Chapter 2
I pulled my wrist from Gavin's hand.
"You had an affair with my employee. She's seven months pregnant. What exactly do you think is still intact?"
"Our company. Tessa's sense of security. Your parents' pride in what we built." He spoke as though reading from a list. "Things bigger than what happened in this room."
"What happened in this room?"
His jaw tightened. "Don't reduce fifteen years to one mistake."
"How long?"
"Maren."
"How long have you been sleeping with her?"
He glanced at the door Brielle had closed behind her. That small look answered before he did.
"We became close after the Winter Design Awards last year."
I remembered that night. Tessa had developed a fever that climbed past one hundred and four. I had spent six hours with her in the emergency room while Gavin accepted the company's largest industry award. Brielle had stood beside him in the photographs.
"Did it start that night?"
"This is not the place."
"Did it?"
"It became physical later."
He offered the distinction like it should comfort me. I pressed my knuckles against my mouth. Behind the wall, someone tested the livestream music. The opening notes of our anniversary theme vibrated through the dressing-room mirror.
"Was the baby planned?"
"No."
"But you want him."
Gavin paused.
"Yes."
That answer hurt more cleanly than the others. He had not been trapped by a pregnancy he regretted. He had already begun loving the future it promised.
"And what had you planned for me?"
"I planned to protect you."
"From knowing?"
"From public humiliation. From lawyers turning everything into a war. From Tessa watching her parents tear apart the life she knows."
He stepped closer, lowering his voice.
"We finish tonight. We keep appearances stable for a few months. Then we announce that we've separated by mutual agreement. You keep the house. Nothing changes for Tessa. You retain financial security and step away from the parts of the company that are exhausting you."
I stared at him. "You planned my life after you left it."
"I planned a transition."
"A transition into what?"
"A life that doesn't punish everyone because our marriage stopped working."
Our marriage had apparently stopped working without anyone informing me.
"You came home every night."
"Most nights."
"You renewed our vows on camera six months ago."
"For the spring campaign."
The answer hollowed something out inside me. I had spent years defending those staged moments because I believed the feeling underneath them was real. Gavin had simply learned to separate the image from the marriage, then the marriage from his promises.
"I meant what I said. I'm divorcing you."
His expression softened with a patience that felt more insulting than anger.
"You've just had a shock."
"I have just met the mother of my husband's child."
"You are not making decisions tonight."
"You don't get to decide that."
"Someone has to think beyond tonight."
A knock sounded at the door.
"Dad?" Tessa called. "Brielle said we have four minutes. Are you both coming? I finished the surprise."
My whole body went still.
Gavin glanced toward the door, then back at me.
"Our daughter is on the other side of that door," he said quietly. "Whatever you think of me, don't make her remember tonight as the moment her mother destroyed our family."