Then all at once she stepped off the sheets. “Oh, Lottie dear, perfect timing!”

I followed her eyes to where Lottie stood at the top of the stairs, with her two-toned cream-and-camel luggage behind her, hurt stamping her face. Tears in her eyes.

Our eyes locked. She looked just as surprised to see me as I her.

“It’s time to have a frank discussion,” Tansy said. “Which is, frankly, overdue.”

I’d never felt more like the other woman than at this moment, naked, stuck in his bed, as his future wife waited to move in.

“Ideally, the mistress and the wife should be on speaking terms. As the wife, you can set your own rules of order for her to follow.”

I stared at the sheets.

“Lottie?” Tansy probed.

“Yes?” Lottie croaked.

“Do you have any rules you’d like her to follow?”

“I…I need to sit down.” Lottie wobbled over to a couch, falling on it instantly.

“Of course, dear, you have time to think on them.” Tansy’s inflection was so easy, like we were discussing what we would get for lunch.

I couldn’t breathe.

Lottie looked like she was going to pass out.

Footfalls sounded, pounding, heavy things that echoed and boomed. A moment later, Grayson appeared on the stairs. His eyes darted around, taking in Tansy, Lottie, me, and doing it in reverse.

“What the fuck is happening?”

“Lottie is moving in,” Tansy said easily. “We’re discussing your mistress arrangements.”

A tear fell down Lottie’s cheek.

I loved Grayson. I’d been in love with him, but we could never be together.

What was I doing here?

I scrambled to get as much of the sheets as I could to cover myself, climbing off the bed and tripping as I did so.

“Story, wait,” Grayson started. “Let me…”

My eyes were stuck on Lottie. “I’m sorry, Lottie, I—”

I ran down the stairs.

I only made it to the hallway before I collapsed into a heap of tears. The marble floor seeped through the thin silk sheets, cold, abrasive. I wasn’t sure how long I sat like that, the sound of the waves outside muffled by the glass.

When suddenly thwack.

A thick stack of cash hit my thigh.

Thwack. Thwack. Thwack.

More cash landed on me, between my thighs, on my shin, pelting me, covering me. More cash than I’d ever seen in my life, flying at me. I looked up, finding Grayson.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s twenty million dollars,” he said. “Get the fuck out and go. Never come back.”

I stared up at Grayson, speechless. He’d painted me in green, my only armor his sheets. It took a moment to swallow the tears in my throat, to speak through the hurt. He’d just thrown cash at me like I was nothing.

Like I was less than nothing.