The girls. Pain ricocheted through her. She hated Nick for what he’d done to their trust, their marriage and their family. For the chaos his bombshell was raining down on them now, tomorrow, next week and for all the years to come. She wanted to stop thinking and questioning. Stop feeling. More than anything, she wanted to shut down and block out this nightmare. The thought of running away—leaving this house—reached out its hand, tempting her. All she had to do was grasp it and let it pull her far far away.

Think!

But thinking was almost impossible.

More than anything, she wanted to leave but fleeing Nick and the house would only rescue her for tonight. Even then, it wouldn’t really rescue her. There was no way she was leaving the girls with him and if she took them to Pelican House, they’d be confused as to why the three of them were having a sleepover at Glamma and Da’s when Daddy was at home. When she woke up tomorrow, all this mess would still exist, She’d have to return to Burrunan, face Nick and deal with a thousand arrangements.

It was all too awful. All too hard. Too much.

A flicker of cogent thought penetrated her overwhelming urge to flee. Go slowly.

“I hate you for doing this to us.”

“I hate myself.” Nick tried again to touch her. She slapped away his hands. “Libby, can you forgive me?”

“I don’t know.”

“Are you leaving me?”

“I don’t know.” The only thing she was certain of was that she would never sleep in their bed again.

“I’ll do anything to fix this,” Nick pleaded.

“Fix?” It came out on a shriek. “You can’t fix anything. You have a child with her!”

“I love you, tesoro mio. I’ve always loved you. Nothing’s changed that. Nothing ever will.”

Words she’d once treasured and held close to her heart—words she’d believed to be the absolute truth—rolled over her like mercury, without a trace of residue. “Everything’s changed, Nick. Absolutely everything.”

Chapter Ten

Karen slammed the meat tenderizer into the steak, visualizing Nick’s testicles. “I want to do this to our bastard son-in-law!”

Peter gave her a worried glance. “Do I need to hide the cooking knives?”

“How can you be so calm about it?” She whacked the steak again. “He’s betrayed our daughter in the worst possible way.”

“And he regrets it.”

“So that’s it? He regrets it, so he’s forgiven?”

“I didn’t say that.” Peter spun some washed lettuce. “I feel sorry for him.”

Her disbelief at the statement almost matched her fury at Nick. “How is that even possible?”

“If you’d come with me to see him, you’d feel the same way. He doesn’t look like Nick. I swear he’s shrunk.”

“Good!” She slammed the meat again. “I want him to suffer!”