Because he was not stupid. They lived in a dream world. Reality waited like a ticking clock beside both their heads. He was an outlaw. He may have been Jimmy’s biological father but society did not recognize his role. The money they spent was stolen. They could not simply move away after Amy got a divorce. David would keep tabs on her, he was that kind of guy. He would eventually learn Amy had a sweet little boy, not to mention a not-so-sweet boyfriend. It might take a few months, maybe a few years. But the truth would eventually emerge.

What was the truth anyway?

There was only one question that mattered.

Did she really love him?

She said she did, and she did everything she could to prove it. Soft words at passionate moments—they flowed like iced pearls through his heated veins. On the surface he was inclined to believe her. But when his contemplation reached even a minor depth, he ran into what she had done to him in the past. Their history was not merely a shadow—it was a pit. Occasionally, when he dozed naked in her arms on the rare night she was able to stay over, he felt himself falling. No parachute above, no boat below. In darkness he fell and the sound of her breathing was a howling wind in his head, capable of sweeping away all he sought to possess. He would awake soaked in sweat and she would kiss him and tell him to go back to sleep.

Don’t worry, baby. Everything will be all right.

All he had wanted to do was love her. In the beginning he had been innocent. Only in the middle had he transformed into a master schemer. Now he just wanted Matt Connor back. He hated the disguise he had to wear to walk outside. He hated many parts of his life; he felt it belonged to him no longer. He was so attached to her she owned him. She promised that everything would be fine, but promises existed in the future. His fears came in the present. He would think of her kissing David and he would feel sick, and the thought of them having sex made him swoon. But then she would notice his silence. She had the antenna of a Martian lander. She swore that she was no longer intimate with her husband, that they hardly even talked. And he wanted to believe her.

Ah, trust; even millions of dollars could not buy it back.