Chapter 2

Celeste's assistant, Owen Brooks, stood awkwardly in the doorway.

"Ms. Harrington, Mr. Pierce is asking for you."

Celeste snatched back her phone.

"Oh, and I only changed my profile picture to keep Nolan happy," she added hurriedly. "It's temporary. I'll change it back. Don't make a big deal out of it."

Then she was gone.

I watched the doorway long after she'd disappeared.

I changed the matching profile picture I'd used for ten years and unpinned Celeste's chat.

What she didn't know was that I'd already given the signed divorce papers to my attorney to file with the court.

In a month, the divorce would be final.

There wouldn't be a "later" for us.

After arranging for a colleague to take over my cases, I returned to my hospital room.

A bowl of seafood chowder sat on the bedside table.

The nursing aide smiled when she saw me. "Your wife really does love you. She sends you chowder every single day, without fail."

I looked at the unfamiliar woman and smiled back.

"You're new here, aren't you?"

Everyone else in the hospital knew that I'd operated on one lover after another for my wife. My marriage had become their favorite subject of gossip.

And this was supposed to be love?

It wasn't even Celeste who brought the food. She had Owen bring it.

That was Celeste all over: efficient, considerate, attentive to every detail. She always remembered to send her husband something comforting while she spent the day with another man.

Before the aide could answer, I handed her the bowl.

"Please throw it away. I'm allergic to seafood."

Her expression changed. She took it and hurried out.

Almost immediately, a message arrived from Celeste.

"Did you have the chowder? I ordered it especially for you."

My fingers stilled over the screen.

I remembered the first time she'd cooked for me. She'd clumsily written down everything I liked in a little notebook.

When she brought out dinner, her hands were covered in small cuts and burns.

I'd been heartbroken to see them, but she'd laughed it off.

"Well? I told you I'd learn to cook for you. You thought I was bluffing?"

I'd seen what Celeste was like when she loved me, so I knew better than anyone how little effort she bothered to make now.

For years I'd clung to her anyway, forcing myself to watch her go from one man to the next because I couldn't bear to let her go.

I was done.

If she wanted to have a child with somebody else, she could. It no longer had anything to do with me.

I didn't reply.

For once, I fell asleep without lying awake for hours, though nightmares still followed me.

When I woke that afternoon, Celeste was sitting beside my bed, frowning at my phone.

"Why did you change your passcode?"

"Why are you here?" I asked instead.

A heavy cloud of another man's cologne clung to her. I instinctively turned my head away.

Celeste noticed and frowned, but she restrained herself.

"You didn't answer my message." She almost sounded hurt.

I remembered the promise we'd made years ago: whenever one of us saw the other's message, we'd reply right away if we could.

At some point, our conversations had become nothing but my unanswered messages.

The last time she'd replied to me was a month ago, and she'd done it from a secondary account.

"I was asleep," I said. "Didn't see it."

She hesitated, then finally spoke.

"Nolan wants a wedding."

I turned toward her.

"Adrian, could you give him the wedding you've been planning?"

For a moment, I could only stare.

We'd been married seven years, but her family had never supported our relationship, so we'd never had a wedding ceremony.

She'd promised that, no matter what happened, we'd finally celebrate on our seventh anniversary.

I'd spent so long preparing for it.

Our anniversary had come and gone. The wedding had been postponed again and again.

The first time, she'd claimed she had to travel for business. In truth, she'd taken her first lover abroad on vacation.

It had been only three months since our first child died.

Around the same time, the doctors had warned us that our genetic combination put any child we conceived at risk of a devastating inherited condition.

That was when Celeste started cheating.