Chapter 3

The drive home from Lucas and Maya’s engagement party had been suffocatingly quiet. The moment Nathan unlocked our front door and we stepped inside, I turned to him.

"I saw her keychain in the hallway tonight," I said. "I saw the new spare."

Nathan froze, his hand still on the light switch. He let out a long, exhausted breath.

"Claire, are you really doing this right now? She was literally just telling me how amazing and understanding you are. Why are you trying to pick a fight?"

"She wasn't praising me, Nathan. She was mocking me," I replied, my tone flat. "She gave Lucas his key back because she said Maya deserves a private home. But she kept yours because she knows you'll always let her keep it."

I looked him dead in the eye. "I'm not asking you to stop being her friend. I am asking you to take back the key to our home."

Nathan stared at me.

He looked like he wanted to argue, to defend her again. But seeing the coldness in my expression, he swallowed his words.

He rubbed his temples. "Fine. If it bothers you this much, I'll get it back."

The next evening, Nathan walked into the bedroom while I was getting ready.

He dropped a shiny silver key onto my vanity table. It landed with a heavy, final clink.

He stood behind me. He pulled his phone from his pocket and opened our smart lock app. Right in front of me, he swiped left on Tessa's name.

Delete Fingerprint.

Delete Passcode.

"It's done," he said. "You're my wife. If this is what you need to feel secure, then it's done."

He squeezed my shoulders. "Now, finish getting dressed. I booked that Italian place downtown. Let's just hit reset."

I looked at his earnest reflection in the mirror.

I didn't feel relieved. He had disappointed me too many times for one deleted code to feel final.

And I was right.

That promise was broken less than two hours later.

I was in the hallway, adjusting my purse, when his phone vibrated.

Tessa.

He answered it on speaker.

"Nate, emergency!"

Tessa’s voice was loud, breezy, and cheerful over the sound of traffic.

"Murphy’s just shut down for a gas leak. I’ve got the whole old crew standing outside with beer, wings, and nowhere to go."

Nathan frowned. "Tess, try the sports bar on 5th."

"We tried! Everywhere is packed, there's a game tonight,"

Tessa shot back effortlessly.

"Your basement is ten minutes away. Come on, bro. Don’t tell me marriage turned our captain into a guy who needs a permission slip."

In the background, a chorus of male voices started cheering and egging him on.

"Come on, Reed!"

"One night, man!"

"Claire’s cool, right?"

Without missing a beat, Tessa delivered the final blow.

"Of course she’s cool," Tessa declared loudly to the guys. "She knows I’m one of the guys."

She had cornered us neatly.

She invited an entire crowd of men over, putting Nathan on the spot. If he said no, he was the whipped husband betraying his friends. If I objected, I was the controlling, unreasonable wife ruining the party.

Nathan looked at me, trapped by his own ego.

"Only for two hours," Nathan finally said into the phone. "Claire and I still have dinner."

"You're the best, bro! See you in ten."

Ten minutes later, Tessa didn't just show up with one or two friends. She arrived with seven guys carrying coolers and takeout boxes.

Nathan opened the door to avoid a scene in front of his old crew.

As they flooded the entryway, Tessa turned to Nathan, balancing a case of beer on her hip.

"Hey, Nate, can you just punch a code in for me? We've got more stuff in the trunk and I don't want to keep knocking while you guys are getting ready."

"Yeah, sure," Nathan muttered, pulling out his phone.

He didn't even look at me. He just created a temporary passcode for her so she could run up and down the stairs.

As the guys headed down to the basement, Tessa walked up to the wooden rack in our entryway.

There were three hooks on that wall. Mine, Nathan's, and the empty one on the end.

She tossed her oversized, faded baseball jacket right onto the third hook.

She turned around, caught me looking, and gave the hook a solid pat.

"See?" she grinned at me, flashing a casual, shameless smile. "My spot survived."

It was a joke. It was just a "bro" being a bro.

But she was telling me exactly who held the real power in this house.

Nathan led the rest of the guys downstairs to make sure they were settled.

I didn't yell. I didn't cause a scene in front of his friends.

I just pulled out my phone and opened the smart lock app. I tapped on the new entry log.

User: Tessa (Temporary)

I clicked on the permission settings to see when it would expire.

Expiration Date: Never.

All she needed was a six-pack, a crowd of guys, and a challenge to his masculinity, and he would force his wife to step back all over again.

I turned around, grabbed my car keys, and walked out into the cold night air.

Sitting in the driver's seat of my car, the engine off, I scrolled through my contacts.

Past the mutual friends. Past Nathan's family.

Down to Owen Carter.

I typed out a text, my fingers steady.

Do you remember the spare key you returned before my wedding?

Three dots appeared almost immediately.

Owen: I remember. Why?

Are you back in the city tomorrow?

Owen: Landing at noon.

I looked through the windshield at my living-room window.

I could see Tessa sitting on the arm of Nathan’s chair, drinking straight from his beer while six men laughed around our anniversary table.

Maya’s charity dinner starts at seven. Come as my guest.

His answer took a little longer this time.

Owen: Does your husband know?

Not yet.

For six years, Nathan had insisted Tessa was harmless because she was his "bro."

Tomorrow night, he would meet the man who had once been mine.

And before the night ended, Nathan would watch me place my old apartment key in Owen’s hand.