Chapter 1

At dinner, my daughter insisted on sitting on my husband's lap to eat after his long day at work.

I coaxed her for a long while, but she wouldn't get down, so I joked, "Come on down. Only Daddy's girlfriend gets to sit on Daddy's lap."

My daughter's eyes went wide. "I know who Daddy's girlfriend is!"

Hearing that, my face went hot.

Could she have seen me sitting on her father's lap before?

Then my daughter shouted, "Daddy's girlfriends are Aunt Sydney and me! Aunt Sydney sits on Daddy's lap, and I sit on Aunt Sydney's lap!"

I turned to Howard, my face stiff.

He looked perfectly calm, a faint smile at the corner of his mouth.

He tweaked our daughter's nose. "So little, and already learning to tell lies."

So it was a lie.

My heart had barely begun to settle when my daughter shouted again, "I did not lie! Mom won't let me lie. I'm telling the truth. It was yesterday, when I was eating in Daddy's office."

My heart sank like it had dropped into ice.

Howard paused only for a beat, then said lightly, "That's because your Aunt Sydney tripped by accident and ended up on my lap."

My daughter is young and doesn't understand much; whatever her parents say, she takes as true.

She shook her little head back and forth, still wanting to say something more.

Howard frowned. "Have you finished your homework today? I won't put in a good word for you with your teacher tomorrow."

My daughter immediately made a fuss and ran off to her room.

Only after she closed the bedroom door did my expression change.

Howard took my hand and said gently, "You don't actually believe what our daughter said, do you? Kids always love to exaggerate. Sydney just slipped, that's all."

Slipped—and landed exactly on his lap, and then our daughter got to sit on top too?

I took a deep breath.

I didn't want to have a big blowup with Howard at home and upset our daughter.

I pulled my hand away coldly, turned, and went into the kitchen.

In all fairness, I shouldn't have doubted Howard.

We've known each other for thirteen years and been together for twelve.

We came all this way together, through the bitter and the sweet, holding each other up.

When his family business was dividing up its power, I hunted for weaknesses in his competitors' business proposals.

He landed the most important deal, and when his rivals found out I'd helped him, they didn't come after him—they came after me.

That night, a group of men dragged me into an alley.

He came to get me and fought them until they were all bloodied and battered.

He really did love me.

In the fifth year we were together, he proposed.

I was a PhD student in finance; he had taken over the family business and was already a business leader.

In the seventh year, I gave birth to our daughter, Muriel.

The delivery went wrong—severe hemorrhaging—and I had to have my uterus removed.

So I would never have to worry about having children again, he got a vasectomy on his own.

Plenty of pretty women threw themselves at him, and he turned them all down, even blocking the people who tried to set him up.

His secretaries had always been men.

I had always trusted him.

Until six months ago, when he switched to a female secretary.

Three months ago, I met her once.

Sydney Porter, twenty-two, fresh out of college.

I forced my emotions down and finished cleaning up the kitchen.

Howard doesn't like having other people in the house, so the housekeeper leaves once dinner is made.

Everything else, I do myself.

I used to feel I did it all gladly.

Now all that's left is a cold, disheartened heart.

As I lay in bed, Howard sensed I was in a bad mood.

He reached out to pull me close. "Is a little thing like this really worth getting angry over?"

My stomach turned. I pushed his hand away and stood up.

"I'm going to sleep with our daughter."

He held me back. "It's so late—why disturb her..."

I shook off his hand. "Don't worry. I won't question her about it."