Chapter 2

Gillian came striding over, her face dark.

"Job, stop this nonsense."

"I gave him that money. I gave him the card too. If you've got a problem, take it up with me."

She saw Hal tied there, and her face went darker still.

I gripped the fruit knife, then swung it flat against her slender, pale throat.

"Oh, I intend to."

"Gillian, the mess you made playing around, and everything you owe me—can you ever pay it back?"

Gillian looked at me in silence.

The standoff dragged on a long time before she finally sighed.

"All this trouble, and it still comes down to you refusing the divorce?"

She let out a soft laugh and closed her hand over mine, sure of herself.

"If you don't want to divorce, then we won't."

"After all, I was only informing you about splitting our expenses. Only reminding you."

"Stop interfering in what's between me and him."

"That way, when we go home, we're still a loving, devoted couple."

I watched Gillian's mouth open and close.

I couldn't wrap my head around it—how did she say something so shameless?

Through gritted teeth I said, "In your dreams."

The tip of the knife pressed a little closer to her throat, and a bead of red welled up.

"Gillian, have you climbed so high you've forgotten where you came from?"

The smile on Gillian's face faded a little.

Of course she hadn't forgotten.

Back then she was the poor girl everyone pushed around, who couldn't even afford a meal.

Who couldn't afford a uniform.

It was me. I went soft over that whole cold, broken look of hers.

The uniform she couldn't buy, I bought.

The meals she couldn't afford, I paid for.

She wanted to start a company and had no money, so I gave it to her.

Later I threw in my whole self too, and became her husband.

She knew perfectly well how much it took to get where she is today.

That's why, more than once, she knelt in front of me with red eyes and swore to heaven.

"With my good husband lifting me toward my ambitions, I will never fail you in this life."

But she forgot her roots, and she forgot what I did for her.

She turned around and found herself a young little assistant.

And she had the nerve to say, "He isn't domineering like you. Only he can bring out the urge in me to protect someone."

"Job, you're too strong."

"You've never needed my protection."

In that moment, I might as well have been a joke.

My best friend's warning came back to me, right in my ear.

"Job, you idiot! I told you long ago—don't go soft over a woman. Have your fun and leave it there, don't give her your real heart, don't hold her hand and build a career for her, or you'll pay for it."

"Look at everything you've given her. Do you think she'll spare you a single thought?"

"You're the cane a blind person leans on, and the second she gets her sight back, the first thing she does is throw the cane away—she might even be ashamed she ever needed it."

I didn't believe it before. I even argued back.

"Gillian isn't that kind of person."

"I have faith in her."

But now she shoves me off, hurries anxiously over to her little assistant, and gently unties him.

She checks him over carefully, making sure he isn't hurt, before pulling him tenderly into her arms.

"Gillian, you finally came. I thought I was going to die at this old man's hands and never see you again!"

Hal sniveled against her, crying.

The next second, Gillian lifted her eyes, cold.

"Job, after all these years, you still haven't learned to turn a blind eye?"

"I told you last time—no more stopping cards to threaten me."

"And stop digging into Hal's affairs. You're the one who started this."

I only felt a helplessness I'd never known before.

My mother only ever told me to keep the upper hand, to never let the mistress climb up and dump on your head.

But my mother never told me.

If my own wife stands on the mistress's side too.

Then what am I supposed to do?

I don't want to turn myself into a madman.

So the silence stretched on and on.

But this time, Gillian was truly angry.

"Job, however willful you want to be at home, I've always indulged you."

"But the one thing you should never have done."

"You should never have tied Hal up behind my back."

She said hurting the little assistant she loved came with a price.

So she called the police without a second's hesitation.

She was going to put me behind bars.

"Gillian, what did you say?"

The fruit knife dropped from my hand and clattered to the floor.

Bright red blood ran down her throat and into her collar.

Gillian didn't so much as blink.

"Job, I didn't want to make things hard for you, but you just won't listen."

"This time, consider it a lesson."