Chapter 2

Miles had not forgotten to tell me about the vacation.

He had been hiding it since September.

"Show me the full reservation."

He tried to take back his phone. "It is late. You have work tomorrow. We do not need to fight all night."

"If you are using my card, I have a right to know what I am buying."

He opened the hotel account on his laptop, first closing a chat window and clearing a notification from the top of the screen.

The reservation had been created on September twelfth.

That same day, after a prenatal appointment, I had asked whether we could take a three-day babymoon before the baby arrived. Miles said we had to save every dollar until he found work.

That night, he paid a $6,200 hotel deposit from our joint account.

"Most of the money in that account came from my salary."

"We are married," he snapped. "You cannot call it your money every time you are angry."

"And you cannot use it to book a suite for your ex-wife without asking me."

He opened the floor plan and pointed to two separate bedrooms as though that erased the secrecy.

The first three days of the itinerary were in Denver. The next eleven were in Aspen: skiing, hot springs, a New Year's Eve gala, a private sleigh ride, and a session labeled Family Portrait.

This was not a visit to a sick grandmother.

That visit was the excuse they expected me to be too cruel to challenge.

"Is Serena in the family portrait?"

"Mom arranged it."

"Am I?"

He rubbed a hand over his face. "You are not even going, Joanna."

"Was I ever going?"

He did not answer.

I contacted the hotel while he stood across from me, insisting I was humiliating him over a harmless accommodation.

The representative found the original reservation.

It had included my name.

On October twenty-first, someone submitted a change request. My name was removed, and Serena's was added.

At that point, Serena had not even filed for divorce from her second husband.

The request came from Miles's private email address.

I asked the representative to send me the audit history before anyone could alter it again. Miles objected that I was treating him like a criminal. I told him I was treating the reservation like a financial transaction made in my name, because that was exactly what it was.

He tried one last explanation. Serena had been added only because the hotel required every adult guest to be registered. But that did not explain why my name had to disappear, why I had never been told about the suite, or why the confirmation still listed my card for payment.

For months, he had counted on me seeing each detail separately. The room was practical. The money was shared. Serena was family. My pregnancy made travel difficult. Put together, the details formed one decision: I had been replaced, and he expected me to finance it quietly.

My pregnancy had not forced him to make a last-minute decision.

My husband had personally erased me from our Christmas plans and given my place to his ex-wife.