Chapter 3

When the police hauled me away, I was so furious I cursed her out.

"Gillian, have you no shame at all?"

"Back then you were at the end of your rope, couldn't even scrape together three thousand dollars in medical bills. I paid, I worked myself to the bone, and that's the only reason you're where you are today."

"Now you think I'm too old, so you run off to some young thing and want to kick me to the curb!"

"Dream on!"

Even if I went down, I'd drag Gillian down with me.

But she just let me rage, never once turning her head.

She only played the part of a devoted wife.

Dabbing the sweat off Hal Pruitt with her own sleeve.

Every line of her face full of tenderness.

"Hal, don't be scared. I promise nothing like this will ever happen again."

"I'll make Job Mason suffer for it. He'll pay."

Then she half-carried him into the passenger seat that should have been mine.

As they shoved me into the police car, I caught one last glimpse.

Hal, flashing me a smug little smile.

They gave me a lecture in the interrogation room.

"Why did you abduct him?"

I kept my head down. "He stole my money."

"Stole your money? Why didn't you report it?"

I let out a bitter laugh. "Because my wife was his accomplice."

By the end of the questioning, they'd ruled it a civil dispute born out of a relationship gone bad.

"Mr. Mason, if you want to recover your marital assets, you can go through the legal channels."

"But next time, don't resort to something this reckless and violent."

The words went in one ear and out the other.

In the end it was my buddy Grant Farley who bailed me out.

"How did it blow up this bad?"

Grant asked, curious, driving with one hand.

"You used to say jump and Gillian would ask how high."

"What happened this time?"

I shook my head and slumped back against the seat.

I didn't even have the will to explain.

I couldn't understand where I'd lost.

She was the one who'd promised we'd grow old together.

She hadn't flinched even after my face was scarred.

I worked out every single day. My body was in top shape.

I didn't believe she'd suddenly stopped loving me just because I was getting older and losing my looks.

That she'd just changed her heart overnight.

"Grant, I can't figure out what that little assistant has that I don't."

"Time and again she stayed out all night, threw money at people."

"No matter how bad the fights got before, she never once said the word divorce."

"But now she's grown a spine, and out of nowhere she's asking me for one."

Grant glanced back at me, startled, his eyes full of pity.

"Honestly? You'd be better off divorced."

I said nothing. We'd been brothers too many years for him not to know I couldn't accept it.

And how much I loved her.

"I'm not saying this to defend Gillian."

"But you two have already come this far. This marriage is a shell, husband and wife in name only. There's no point forcing it to keep going."

"Besides, an ungrateful snake you could never tame, are you really sure you still want her?"

Back home, I turned Grant's words over in my head.

But before I could make sense of them, the private investigator I'd hired came back with news that blew everything apart.

"What did you say? Gillian is... pregnant?"

"It's Hal's child?!"

I sank back down with a bitter smile.

"Of course. That little assistant's got the healthy young body, all right."

"No wonder Gillian wants a divorce so badly, just to be with him."

The one thing Gillian hated most in this life was a child born out of wedlock.

Because she herself was the product of some man's one careless night.

She'd grown up living like an orphan.

Even after that man claimed her back, she'd choked down her pride and refused, to the death, to acknowledge him and take his name.

That was why, more than once, she'd held me and said,

"Let's have a baby."

"Let's give a child a whole, complete family."

But later she forgot her own words.

Fell for that little assistant like she'd lost her mind.

And carried that man's child.

That night, Gillian came home worn out and found me curled up in the dark on the couch.

"Why didn't you turn the lights on?"

I didn't look up. "Gillian, we need to talk."

After she flicked the lights on.

There was a property contract laid out in front of me. Twenty million dollars.

The new gift Gillian had bought for Hal.

"Tell me. Why?"

Gillian was quiet for a long time.

"Since you already know, there's no point hiding it from you."

"Because Hal is worth it."

I stared, dumbstruck, then, as it registered, I laughed in spite of myself.

"So you live in my house, drive my car, spend my money—"

"and all of it is because I'm not worth it? Is that it?"

Six years of marriage, and I could count on my fingers the times Gillian had spent a cent on me.

She always said I was too impressive, too strong, that I was her role model, the one who pointed her way.

Always said that once she was worth a fortune, she'd shelter me from every storm.

But she'd grown into a towering tree, and gone off to shelter another man instead.

Faced with my demand for an answer, all she said, without a flicker of guilt, was that he was worth it.

"Don't cry."

She pulled out a tissue and, calm as anything, gently wiped away my tears.

"It's not that you're not worth it. Job, you've always been good, always been remarkable, the successful man I've always admired."

"It's just, I'm pregnant. It's Hal's child."

As she spoke, she pushed the divorce papers back in front of me again.

"So let's get divorced."