Chapter 2

For the next two days, Adrian behaved as if our argument had been about money.

He kissed me before work. He asked what flavor cake I wanted. He reminded me that Paige was only an employee who had suffered a medical emergency.

I let him believe I was still waiting for an explanation.

On my thirty-second birthday, he filled the rooftop of the Aster Hotel with candles and pale pink peonies. Chicago shimmered beyond the glass railing, and a jazz trio played my favorite standard.

Adrian had remembered everything: the lemon cake I loved, the flowers I always bought for myself, even the champagne I had ordered on our first date.

Every detail was designed to say the same thing: Adrian Cole still adored his wife.

At 8:17 p.m., his phone lit up beside two untouched glasses of champagne.

PAIGE: They moved tomorrow's appointment to 9:30. I cannot do this alone again. Please do not tell Nora yet.

The message did not break my heart.

That had happened two nights earlier, outside a half-closed hospital door.

This message simply told me how easily they intended to keep lying.

"Nora, this is beautiful," one of the board members' wives said, touching my arm. "Your husband certainly knows how to make you feel celebrated."

I looked at my best friend's name glowing on his screen.

"I know," I said. "I'm very lucky."

"Why do you have Adrian's phone?"

Paige's voice came from behind me.

I locked the screen and turned.

My best friend stood there in a loose navy dress and cream cardigan, one hand drifting toward her stomach before she forced it back to her side.

For one aching second, I still saw the girl who had once known every secret I kept.

Then I remembered her running into Adrian's arms beneath the hospital lights.

"Your message came through," I said, holding out the phone. "They moved your appointment to nine-thirty."

The color left her face.

Then she smiled too quickly. "What appointment?"

Before I could answer, Adrian appeared beside us.

His arm slid around my waist with the practiced ease of a man who had spent years performing devotion in public.

"There you are," he said. "I have been looking everywhere for you."

"I was looking at your phone."

I watched his eyes. "Does that bother you?"

His hand tightened against my hip.

He glanced at Paige. It lasted less than a second, but she stopped breathing.

"You know my password," he said. "I have never hidden my phone from you."

Then he kissed my temple.

The kiss felt rehearsed now.

My stomach turned so violently I had to step away.

"Nora?" Adrian reached for me.

"I need the restroom."

He followed me into the quiet hall outside the ladies' room.

When I bent over the sink, he placed a hand between my shoulders. I moved before he could touch me.

His hand stopped in the air.

"What is going on?"

I lifted my eyes to the mirror.

I had already heard the answer at Lakeshore. I wanted to know whether he would still lie while looking directly at me.

"Is there something you need to tell me?"

His expression barely changed. Adrian had negotiated acquisitions worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He knew how to keep his face still.

"Why are you asking me that tonight?"

"Because tonight is supposed to mean something."

He turned me toward him and pressed my palm against his chest.

His heartbeat was steady.

"You are the one person I would never lie to," he said.

I stared at the man I had loved since I was 25.

"So you would never betray me?"

"Never."

No pause. No visible guilt.

"Nora, I could lose Northbridge. I could lose the house, the money, all of it. I could not lose you."

I slowly pulled my hand away.

"Good," I said. "I will remember that."