah!"

I frowned.

"What are you doing in here?"

She wasn't offended. She put her arms around me from behind.

"Dec, it's been so long since we..."

Once, that would have wiped every other thought out of my head.

Now all I could see was her and Everett that afternoon.

My stomach turned over.

I twisted away and gagged.

Her face soured.

"What's that supposed to mean, Declan? Is there another woman?

"Do I disgust you now?"

The nerve of it made me laugh out loud.

The laugh made her furious.

"Declan..."

I cut her off.

"Bree, don't read into it. The pills just upset my stomach."

She was still frowning.

I reached out like I was going to pull her in.

At the last second I just patted her shoulder.

I kept my voice gentle.

"Don't worry about it. I'm tired. Go on back to your room."

The words surprised me on the way out.

Every time I'd ever raised the subject, she'd put me off with some version of the same excuse.

Once a month, and she treated it like a chore to get through fast.

She looked at me, suspicious.

She clearly couldn't work out why I'd said no.

I didn't explain.

I turned over and lay down.

I ignored her face darkening beside me.

I slept without dreaming.

The next morning I left for work before she was up.

I'd barely walked into the office when my lawyer messaged me.

Diane Mercer recommended I hire a licensed investigator to gather evidence that would actually hold up.

I thought it over.

Then I ordered a few things online.

For the next several days I acted like nothing had happened and went on with Sabrina the way I always had.

I just kept finding reasons not to touch her.

She filed every change away as another intermittent episode.

The diagnosis they'd invented had become her explanation for everything I did.

She seemed to have forgotten it was only a curtain she and Everett had hung.

Because I pretended not to see, they got bolder.

More than once I came home to find Everett putting his shirt back on in my living room.

He'd say hello without a trace of embarrassment.

That coming weekend was my father's seventieth birthday.

He called the day before to remind me to invite Everett to dinner.

He wanted to thank him properly.

I felt my mouth twist.

Thank Everett?

For helping Sabrina turn my life into this?

I got up early that morning, showered, and headed out.

It took a lap around the parking garage before I realized my car was gone.

My mother kept calling to hurry me along, so I just took a rideshare.

On the way I called Sabrina a few times. She never picked up.

My texts went out and nothing came back.

I didn't think much of it.

When I got to my parents' place, they both asked where Sabrina and Everett were.

I made up an excuse.

My mother scolded me over it, convinced I hadn't taken the invitation seriously.