Chapter 1: The Moment She Saw Them
Evelyn Mercer saw her husband step out of the dark sedan beside a woman in a burgundy dress, and for one suspended second, the noise of the hotel entrance seemed to disappear.
Then the car door slammed.
Evelyn moved.
She crossed the pavement faster than anyone expected from a woman her age, her silver handbag swinging against her side, her bright blue curls catching the afternoon light. She stopped directly in front of Thomas before he could reach the hotel doors.
“Thomas!”
He froze.
The woman beside him froze too.
Evelyn pointed at him, then at the woman.
“You told me you were working. So why are you walking into a hotel with her?”
Thomas’s face tightened with shock.
“Evelyn, stop—”
“Don’t tell me to stop.”
Several guests glanced over. The woman quietly touched the conference badge hanging from her neck. It carried the unmistakable design of a corporate event.
Thomas gestured toward it.
“She’s here for the conference. I told you I had a business event today.”
“No,” Evelyn said. “You told me you had work.”
“That is work.”
“You didn’t tell me where.”
Thomas rubbed his forehead.
The woman remained silent, looking increasingly uncomfortable.
Evelyn folded her arms.
“So this is a conference now?”
“Yes.”
“And she’s your coworker?”
“Yes.”
Evelyn gave a short, humorless laugh.
“That’s convenient.”
Thomas’s patience began to crack.
“I didn’t hide anything.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“You expect me to believe that when I had to find you here myself?”
For a moment, Thomas had no answer.
Then Evelyn noticed something else.
His phone was in his hand.
The screen went dark.
She pointed toward it.
“Give me your phone.”
Thomas’s expression changed.
Not fear.
Something closer to disbelief.
“No.”
Evelyn’s eyes narrowed.
The conference was suddenly no longer the only thing she was questioning.
“Why not?”
Thomas slipped the phone into his jacket pocket.
“Because you’re not entitled to search through my phone every time you’re suspicious.”
The words landed harder than he intended.
Evelyn stepped back.
For the first time since approaching him, she didn’t look angry.
She looked hurt.
Then she noticed the woman watching Thomas.
Not flirtatiously.
Not secretly.
Just with an expression Evelyn couldn’t understand.
Evelyn’s suspicion shifted direction.
If there really was nothing between them, why had Thomas suddenly become so protective of that phone?
She lowered her voice.
“If you didn’t do anything wrong, why am I always the last person to know what you’re doing?”
Thomas looked toward the hotel doors.
The conference was waiting.
But the marriage he thought he was protecting was suddenly standing on the pavement between them.
And neither of them walked inside.
