Chapter 2

2: 2

Packing up my things, it hit me only then how many years we'd been together.

All my belongings, scattered and few, came to just two suitcases.

For so long my whole life had revolved around Nelson, and somewhere in it I'd lost myself.

After I hauled the suitcases out, my friend Shirley Stewart kindly offered to let me stay at her place for a while.

When she heard why I was moving out, her eyes went wide in disbelief.

"You're saying Nelson decided you got assaulted that night?"

I stirred the juice she'd made for me and nodded.

"That's why I want to find out whether it actually happened."

Shirley gripped my hand, and the warmth of it steadied me.

"I'll do everything I can to help. Don't worry, Madeline. You've still got me."

My eyes went hot. In this moment, betrayed by the person I loved most,

I still had a friend standing firmly beside me.

The first thing was to track down that car. That day had been a reunion with my college classmates, mine and Nelson's.

He'd said he was busy with meetings.

So I went alone, and everyone was warm toward me.

I could feel it was because Nelson's career had shot upward, and they were all flattering me, the future "Mrs. Finley."

I heard too many pretty words, and it went to my head.

One glass after another, until they drank me under the table and I blacked out.

The last thing I remembered was Byron Winters, who'd been close with Nelson back in college.

He'd insisted on getting me home.

But by the time we reached the parking garage, the others had already thrown up or passed out.

He apologized and put me in the car, saying he'd call a designated driver to take me home.

He called one, and after that, I couldn't remember a thing.

The dashcam in Byron's car had to hold something important.

I went to message him, only to realize I didn't even have his number.

Before I got together with Nelson, I'd been well-liked once, an ambitious young woman going somewhere.

But after we got together, little by little I orbited only him, and gave up everything I'd fought to build.

My old friends drifted off one by one, and we went our separate ways.

Nelson climbed, step by step, until he landed the vice president's seat.

I sighed. Maybe I was sighing for all the years, all the youth I'd given up.

Eight years wasted, mine and Nelson's.

Then I remembered Byron bragging at dinner that Nelson had outsourced a multimillion-dollar project to him, and that the contract was being signed right about now.

I got up at once and rushed to Nelson's company. The moment I reached his office door, I was stopped.

I looked up, not understanding, at the young receptionist blocking my way, and heard Nelson and Byron joking together inside.