Chapter 1

The day I found out Nat James had cheated on me, at least emotionally, I was six months pregnant and started hemorrhaging. They took one of my fallopian tubes.

When my best friend found out, she picked up a chair and broke one of his legs.

Afterward she wrote a program just for me, one that synced his location and his phone messages straight to my phone.

From that day on, Nat was all guilt and remorse. Work and home, nothing in between. He took care of me down to the smallest detail.

The elders took turns talking me around, saying he never actually crossed that line, and life has to move forward.

I swallowed every bit of the pain, tried to let the past go, and start over with him.

Just when I thought this marriage might mend itself back together, I found out that the husband supposedly away on a business trip overseas had his location pinned abroad, while his food delivery order was placed one floor up.

I used the excuse of walking into the wrong unit to see for myself, and through the door left ajar I saw Nat gripping a woman by the waist, his eyes full of wanting.

"I've been good and done everything you said for four whole years. Don't I get a reward now?"

The woman leaned into his arms, her voice trembling.

"Fine. One month."

"After one month, we're done. Nothing between us."

"What do you mean, nothing between us?"

He pinned her against the wall.

"Mia, if you hadn't married someone else just to spite me, I never would have rushed into marrying her!"

My ears were ringing. The hand at my side wouldn't stop shaking.

So the woman whose face I could never make out in a thousand-odd nights of dreams was my best friend.

So my marriage to the man I loved most was nothing but the product of the two of them getting even with each other.

Fine, then. This laughable love and this laughable friendship, I didn't want either of them anymore.

1

The elevator doors opened, and the delivery guy came down the hall with a bag, checking door numbers as he went.

"Hi there, delivery."

I reached out and took it. It was that brand Nat always used, the extra-large size, plus a pair of S-size stockings.

The delivery guy's eyes drifted toward the gap in the door on their own, and when they came back to my face, whatever he'd been sizing up turned into pity.

I thanked him with a bitter little laugh at myself, then turned and pushed the door open.

"Your delivery's here."

The air in the living room froze all at once, the temperature dropping to zero.

Mia's lips were still red and swollen, glossy with wetness, her chest still heaving fast.

Almost on instinct, Nat swept her behind him, panic in his eyes.

"Gerry."

His voice was rough in a way he couldn't hide.

"You were asleep, weren't you? How did you—"

I shook my phone at him, cutting him off.

"Your delivery order synced to my phone. And you two didn't even shut the door."

I set the bag on the table and turned to go.

"Don't let me interrupt."

Mia snapped out of it, shoved Nat off her, and caught up in a few steps to grab my wrist.

"Gerry, listen to me! My drain was clogged, Nat's flight got delayed, he just came back to help me fix it, that's all."

The words came fast and frantic, her eyes going red.

"If you don't believe me, I'll swear on it!"

I turned my head, my gaze passing over her rumpled collar, and I picked the takeout up off the table and hurled it hard at her face, my throat aching, choked shut.

"Mia, do you think I'm an idiot?"

"A clogged drain! Since when does that need any of this?"

The sharp edge of the paper box caught her forehead and cut a line of blood across it.

Nat's face went white in a flash. He rushed over in a few strides and slammed his palm into my shoulder, hard enough that I stumbled backward.

"Geraldine, you touch her one more time and see what happens!"

The next instant, a glass of water splashed across his face.

Mia threw the cup down on the table, tipped her head up, and stared at him, her lips shaking.

"Nat, what do you think you're doing?"

"Did you forget she's the reason I'm even alive?!"

"If anything happens to her, I'll never forgive you for the rest of my life!"

Cold drops of water ran down Nat's jaw and dripped off. He pressed his lips together, his fist clenched and trembling.

A few seconds later his knee bent and he dropped down hard on the floor in front of me, the gentleness I knew so well settled over his face.

"Gerry, don't be angry. I'm just under too much pressure, I lost my head for a second."

As he spoke, he slapped himself across the face over and over, a dozen times, until his cheeks were red and swollen.

I clenched my palm shut as that familiar feeling came crashing over me, the suffocation closing around my throat like a hand.

Eight years of knowing Nat, six years of marriage, and even in his worst moments I had never once seen him bow his head to anyone.

Let alone kneel, or hit himself.

Yet here he was, on his knees in front of me, apologizing this humbly.

And all just because he was afraid Mia would hate him.

A voice rose up in my head. I grabbed the fruit knife off the table, a bitter smile pulling at the corner of my mouth.

"You two are disgusting!"

"Gerry!"

Mia rushed forward crying, snatching at the knife in my hand, and in the struggle it cut across her back.

The pain drained the color from her face and she toppled backward, shaking.

"Mia!"

Nat cried out, and, at a total loss, pulled off his jacket and closed it around her, holding her, his voice shaking hard, panic all over his face.

"I'll take you to the hospital, don't be scared, I've got you."

Then he rushed out the door with hurried, stumbling steps.

I stood there, dazed, my eyes empty and unfocused.

It wasn't until a shrill ringing went off that the knife clanged out of my hand onto the floor and I came back to myself.

The little robot in the corner blinked, and a mechanical voice came out.

"Mr. James, happy 7,400th day anniversary of meeting Miss Mia Hughes."

The robot's body was covered in cute cartoon stickers, and beneath its round little belly was a heart-shaped serial number, the code made up of Nat's and Mia's birthdays.

I reached out to touch it, and a piercing alarm went off.

"A third party has been detected. Program self-destructing!"

The next second, points of light flickered and the database began to empty out.

I grabbed the robot hard, hard enough that my fingertips went white, tears falling in big heavy drops.

"I'm not a third party! I'm his wife, Geraldine Simmons!"

The robot tilted its head, its voice puzzled.

"If you're not a third party, then why is there never any record of you in the database Mr. James created?"

"And why isn't there the slightest trace of you anywhere in this whole house?"