I felt sick. My hand shook as I put my napkin on my plate. I was about to go inside and find a bathroom to hide in for a bit.
Olive must have sensed it, because she hurried to say, “Wow, I guess you don’t even know that Thatcher and Madison were engaged, then.” She grinned at me.
My mouth went dry, and I felt as if someone had punched me in the stomach. Engaged. Thatcher and Madison Welles not onlydated, but they’d also been engaged. And now his company had hiredher, out of all the possibilities in the world, to be its new spokesperson.
And the campaign had started months ago. I realized with a sick feeling that it probably coincided with when Thatcher started behaving differently.
“No, I didn’t know,” I finally croaked out, reaching for a glass of water. I looked around the table. No one would meet my eyes except Olive and Madison.
They all knew. They’d all let me be blindsided by the information and look like a fool in front of the whole table. That Olive would do something like this was not surprising. But Bryce, Celia, and…Thatcher? That shocked me. How could they have let me walk into this blindly?
That’s when I happened to look up. I gasped as I realized most people at the party were watching me with interest. That included Karen who was leaning against one of the tent poles with her arms crossed and a victorious smile on her face.
All conversation had stopped.
I sucked in a breath. Literally everyone at this party knew about Madison and Thatcher.Everyone.
Except me.
And they all seemed to be enjoying my reaction. It was as if I was the planned entertainment tonight.
I felt lightheaded, like I might faint.
“Yeah, it wasn’t very long after their engagement ended before he ended up married to you.” The look on Olive’s face told me exactly what she thought of our pairing.
I tried to pretend like I wasn’t falling apart inside, but I couldn’t. Karen, Madison, and Olive wanted to make me look as much like a naïve idiot as possible. I had been set up. The words I’d overheard earlier about the poor, stupid wife being kept in the dark about her husband’s secrets came back to me.
It was me.Iwas that wife.
“I was so, so sad I had to call off our wedding, Thatch.” Madison said, pouting prettily. “And with only three weeks until the big day. I just couldn’t put off my career anymore,” she said to me, “and Thatcher wanted my entire focus on him.”
Thatcher ate with a single-mindedness that would’ve been impressive if I didn’t want to push his face into the ramekin of butter sauce served with his lobster.
“You’re the one who called it off, then.” I said flatly, looking at my husband’s ex-fiancée.
“Yes. I was offered a modeling contract in Paris that I just couldn’t walk away from. Thatcherbeggedme not to cancel. He said he’d wait forever for me, but my career came first then… so…” she trailed off, ending with a shrug.
“I think it was just a few months later that Thatcher saw you bobbing around on the sidelines at that college. How does it feel to know you were a rebound?” Olive asked with a mean smile.
“Olive,” Thatcher said sharply.
“Sorry. I just call it like I see it,” she smiled at me. “I apologize, Carly.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Olive, you know her damn name is Carrie,” Bryce practically shouted at his youngest sibling.
She put her hand to her chest. “Jeez. I didn’t know her name was so important.”
“You’ve known her for over five years, so either you haveveryearly onset dementia or you’re just a hateful little bitch,” Celia said bluntly.
Olive’s pale skin flushed. Only her older sister ever seemed able to put Olive in her place. Normally I loved it when that happened, but tonight I was too focused on pulling a few knives out of my back to enjoy it.
“It’s just so nice to be back together,” Madison said, and I saw red. I knew what she was implying.
“Back together,” I said, looking between her and my husband.
“It’s not what you think…” he started, but Madison talked over him.
“It’s like we were never apart,” Madison said, giving me a fake smile as she reached across the table to lay her hand on top of Thatcher’s. For just a moment he held her hand before he quickly pulled it back. But it had been enough. I’d seen it. It was a reflex—like he was so used to doing it that he hadn’t even thought about it.
