Chapter 3

Lucas came to my hotel that evening.

My eyes went hot the second I saw him.

"Why did you lie to me?"

If he'd told me the truth years ago, I wouldn't have worked myself sick trying to buy a place, and I wouldn't have promised my mother I'd finally bring home with my boyfriend.

Lucas held out a bank card.

"Iris, there's a quarter million dollars on this. The PIN is your birthday. Call it compensation.

"Celeste and I - it was arranged between the families. There's a lot I don't get to control."

For years he'd kept up the broke act and never sent me more than a couple hundred dollars at a time. Now he handed over a fortune without blinking.

I looked at the face I'd loved for ten years and felt every bit of that love come apart.

Something like regret moved through his eyes. "If you want, you can still stay with me.

"You can act as if nothing happened. We can go back to how it was, as long as you don't take it to Celeste."

My answer was a slap across his face.

Lucas worked his jaw where I'd hit him, and his face went dark.

"I'll admit I handled this badly, but I do care about you. Haven't I been good to you all these years?

"I paid for your mother's treatment. I covered your rent in Rosebridge. Even that project that got you promoted-I made that call for you.

"Stay with me, and I'll give you thirty thousand a month. Take your pick of any property I own."

Everything I thought I'd clawed out of the world myself had his fingerprints all over it.

He kept saying he cared about me while asking me to be the other woman in somebody else's marriage.

I threw him out. That same night I packed and decided I was done with Harborwick.

I was walking up to security at the airport when someone threw a bottle of water in my face.

"You're the one who went after my sister's husband? Do you have no shame?"

I stood there soaked in the middle of the terminal, and I could feel every pair of eyes on me.

Hannah was standing off to one side looking uncomfortable, and I asked her whether she thought I was the other woman too.

Hannah closed her eyes.

"Iris, even though we're close, I can't take your side just because you're my friend. You... are the other woman.

"Celeste is innocent in this. You can't wreck somebody's family."

The crowd started stirring, and somebody uploaded a video.

Within minutes strangers were calling me a homewrecker. My name, my university, and my employer were posted publicly for anyone to use.

My phone got hot in my hand from the flood of abusive calls and messages.

HR called me from work.

"Iris, don't come in for now. Wait until you hear from us."

Then the caregiver looking after my mother called.

"Ms. Caldwell, the specialist team is pulling out. They said you crossed someone you shouldn't have."

My mind went blank, and I called Lucas with my hands shaking.

"Why are you doing this to me?"

I could hear an argument on his end. He snarled into the phone that I'd brought this on myself, that Celeste knew I existed now, and that he'd warned me.

He hung up. With the abuse piling up online, I put together a timeline of my ten years with Lucas and posted it to prove I'd never knowingly been anyone's mistress.

It got mass-reported inside the hour, and then my account was gone.

For the first time in my life I understood how laughable it is to fight back against that kind of power.

Lucas called again.

"Go live and apologize to Celeste. She'll forgive you and we can keep going.

"My offer hasn't changed. You're smart, Iris. You know which way to go here."