4: 4
The Uber pulled up at the entrance to the gated suburb.
If it weren't for keeping my mother's inheritance out of someone else's hands, I doubt I'd ever have set eyes on that man again in this life.
The iron gate had a keypad lock now, and he'd had the housekeeper enter my fingerprint in advance.
Inside the living room, my stepmother brought me tea with practiced ease.
Something inside me turned bitter.
The home my mother had once arranged so carefully now had a new mistress after her death.
And her own child had become a guest.
My father admitted, plainly, that he had late-stage cancer and only six months left.
He wanted me to come back, take over the company, and see him through the last stretch of his life.
In return, he would leave me the bulk of everything in his name.
In his younger days he'd been in fights that damaged him where it mattered.
He'd gone through countless women, sought out countless famous doctors.
Still he could never father another child. In his whole life I was his only blood.
A lonely old age was probably just heaven paying him back.
Once the gift-of-inheritance agreement was signed, I said calmly:
"I still have some private matters to deal with. Once everything's settled, I'll come back and stay with you."
The moment I finished, I couldn't stand to be there another second, and I fled the house in a rush.
For the next several days I was buried in the loose ends of my mother's estate, run ragged by it.
That day, just as I'd finished going over all the paperwork with my lawyer, Stan's call came through out of nowhere.
His tone on the phone was gentler. He said he'd agree to talk over the divorce, and asked me to come by when I had the time.
I went, as agreed.
But when I got there I found out his department was holding a Doctors' Day appreciation dinner for the families, and everyone was expected to bring their spouse.
I'd barely stepped through the door of the banquet hall when I saw Savannah standing in front of Stan.
Her hands reaching up to fix his tie.
A few seconds later, Stan saw me.
His face froze for an instant, and he instinctively pushed Savannah's hands away and came striding toward me.
"Claire, you're here. What do you want to drink? Let me get you something to eat first."
Savannah came over from the side out of nowhere, took the drink out of Stan's hand and drank from it. "So thirsty."
Stan stiffened, and looked at me with a guilty edge.
I said nothing. I turned and took a wine glass from Drew Delgado, Stan's good buddy standing nearby, took a sip, and said, "This one's fine."
When I looked up again, Stan's eyes were going back and forth between me and the handsome Drew.
His brow drawing tighter and tighter, his face darkening like a cloud had settled over it, so much that he didn't even react when Drew clinked glasses with him.
Halfway through the dinner my phone rang. It was the lawyer.
I slipped into a bathroom stall to take it, confirmed the terms with him in a low voice, then hung up.
And then I heard people talking outside.
"Dr. Mason bringing his wife along, isn't he afraid Savannah will be upset?"
"So what if she finds out? I heard she's already miscarried two of them, and she's older too. Who'd want her once she leaves Dr. Mason?"
"Honestly, if she hadn't lost two babies for him, I bet Dr. Mason would've divorced her long ago. Look at the color of her face. Her health's obviously bad. Away from Dr. Mason she probably couldn't even support herself."
At eighteen, Stan and I tasted the forbidden fruit.
We didn't know about protection, and I ended up pregnant.
He panicked.
I bought the pills myself and swallowed them.
I rolled around the bed all night in the pain, and my body was never well again after that.
The voices outside stopped. I didn't push the door open. I stood there quietly for a few seconds, then walked back to the banquet hall.
When I got back, I walked straight into Savannah rising on her toes to kiss the corner of Stan's mouth.
In a round of Truth or Dare she'd drawn Dare and chosen him.
And Stan didn't push her away either.
Drew came over with a glass of wine, smoothing it over with a smile.
"Don't be upset, ma'am—the boss and I go way back. They're just messing around. It's only a game."
A few colleagues nearby chimed in. "Right, it's just a game, don't take it seriously."
Just then Stan saw me too. He froze, then pushed Savannah off and hurried toward me.
"Claire, that was just for fun a moment ago. It's only a game."
I looked at him, then looked at the striking Drew beside him.
And I reached out, hooked my hand around the back of Drew's neck, and kissed him.
Longer than when Savannah kissed Stan. Deeper than that, too.
