Chapter 2

"The child is yours and Colette's?"

I grabbed him by the collar in a death grip.

Rhett's breathing didn't even falter. He was as calm as if this were a business negotiation.

"Yes, he is."

I was so angry I almost laughed.

It turns out that when something is absurd enough, you really do laugh out loud.

"Seven years. Seventy thousand dollars every month. You kept telling me it was to make up for her abortion, and I put up with it.

"And now you're telling me your kid is already this big? So what happened to the abortion?

"You went to all this trouble to lie to me for this long. Was it worth it?"

By the last word, I was screaming, and my tears had blurred my vision.

Rhett rubbed his brow, looking at me like I was a child throwing a tantrum on the floor.

"Talia, I didn't lie to you. The first pregnancy really was terminated. This is the second child."

"You said you wouldn't give her anything except money."

"I haven't given her anything. It was Colette who came to me."

He said it without a flicker of shame, without missing a beat.

He almost sounded like a man of honor.

By the time I realized it, tears were already streaming down my face.

I opened my mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

He stood up and gently wiped my tears away.

"I just give the two of them a sum every month to live on. It won't affect you, and the boy won't inherit anything that belongs to our kids.

"We're getting married next month. If you make a big scene now, it won't be good for anyone."

Seventy thousand dollars a month was more than enough for Colette and her son to live in a luxury apartment in total comfort.

I grabbed the crystal sculpture off his desk and smashed it right at his feet.

Shards of crystal flew everywhere.

I couldn't tell whether it was the crystal that had shattered or my heart.

"What are you saying? You want me to just put up with it? To pretend the wife and kid you keep on the side don't exist?"

Rhett looked baffled. "Why can't you?

"Just act like none of this ever happened. You'll still be Mrs. Calder. Money, status, your place as my wife. I can give you all of it."

"I don't want any of it!"

I raised my hand to slap him, but he caught my wrist.

"Talia, you're going too far. There's a limit to how much of a temper you can throw."

The patience in his eyes faded, leaving only an endless chill.

"Calm down. The wedding's coming up."

My legs gave out. I dropped to my knees and let the sharp shards cut into my calves.

Back when we were so poor we couldn't even afford a room in a shared apartment, he worked during the day and took grueling manual-labor jobs at night, barely scraping together enough to cover my tuition.

It broke my heart to watch him, so I threw away my textbooks and swore I'd never go back to school.

Rhett blew up at me. He slammed fifteen hundred dollars down in front of me, money he'd earned drinking at a bar until he coughed up blood, and lied that it was overtime pay.

"I can give you anything, Talia, but you can't give up on yourself.

"You're all I have."

That night, we huddled together in our drafty rental in New York and swore we'd never let go of each other's hands for the rest of our lives.

As it turned out, the rest of our lives only lasted seven years.

"Talia..."

Rhett frowned at the cuts on my legs and sighed. "Why do this? Why make such a mess of yourself?"

He reached out to help me up without thinking, but I shoved him away.

"You liar. Don't touch me. You disgust me."

He stared at me for a long time, then said coldly, "I didn't lie to you. Not once."

"Is that right?"

I braced myself against the wall and barely managed to stand.

In a way, he really hadn't lied to me.

The first child was gone, but the second one was old enough to call him Dad.

He'd never given Colette anything but money, but whatever Colette gave him, he'd gladly accepted.

"Do you know what a montage lie is?"

Rhett paused at the question. "No."

"Tell only half the truth, and it becomes the biggest lie of all."

I shook my head with a bitter smile. "I'm not in the mood to explain it to you.

"I'm calling off the wedding."