Emphasis on the family, as if that explains everything. And for Diana, I suppose it does. All that time I spent feeling like an outsider proves that I need more than a marriage certificate to crack that Keller nut. I need something I don’t have, something I’ll never have, especially since I am no longer willing to try. This person I tried so hard to become, this dream I worked so hard to attain, it doesn’t fit me anymore.

She looks out the window, to the trees and the lake and the rolling hills on the other side, and her forehead crumples with new lines. “I mean, honestly. The second I heard that woman’s jewelry went missing, I knew that it couldn’t have been Jax. What would he want with some cheap costume pieces, anyway? He has no need for money, and he’s not that conniving. Jax is a good man.”

“He managed to keep a skeleton buried for twenty years. Clearly, he’s no saint.”

Her gaze, still defensive and hard, whips to mine. “Yes, and you can see what that did to him. Jax has paid deeply for his hand in Bobby’s death, and so has Paul. Both of them have lost so much.”

The image of Paul’s face flashes, fierce and proud and happy as he watched me make my way down the aisle, and my heart pinches with the memory. My whole life stretched out before me that day. The life I wanted. The life I thought I deserved with a handsome husband, a pretty home, a bank account overflowing with cash. If only I had looked more closely at the man behind the offer.

“Yes, and now Paul has lost me. Because I can’t be with him after this, Diana. I just can’t. If that makes me uncompromising, then so be it. This baby deserves better. I deserve better.”

Her shoulders slump with disappointment. “That’s too bad. Because I hate thinking of that baby growing up without a father.”

“A divorce won’t change the fact that this baby is Paul’s. And I’m not saying I’m cutting him out of our lives completely, just that I can’t be married to him anymore.”

She gives a swirl to her tea, watching the way the liquid spins around her cup. “What I meant is, it’s hard enough to raise a child, but doing so on your own is a special brand of difficult. The midnight feedings, the constant worry. The money.” She sips, watching me over the lip of her teacup. “Babies are so very expensive.”