I’d resisted defending myself for so long that it was difficult to form the words on my tongue. “I didn’t marry Kate for the money.” It came out flat and lacking conviction, but it was better than saying nothing. Would he believe me?

Dad scooted to the edge of his seat and pressed his fingertips together like he was in a board meeting. The same move Beck had pulled. “If you want to stop the divorce, then you need to talk to your wife. But first, you need to think about what kind of husband you want to be, and if it’s the kind of husband she’d want.”

What kind of husband I wanted to be? I provided. I could give her anything she ever wanted. Except Kate wasn’t a woman who gave a damn about things. If she did, she wouldn’t have been daunted by the money.

She treasured the people in her life. Her family. Friends. Coworkers. Patrons at the library. I’d used her to land the family treasure and then had taken her for granted. I’d put off talking to her, convinced I’d do it later, that there’d be a better time that would somehow make my lies hurt less.

Later was here and she was gone.

I had succeeded in securing the trust and the company. Could I secure a future with Kate?

No, the question was, could I secure a future with Kate where she knew the real me?

Did I even know who the real me was?

Kate

It was an unusually warm autumn day. I’d made it through two weeks of work, and I’d done it without telling my coworkers I was getting divorced. I hadn’t been able to tell anyone since I hadn’t confirmed with Aiden a time to meet and discuss the terms of the divorce so we could each sign.

It had been two weeks since I’d last seen him or talked to him. Our messages were short and infrequent.

The confusion in his gaze when I’d told him I wanted a divorce haunted me. The way he’d shouted after me as I had left. He never raised his voice. Aiden was steady, restrained. Frustratingly so.

“Katie can do it,” Jason taunted.

I tipped my head up, straightening in the lawn chair I reclined in on the porch Randall had built off the back door of the house. It took up a quarter of the small yard, but when it was nice out, my family used it like another living room. Jason circled his oldest boy, Caleb, on the brown lawn. We’d gotten a dusting of snow earlier in October but the last of it had melted two weeks ago.