Chapter 3

When it was time to pay, I took Julian's card off my account.

A transfer from him came through a second later.

"Audrey, that wasn't very good of you. Take it. I don't want you running short."

I didn't answer.

He thought he'd made a canary out of me, useless the second it left the cage. But I'd been drawing graphic novels for royalties the whole time.

Without him, I wasn't stuck anywhere.

I found a quiet table at a public library, drafted a divorce settlement, and bought a mystery-destination plane ticket.

The flight left in three days.

When I got home, the lights were all off.

Julian hadn't brought Serena and Maya back after all.

Late that night a pair of cold hands woke me.

There was still snow on Julian's shoulders. He held me and murmured against my hair.

"Audrey, put my card back on. I know you can't take this all at once, so I came home to make it up to you.

"I'll keep the two of them away from you. In return, be big enough about it to stop commenting on Serena's page. You upset her. I'll let you act out once, and that's it.

"Weren't you the one who kept asking about a snowman? It's snowing. Come out with me."

His lips were at my neck, and his hand settled over the place where our child had been.

His clothes smelled like another woman's perfume.

I kept my eyes shut and nodded.

He was winding a scarf around me when his phone rang.

He listened for a moment, then pulled his coat on, alarmed. "Maya's running a fever."

I looked at him and kept my voice light.

"So we're not building the snowman?"

Julian frowned, and his voice went up before he could stop it.

"Do you hear yourself right now? Why are you competing with a little girl?"

Two years together and eight years married. It was the first time he'd ever raised his voice at me.

Both of us froze.

Caleb came running after him, shouting that he wanted to go too.

I put out a hand to stop him without thinking.

"No, Caleb. It's freezing out there and you just got over a cold."

He bit my hand and looked up at me with something poisonous in his eyes.

"I want to see Maya. She's more important."

I stood there a long time.

It was only when the cold air made me shiver that I went to my laptop and quietly deleted the line asking for custody of Caleb.

I sat at the foot of the bed the rest of the night and didn't sleep.

When I picked up my phone, Serena had posted again.

"This is what you get for lying..."

The photo showed two empty contraceptive boxes.

A minute before, she'd replied to a follower.

"Maya's dad says we don't need them anymore. He wants another one. Should I say yes?"

I tagged her. "Do it."

The pregnancy report was still on my nightstand, tied up in the ribbon I'd fussed over.

Julian hadn't even noticed it.

I picked it up, tore it into pieces, and dropped them in the trash one at a time.

Just like our marriage.

Someone knocked. It was Grant Mercer, Julian's assistant.

He held out a strawberry cake and gave me an embarrassed smile.

"Mrs. Whitlock, Mr. Whitlock asked me to come build a snowman with you. He says he's sorry, and he'll make it up to you tomorrow."

I pulled the receipt off the box.

"Two cakes?"

"Yes, ma'am. The other one's mango. Ms. Harlow likes mango. That one's already been delivered."

Julian hadn't become one of Eastcliff's brightest young executives by leaving loose ends. Every angle covered.

I thought about the years we spent in that damp little rental, eating instant noodles, when he couldn't afford a birthday cake for me.

He'd built an ugly one out of sandwich bread and whipped cream, and cried while he handed it over.

"Audrey, I can't give you much right now. But whatever love I've got, it's yours and nobody else's.

"When I've made it, I'll give you a good life. I promise."

Well. The life got good.

Nothing was mine and nobody else's anymore.

I smiled at Grant.

"I've gone off cake. Throw it out for me, would you?"