Chapter 2

The next day, I didn't go to the office. I supervised the work myself.

Seaborne Design moved fast. Before dawn they had the design plans and the construction crew out at the Shallow Cove villa.

The giant tank went into the dead center of the living room, taking up nearly a third of the space.

The glass was custom-made. Supposedly it could withstand a shark's impact.

The scenery inside was an exact replica of some famous stretch of coral sea, stunning to look at.

By the time Burton got there, the tank was already filling with water.

He stood staring at all of it, unable to hide the shock in his eyes, and something like delight.

"Chris, this…"

"Do you like it?"

I asked.

He nodded hard and came toward me to pull me into a hug.

"Thank you, Chris. You're so good to me."

I turned aside and slipped away.

"I did it for your pet."

His outstretched hand froze awkwardly in midair, and the smile on his face froze with it.

I didn't look at him again. I turned to the construction foreman.

"Set the water temperature to eighteen degrees."

"Keep the salinity strictly to the numbers I gave you."

"And the filtration system runs twenty-four hours a day. I don't want a single impurity in that water."

The foreman nodded again and again.

Burton trailed behind me, starting to speak and stopping.

"Chris, isn't eighteen degrees too low? Maura, she…"

"Is she a tropical fish?"

I asked back.

"No."

"Then there's no problem."

I dropped that and went straight up to the second floor.

This had once been the nursery I'd planned. I'd even chosen the wallpaper, a soft cream color.

Now, through the huge floor-to-ceiling window, you could see the giant blue cage downstairs, clear as anything.

Soon Burton came up carrying Maura.

He lowered her into the water with great care, like completing some sacred rite.

The moment Maura hit the water, her tail unfurled and cut a brilliant arc through it.

She swam freely in the enormous tank, her long silver hair drifting loose, too beautiful to seem real.

Burton stood in front of the tank, lost in her.

I stood on the second floor and watched too, quietly.

I watched the obsession in his eyes, watched Maura swim up to him now and then, nuzzling close against him through the glass.

She was like a victor, patrolling her own territory.

And I was the loser who'd been driven out.

My phone buzzed. A message from my best friend, Lola Fox.

"Chris, have you lost your mind? Keeping the other woman at home as a pet?"

"What kind of spell has Burton put on you!"

I sent back one line.

"Don't worry. The game's only just started."

I put the phone down and went downstairs.

"Burton."

He turned as if waking from a dream.

"Chris?"

"Starting today, we're moving in here."

I announced.

He froze.

"Moving in?"

"Yes."

I walked up to the tank and met Maura's eyes through the water.

"A pet this expensive, of course I have to watch it every minute to feel at ease."

Maura's eyes went wary in an instant.

Burton's expression was complicated too. There was delight in it, and unease.

"But this place is so far from both our offices."

"Then change jobs."

I said it lightly.

"Or you can spend four hours a day on the road."

I turned to look at him.

"Your choice."

Burton went silent.

He knew I wasn't joking.

My studio could move, but his architecture firm was rooted in the heart of the city.

Four hours of commuting a day would drain every bit of his energy.

This was the first choice I was giving him.

Either give up a convenient life.

Or give up seeing his darling every day.

In the end, he caved.

"Fine. We'll move in."

He looked at Maura in the tank, his eyes full of longing and reluctance to leave.

"Maura, I'll come home early every day."

Maura watched him through the glass, wounded and resentful.

I smiled.

Burton, this is only the beginning.

What you give up for her is only going to grow.