Chapter 6

Edward didn't bother denying it. "She did. She also says you threatened to call her husband about the two of us."

He stopped, then tried again. "Susan, you've got this wrong. She's a colleague. That's the whole story."

Coworkers was the word he chose.

I couldn't help but let out a bitter laugh.

My eyes were streaming by the time I got the question out, one word at a time. "Are you my husband, or hers?"

Any other wife would've come home from a fight like that and told her husband first.

But what about us?

I didn't wait for him. "She also told me she was your first love."

Edward went quiet.

He'd done this for years.

Any subject he didn't want opened, he simply refused to open.

He seemed to believe silence could delete a thing from the record.

I felt completely drained.

"Edward, I want a divorce."

His whole body went stiff. "What did you say?"

"A divorce," I said again.

His jaw set, and the silence ran long. "You need time to cool off. I'll sleep at the office for a while. Call or text if anything comes up."

He turned and left without waiting for an answer.

I watched the door close behind him and felt the last of it drain out of me.

He stayed gone for days, and I never once reached for my phone.

I hired a nanny for Charlie and started working my way through interviews, firm by firm.

I had a degree from a top law school and two years as a paralegal behind me, but six years out of the field closed every door I knocked on.

The legal world in this city was small enough that word of my job hunt reached Edward within days.

He called me. "Susan, there's a paralegal spot open on my side. Do you want to try it?"

Before I could answer, Charlotte's voice came through the line.

"Edward, if it gets out that you handed your wife a job, what happens to your name in this city?" she said.

Then she spoke to me. "Ms. Hart, my husband's firm needs a receptionist. Come take it.

"You've been out of law too long. Even if Edward's willing to carry you, people are going to talk."

Edward came in behind her. "That works, Susan. Start at Charlotte's husband's company and build some experience back up."

They traded lines like a couple who'd been married for years.

My hand closed hard around the phone, my jaw locked, and for once I didn't swallow it.

I said, "Go to hell."

Then I hung up.

I stood on the sidewalk for a long time before I called Rachel Lane, my closest friend from college.

"Susie? You finally remembered my number. What happened, done playing house?"

Rachel and I had been joined at the hip.

After the wedding and the baby, we'd drifted the way people do.

The guilt sat on me, but I said it anyway. "Rach, I'm looking for paralegal work."

"Seriously? Come work with me. We'd be colleagues again." Rachel didn't waste a breath. "Send me your address. I'll come get you."

An hour later I was standing in Rachel's firm.

Somewhere in those missing years she'd made senior partner.

Charlotte's words were still in my ear. "Am I going to cost you anything, coming in like this?"

"Are you serious? I'm a partner. I can hire a paralegal. And you came out of the same school I did with two years on your record. You're not behind anybody here," Rachel said.

Her answer left a chill sitting in my chest.

Edward was a senior partner too.