stopped me.
“What?”
“She said you controlled everything. Money. Friends. Where she went.”
Claire shook her head.
“Derek—”
“She said you hit her once.”
I looked at my wife.
Fourteen years.
Never.
Not once.
Not even when she threw a wineglass at me during the worst year of our marriage.
“Did you tell him that?”
Claire said nothing.
Derek’s face drained.
“You lied about that too?”
“I needed you to understand why I couldn’t just walk away!”
“You could have said you were cheating on your husband!”
“I loved you!”
“No,” Derek said.
His voice had changed.
The swagger was gone.
“You used me.”
That was the moment I understood the entire shape of it.
Derek had not seduced my wife away from me.
Claire had selected him.
Young.
Impulsive.
Protective.
Proud.
A man easy to provoke.
A man who would call me.
A man who would create conflict.
A
