Chapter 2

Before I could say anything, Ethan's phone rang.

It was Cordelia.

"Little brat, Daddy left the keys in your bedroom, and it's freezing out here. Come get me, right now. If I don't see you in fifteen minutes, you're dead."

His whole manner flipped in an instant. He laughed. "Wash up and wait for me. Daddy's on his way."

He hung up, popped the car door open, and threw the words at me without a thought. "We're close to home from here, you can walk it. I'm going to check on my idiot boy."

I watched the taillights shrink into the distance and didn't even have the strength left to be disappointed.

The walk was almost three miles. By the time I reached the apartment, blisters had opened up on my feet.

The living room was a wreck, bottles knocked over everywhere.

In the bedroom, the bed that had been made smooth was rumpled now.

On the nightstand on my side sat a set of keys I didn't recognize.

The thought of what they'd done in that bed sent a wave of pure nausea up my throat.

I was gagging over it when Ethan walked in with Cordelia, the two of them laughing.

His eyes passed over the wrinkled bed, then landed on my face, and something like impatience surfaced in them.

"She was drunk and lay down for a while. Zoey, why is your mind always in the gutter? I've had it with you."

In that moment I didn't have the strength to fight either.

Last night Ethan had told me he'd planned a birthday surprise for me and wouldn't be coming home.

I hadn't slept the whole night, holding onto that.

The next day, all I got was a pair of earrings.

I don't even have my ears pierced.

The whole night I'd lain awake, he'd been awake too.

The difference was I'd been full of hope, and he'd been tangled up with another woman until it nearly killed them both.

And now he was telling me my mind was in the gutter.

Cordelia sighed along with him. "Pregnant women are such a hassle. I'm too tired, I'll sleep here tonight. Little brat, come make Daddy's bed."

Ethan followed her out, ordering me over his shoulder without turning around.

"Clean up the living room. I'll go make her bed first."

Before, he never had to say a word. I'd have gone and cleaned it up like a housemaid anyway.

But now I stood where I was and called him back.

"Ethan, let's get divorced."

His steps stopped.

"What?"

He reined in his temper, told Cordelia to go on ahead, then slammed the door shut.

"What's gotten into you? We've been married three months and you're asking for a divorce?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I think Cordelia probably suits you better."

Ethan gave a cold laugh. "Because I slept with her last night? I already told you it only happened because I was drunk. Can you not understand plain words?"

"And even if we did sleep together, we're still just close buddies. She's not like you, full of little schemes. She doesn't care about this kind of thing at all—"

I cut him off, the sarcasm impossible to keep out of my voice. "Right. A buddy you can take to bed and go at until the middle of the night. Some buddy."

Go at until the middle of the night.

I'd always thought Ethan just wasn't into that sort of thing. Every time it was over fast, like he was clearing off a fixed obligation.

Turned out the only thing he wasn't into was me.

The words landed and Ethan's fury broke loose all at once.

He pinned me against the door, holding me so I couldn't move.

"You're just jealous. What's the point of all this whining!"

"Fine, take it off. I'll satisfy you right now!"

His mouth came down on mine.

The thought of him tangled naked with Cordelia last night made me shove at him with everything I had. It did nothing.

I bore it, numb, and the next second Cordelia's voice came through.

"Little brat, come here, big situation!"

Ethan's hands stopped at once, and he walked out without a backward glance.

I leaned against the back of the door, pressing hard on my aching belly, when a message came in from Cordelia.

"Zoey, you two fighting about divorce? Don't be upset. Last night me and the dog were just letting off some physical steam, we really are pure buddies."

"Look, otherwise who'd want to do that? Wouldn't it be disgusting enough to make you puke?"

To prove herself, she sent a video.

In it, Ethan was pinching Cordelia's bloody pad between his fingers, and on her command he raised it to his nose and gave it a hard sniff.

"Damn, Cordelia, you're a monster. Bleeding this much, I'm gonna throw up!"

"If you hadn't kept me going all last night, would Daddy be bleeding this much? Still got the nerve to curse at me. I'll end you!"

His face was full of revulsion, yet his hand still held that bloody pad.

The instant I finished watching, something detonated in my head.

Each frame drove into my heart like a blade, the pain churning through everything inside me.

I bolted into the bathroom and couldn't stop gagging.

As far as I knew, Ethan was almost obsessive about that kind of thing, cleanliness to the point of mania.

He thought periods were filthy and bad luck, that even one glance was sickening.

Once I accidentally left a little on the bed, and in the middle of the night he got up and went to sleep in the other room.

The next day he threw out the whole mattress.

Tears blurred my eyes. I didn't sleep the whole night.

By morning Ethan was up early, and for once in his life he'd made breakfast.

When I came out, I caught Cordelia asking him something.

"You smooth her over yet? If you really do divorce, Daddy's the villain here."

"Smooth over what. She's just desperate and put on a whole act. I dared her to leave and she doesn't have the guts to divorce."

"Tch, then just pull the blanket over her and give her a good round to settle her down. That's your strong suit, isn't it."

Ethan pushed a piece of peeled chicken into her mouth. "Not interested. The shape she's in now, one extra look takes years off my life. Eat your food and stop worrying about Daddy's business."