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mixing with her anger until the
toxic combination churned in her stomach like burning acid. “If you’re so
miserable why don’t you leave?”
    He surged up from the couch and stalked over to her.
“Because I’m not giving up on us. I wish I could say the same thing for you.”
He went to touch her but she jerked back and he closed his eyes. “When is it
ever going to be enough? When are you going to put your family first?”
    “I—”
    “You know what? Save your breath. I’m tired of hearing the
same lame excuses, tired of lying to my children that their mom will be working
less ‘soon’, that they have to be patient.” His words dropped to a whisper that
pained her even more than his shouts. “Remember when we were first married and
you swore you’d never be like your dad, swore that you’d never disappoint your
kids the way he disappointed you with every missed birthday and Christmas?”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she lied and
avoided his gaze. Memories of sitting beneath a tree stacked with presents in
her parents’ mansion filled her head, times when it was her and her mother, and
maybe a couple maids opening the brightly wrapped packages. How her father
would promise next year he’d be home, next year he’d go on vacation with them,
next year he’d make it to her graduation.
    He sighed and turned his back on her. “That self-centered
bastard couldn’t even make it to see his first grandchild in the hospital. He
had to leave for a business trip and he couldn’t even stop by the hospital
before he left. It hurt you so much and I wanted to wring his neck for tainting
what should have been one of the happiest days of our lives because there was
some banking crisis in Singapore that he had to attend.”
    His shoulders tensed but he didn’t look back at her. “I
hated him for that. Hated him for hurting you, hated him for hurting your
mother. Most of all I hated that you still held out hope that maybe, just maybe
this once he would choose you over his work.” A breeze blew through the trees
outside, their rustle filling the room. “I don’t want our kids to hate you like
that, and I won’t let them hate me for allowing you to put our family at the
bottom of your priority list.”
    Tears choked her throat and she had to swallow a couple
times before she could speak. “I love our boys more than anything in this
world.”
    His shoulders sagged and he began to walk out of the room.
“Yeah, I know you do.” He paused at the archway of the living room and looked
over his shoulder at her, his gaze filled with sorrow. “I don’t know how much
longer I can do this.”
    The world spun around her and she stumbled to the couch,
falling into an ungraceful heap when her legs would no longer support her.
“You’re leaving me?”
    He turned away and shook his head. “No, Summer, I’m not
leaving you. I think you’re leaving me and I’ve been too dumb to realize it.”
    She tried to speak, tried to deny his words, but her throat
closed up as tears spilled down her face. He left her there, alone on the couch
that still held the musk of their lovemaking. She grabbed a pillow and held it
to her face, muffling her sobs as a hole big enough to swallow the universe
opened up in her heart.

Chapter Four
     
    “And with the closure of the McAdams hacking case that
brings us to a grand total of 4,893 satisfied clients in ten years.” Murray,
Summer’s boss, looked over the small but luxurious conference room facing the
Atlantic ocean and smiled. “Not too shabby for a bunch of computer geeks and
tech nerds.”
    Summer forced out a laugh and joined her coworkers in
applauding Murray as he took an exaggerated bow. Outside the wide bay window
families enjoyed a beautiful summer day on the beaches of Cape Hatteras in
North Carolina. They were actually in Murray’s enormous beach house, a
twenty-bedroom mansion complete with two kitchens, servants’ quarters and the
conference room they