Phillip tucked down a little deeper into the comfort of his cashmere coat. The March wind off the ocean had an insidious damp chill that crept into his bones. “I was thinking a nap might be nice.”

“No, you old goat.” Vicki took a jerky step backward, placing her fists on her hips. “I am not in the mood for a snuggle. I’ve worked too hard and too long and I’m tired, I tell you.” Her voice had gone sharp and shrill. “Tired!” She turned abruptly and started walking away from him, but not before he caught sight of the angry tears filling her eyes.

“Vicki, what’s going on?” He hobbled after her as best he could, the damp air aggravating his hip, causing it to flare up.

She turned on him, teeth bared. “Everything you’ve ever said to me has been lies. ‘I love you.’ ‘I’m going to leave my wife. I promise.’ But did you? No! Twenty-eight years. Twenty-eight years of my life I’ve wasted on you.”

“I’m going to—”

“Shut up!” She jabbed her finger into his chest hard. Her face thrust up close into his. Scared him a little and turned him on as well, all that rage and passion. “There was always some damned excuse. ‘The boys are going through a rough time.’ Then they were at university, but your wife got cancer. Of course you couldn’t leave then. What kind of monster would? But now I wonder, did she actually have ovarian cancer? Or was that just another thing you lied about?”

He felt rather like he was drowning. Tried to bluster his way through. “I don’t lie to you. I never have.”

She laughed, brittle as glass. “ ‘You’d need to get licensed with FINRA,’ you said, ‘in order to pull a salary on the trust accounts.’ ” Her face was bitter and her voice high-pitched and mocking. “Well, I worked hard, all those nights and weekends that I sat waiting around for you to show up for an hour or two. I got licensed with the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Still you hesitated, so I took an online course and got my CFP. I’m a frigging certified financial planner. ‘Ah,’ you said. ‘Wonderful! Congratulations, my beloved! Let’s crack open a chilled bottle of Dom Perignon.’ But did a damn thing change? No.” Suddenly all the fight seemed to drain out of her. She seemed smaller. Older. Depressed and defeated. And he felt ashamed for having turned the bright, loving, trusting person she had been into this. She looked at him. No artifice. No smile. He could see the sorrow and disillusionment in her eyes. “You thought I’d never know, didn’t you? You thought I’d take your word. That I’d trust you.” She shook her head, her face wet with tears. “And I did. But all this time you’ve been running a con on me.”