CHAPTER 2 — HOW LONG?
Mason came home at 1:43 in the morning.
Claire heard his key turn in the lock but did not move from the dining table.
She had been sitting there for nearly four hours.
The bank statement lay in front of her.
Beside it sat their wedding photograph.
Mason entered wearing dry clothes.
He had showered at Olivia’s house.
That detail hurt more than Claire expected.
He had washed away the evidence before coming home to explain it.
Mason stopped when he saw her.
“Is Lily asleep?”
Claire stared at him.
“That’s your first question?”
“I don’t want her hearing us.”
“You didn’t care what she might see when you parked your car outside my sister’s bedroom.”
His jaw tightened.
“I parked behind the garage.”
Claire almost laughed.
He had not parked there to protect Lily.
He had parked there to hide.
Mason sat across from her.
“We need to discuss this like adults.”
“How long?”
“Claire—”
“How long have you been sleeping with her?”
He looked toward the dark kitchen.
“That’s not the only issue.”
“It’s the issue I asked about.”
Silence stretched between them.
Finally, Mason exhaled.
“Fourteen months.”
Claire felt the room tilt.
Fourteen months earlier, she had been recovering from a miscarriage.
She had spent three nights in the hospital after losing the child Mason claimed he desperately wanted.
Olivia had sat beside her bed.
Olivia had held her hand while she cried.
Olivia had brought Mason coffee and told Claire she was lucky to have such a devoted husband.
Claire slowly pushed the bank statement away.
“When did it start?”
Mason’s expression warned her before his answer did.
“The night you were admitted.”
Claire stared at him.
“You left my hospital room because you said you needed to shower.”
“I was overwhelmed.”
“You went to Olivia.”
“I wasn’t thinking clearly.”
“No. You were thinking clearly enough to lie about it for fourteen months.”
Mason rubbed both hands over his face.
“What happened between us had been broken long before that night.”
“Do not use my miscarriage to rewrite our marriage.”
“I’m not.”
“You slept with my sister while I was losing our child.”
His voice hardened.
“I was losing a child too.”
“And Olivia comforted you?”
“She understood me.”
Claire’s fingers tightened beneath the table.
“Apparently very thoroughly.”
Mason looked at her with something that resembled annoyance rather than guilt.
“This is exactly why I didn’t tell you sooner.”
Claire leaned back.
“Because I might object?”
“Because you turn everything into an attack.”
“You slept with my sister.”
“We fell in love.”
The words landed quietly.
That made them worse.
Claire looked at the man she had married seven years earlier.
“Say it again.”
Mason hesitated.
“I love her.”
Claire’s eyes burned, but she refused to blink.
“And the forty thousand dollars?”
His face changed.
Only slightly.
But Claire noticed.
“What transfer?”
She turned the statement toward him.
Mason glanced at it and then looked away.
“That was a private arrangement.”
“You transferred money from my mother’s inheritance to Olivia.”
“We used that account for family investments.”
“No. That account requires my approval.”
“You gave me access.”
“I gave my husband access. Not my sister’s lover.”
He stood abruptly.
“You’re focusing on the wrong thing.”
Claire rose as well.
“What is the right thing?”
Mason walked toward the window.
“Olivia is pregnant.”
The room became silent.
Claire heard the refrigerator humming.
A car passed outside.
Somewhere upstairs, Lily turned in her bed.
Claire gripped the back of a chair.
“How far along?”
“Almost twelve weeks.”
Claire calculated the dates automatically.
Their anniversary dinner had been eleven weeks earlier.
Mason had presented her with roses that night.
He had raised his glass and promised that the hardest year of their marriage was finally behind them.
Later, he had held her in bed and talked about trying for another baby.
“You knew at our anniversary dinner.”
Mason did not answer.
“You sat across from me and discussed having another child while my sister was already carrying yours.”
“It wasn’t the right time to tell you.”
“When was the right time?”
“After we arranged everything.”
Claire looked at the bank statement again.
“Phase One.”
Mason’s eyes shifted toward it.
“What are you arranging?”
“Nothing that concerns you tonight.”
“It came from my account.”
“It concerns our family.”
“Our family?”
He turned around.
“Olivia and the baby are my family now.”
Claire had believed finding them together was the cruelest thing Mason could do.
She had been wrong.
He walked upstairs and returned with a suitcase twenty minutes later.
Before leaving, he paused beside the front door.
“I’ll pick Lily up from school tomorrow.”
Claire stepped forward.
“No.”
“I’m her father.”
“And you’re moving into her aunt’s bed.”
“Do not poison her against me.”
“You brought poison into this house long before tonight.”
Mason opened the door.
Then he looked back at her.
“There’s something else you should know.”
Claire waited.
“Olivia didn’t ask me to leave you.”
He tightened his grip on the suitcase.
“I asked her to wait until we had secured what we needed.”
The door closed behind him.
Claire stood motionless.
Then her phone lit up.
A message from Olivia.
It was a photograph of the bracelet Claire had given her.
Olivia had placed it around her wrist.
May you like
Beneath the picture were six words.
He was going to leave anyway.
