PART II
“The path to paradise begins in hell.”
Dante Alighieri
Chapter 01
"Goodbye, Colin."
Colin
“Ceci. I—”
“You can explain? I’m sure you can.” She tilts her head, her face void of expression as she stands. “Not here. This is my favorite place in the house. I don’t want to taint it.”
A sharp pang pierces my chest as a memory surfaces—her saying something completely different...
We were lying in our bed after making love, Ceci curled against me with her head resting on my chest. “This is my favorite place,” she murmured, her voice soft and dreamlike.
I chuckled. “Our bed?”
“Here.” She pressed a kiss to my chest, then lifted her gaze to mine. “In your arms, no matter where we are.”
I’m yanked back into the present by the sound of a binder being placed on the console table behind one of the couches.
“You wanted to explain. Please do.”
She stands there, detached, her expression unreadable.
Taking a deep breath, I begin.
"I don't know who sent you the picture or what they told you, but it's not what you think. It only happened a few times, and it meant nothing to me. I swear it will never happen again.I love you, Ceci… you know that. You're theonlywoman I've ever loved."
I reach for her hand, and when she doesn't pull away or slap me across the face, the rush of relief is so strong I could almost cry. "You know how hard this past year has been for the company. We had to recover from bad investments, and with all the stress, I... I let myself slip. But I swear to you, Ipromiseyou, it willneverhappen again."
Her silence presses in. Each second drives another nail into my chest, pinning me in place. She stares at me for what feels like a lifetime. Her gaze unwavering, her expression carved from stone.
“How... how can you look me in the eye and lie as easily as you breathe?” she whispers. Her voice is so faint, it barely reaches me.
I cup her face in my hands, and the look of pain etched across her features makes my chest twist in agony. “Look at me, baby. Please...pleaselook at me.”
When she finally lifts her eyes, they meet mine—but she doesn’t see me. She stares straight through me, past me, into a place where I no longer exist.
No. This can’t be happening.
“No, Ceci. You have tolookat me. Youneedto look at me,really look at me and understand. You’re theonly onewho matters. No one else.”
I keep holding her face, my thumbs trembling against her skin, begging with my eyes for her to see me. To see the truth, the love I carry for her, just as she always has.
“I am looking, Colin. And I don’t like what I see.”
She pulls away from my touch and opens the binder resting on the console table. “What I see is a liar.A cheater. A manipulator. A man with no integrity.”
With each word that falls from her lips, she flips another page in the binder, the sound snapping against the rings like a verdict. Then she reaches down for a paper bag and tosses a white shirt onto the wood between us. The lipstick stain on the collar stares back at me—a silent accusation.
Fear seizes my body, my blood turning to ice in my veins with every step I take toward what might be my own condemnation.
I have to turn this around. I can’t lose Ceci.I won’t lose Ceci.
