Chapter 1 - THE KISS BESIDE THE POOL
I caught my husband kissing my younger sister twenty-eight minutes before her engagement toast.
Natalie had one hand hooked inside Mark’s gray suit jacket. His palm was pressed against the bare back of her white engagement dress.
They were standing beside Victor Hale’s infinity pool in Pasadena, half hidden behind a row of lemon trees while eighty guests drank champagne twenty yards away.
For a second, neither noticed me.
Then Natalie opened her eyes.
She did not jump away.
That hurt more than the kiss.
Mark turned and wiped his mouth with his thumb.
“Claire.”
I had imagined discovering infidelity before. In every imaginary version I screamed.
Instead I asked, “How long?”
Natalie smiled nervously.
Mark stepped between us.
“Not tonight.”
“Your wife just caught you kissing her sister.”
“It’s Ethan’s engagement party.”
As if I were the one threatening it.
I looked toward the patio doors.
My sister’s fiancé, Ethan Hale, was inside greeting relatives beside his father, Victor.
An hour earlier Ethan had laughed and asked Natalie why she kept disappearing with Mark.
“He’s practically my brother,” she had answered.
Mark lowered his voice.
“Don’t say anything tonight.”
I looked at Natalie.
She actually seemed relieved when I said, “Fine.”
She thought I was protecting her.
I wasn’t.
Ten minutes earlier, while searching Mark’s leather investment folder for the hotel reservation he claimed was inside, I had found something else.
Printed screenshots.
A message from Natalie:
ETHAN WILL SIGN AFTER THE TOAST. HE STILL THINKS IT’S JUST THE NEWPORT DEAL.
Mark:
MAKE SURE HE DOESN’T READ THE SIDE LETTER.
Another:
ONCE HIS MONEY HITS, I CAN PUT CLAIRE’S ACCOUNT BACK BEFORE QUARTER CLOSE.
And beneath those messages, one from Natalie that made the affair impossible to misunderstand:
AFTER HE SIGNS, YOU’RE MINE TONIGHT.
I had photographed every page.
Then I sent them to one person.
Victor Hale.
Ethan’s father.
Victor had spent thirty-five years financing commercial real estate before retiring. He would understand Mark’s paperwork faster than I could.
My phone vibrated.
Victor:
DON’T CONFRONT THEM YET. I’M COMING OUTSIDE.
Mark saw the screen light up.
“Who are you texting?”
“No one.”
For the first time, he looked worried.
Twenty minutes later, after Victor arrived and Ethan began asking questions, Mark’s worry became violence.
He grabbed both my shoulders and shoved me backward into a wicker chair.
“Fix your face and shut up,” he hissed. “Your sister is worth more than you.”
Natalie caught my hair and jerked my head backward.
“He stayed married to you because leaving you cost too much.”
I knocked her arm away.
Mark seized my wrist.
That was when I grabbed his leather folder and slammed it onto the champagne table.
“Ethan,” I said. “Ask what you’re signing.”
Mark lunged and covered my mouth.
I tore his hand down just far enough to speak.
“Victor already saw the screenshots.”
Everything stopped.
Mark released me.
Then he launched himself toward Victor’s phone.
Victor jerked it away.
Ethan saw only a fragment of the image on-screen.
It was enough.
He looked at Natalie.
May you like
“What exactly was I supposed to sign tonight?”
And my sister finally stopped smiling.
