No. Not here.
Before I can fully shut it down, two more knocks echo through the room. Maya and I both look up.
Ceci stands in the doorway, peeking in.
My chest tightens.
Ceci.
Cecily
I thought I might need to invent an excuse to tour the company with Colin, just to get a feel for things. But if their proximity, the look on his face, and the way that womanstares at me—as if I’m competition to be crushed beneath her heel—aren’t clues, then I don’t know what would be.
And then there’s the lipstick. The damn red lipstick.
I’m almost certain that if I had the shirt with me and held it up to her mouth, they’d be a perfect match.
I nearly didn’t come. Almost talked myself out of it.
When I found the stain on his shirt on Friday, I sat with it for over an hour, turning it over in my hands, torn between asking Ethan to stay with his sister and crossing into Manhattan to see if Colin was at the office… and if he was alone. Before that impulse could harden into action, I told myself there had to be another explanation. There always is, if you look hard enough.
Then I reminded myself we’d been married for over eighteen years. We had a beautiful family, a life built with care, with love layered over time. Whatever this was, it could only be a misunderstanding.
Colin wouldn’t betray me.
Then came the gala on Saturday. He was impossibly attentive, exactly as he’d always been, even though I felt a world away from him. He bristled with jealousy when he saw me talking to Alexander, a harmless conversation about the kids and his dog, Sam. A man who loves me like that, who reacts that way… he wouldn’t betray me.
Would he?
And yet, Sunday morning, I found his tuxedo in the washer.
His tuxedo.
In all our years together, I can count on both hands the number of times Colin has ever put his own clothes in the wash—especially not something he would know better than to treat that way. I nearly broke down then, his jacket clenched in my fists, but I didn’t. I told myself I needed more than traces. More than shadows that vanish like footprints in the sand.
Still… I can’t shake the feeling that I’m close. Too close.
“Am I interrupting? I was nearby and thought I’d stop in to say hello,” I manage, forcing a smile that already feels fragile.
My words seem to jolt him. Colin is on his feet instantly, crossing the room with a quick, purposeful stride. He dips his head for a brief kiss, but I curl my fingers into his lapel and deepen it. When we finally part, he’s smiling, his eyes bright.
Mine snag on the dark-haired, green-eyed woman watching us… like she’d rather be anywhere else, yet can’t look away from me in his arms.
She’s beautiful. The kind of beauty that makes you look twice. Curves in all the right places, clothes chosen to flatter every angle. She’s just a fraction taller than I am, her breasts noticeably fuller than mine.
I smile at her and extend my hand, still tucked against Colin’s side. “I don’t think we’ve met—Cecily Montgomery.”
She approaches reluctantly, stopping near the door. Before she can speak, Colin says, “This is Maya Fisher, Margaret’s temporary replacement. Remember I mentioned her to you?”
No. He didn’t.
He’d dropped her name once, in passing, when I asked if he’d received my message. A hollow laugh echoes in my chest as another piece settles into place.
I called the office one other time, a little over a month ago, after I couldn’t reach him on his phone. When it became clear he hadn’t received my message, I let it go. I remember thinking—poor junior assistant, having to deal with someone as demanding as Colin. She must be losing her mind.
I wonder if she ever thought the same about me, while attending to hisother demands.
She’s close enough now that I don’t need to inhale to recognize her perfume. It’s the same scent… an imprint I could never forget, even if I wanted to.
