Chapter 3

Jake was rushed to the hospital in a panic. I stumbled around and found some cheap place to crash. Thanks to Jake, I couldn't even go home.

Next to the bed, bottles of pills lined the table. I dumped out over a dozen and shoved them all in my mouth. The bitterness spread through my mouth. But that was nothing compared to the pain in my chest.

As I lay down on the bed, Emily's forensic pathologist friend called.

"Nathan, I'll admit it. I helped Emily lie to you. She's not dead."

He paused awhile, like he could barely bring himself to say what came next.

"She'd been sleeping with Jake for a long time. She said if she told you the truth, you'd never agree to the divorce.

"Nathan, you have to understand—my mom was dying in the hospital. My wife was pregnant. I needed that job. I just did what they told me to. I've already quit. I'm sorry."

The line went dead.

I lay flat on my back, staring at the ceiling, tears dripping down the sides of my face.

So that was it.

Emily had been cheating on me way earlier than I ever imagined. And she went this far for Jake.

I thought about the last few years. Her death made my entire life meaningless. The only way I could fall asleep was handful after handful of pills. Sleep was the only place I could still see her face.

I remembered our wedding day. Emily said she was the happiest woman in the world.

We'd been through so much together. But now, maybe because I was finally seeing things clearly, I just felt numb. I didn't even have the energy to hurt anymore.

The meds must have started kicking in. My head went fuzzy. Just then, someone knocked on the door. When no one answered, the door creaked open.

It was Emily.

She looked around the room. When she spotted me, her brow furrowed on instinct.

She was heavily pregnant, walking carefully to avoid the sharp corners of the furniture.

"Nathan, we need to talk."

I didn't answer. Her frown deepened.

"I came here to make things clear. Because of what happened yesterday, Mom had a heart attack.

"I lied to you for three years. That had nothing to do with Jake. Our marriage is over. I need you to stop causing problems for him."

Every word out of her mouth was defending Jake. She'd probably forgotten that back when Jake first came to live with us, she used to stand right in front of me and defend me the exact same way.

I closed my eyes. "You came all the way here to say that?"

Emily walked toward me and pulled a card out of her bag, setting it on the table.

"There's five hundred thousand dollars in there. Call it compensation."

I didn't take it. "No point. None of it matters anymore."

She hesitated. Her eyes landed on the pill bottles scattered by the bed. Something flickered across her face. Then she grabbed the bottles, her expression turning sour.

"Nathan. I know you still have feelings for me, but pulling this kind of stunt for sympathy is pathetic."

She threw the bottles in the trash.

I looked up at her. That face I loved to the bone. The face I'd seen a thousand times in my dreams—smiling, crying, laughing. But never cold like this.

She shifted uncomfortably under my stare and quickly looked away. Just as she was about to say something else, the half-open door pushed inward.

Jake poked his head in. There was still a bandage on his forehead. He looked pale.

Emily's attention snapped to him immediately. "Didn't the doctor say you had to stay in the hospital?"

She grabbed his hand, her face full of worry.

Jake shook his head. "I'm fine."

He fidgeted with his fingers, looking conflicted. "Nathan, can we just call this over? I get that you're upset about being lied to all these years, but I paid my price too. We're even now."

He set a fruit basket on the table. "If you can't accept that, then after Emily has the baby, he can call you Dad too."

Jake smiled gently and placed a hand on Emily's belly.

I almost laughed at how shameless he was. We could never be even. His head wound didn't come close to matching what I'd been through for three years.

"Mom is planning a dinner celebration to welcome you home," he added. "Since you've been gone all this time, everyone thought you were dead."