Three Years, One Cruel Lie

licate and theatrical. "I' m so sorry, Jax

e a low murmur. "We' re a team. We' re husban

ntle intimacy that it felt like a physical blow. I stumble

need to he

station were whisp

rancis? He' s so de

board meeting when she called. And the way he looks

in-star chef from Paris. And when some reporter tried to ask an invasive questi

my ears. This was the man who claimed he didn' t

stayed by Krystal' s side day and night. How he patiently massaged her feet when they swell

o pick me up. Krystal was in the passenger seat of

the one to put me here. "I' m so glad. You have to come to our ann

looked back. But a dark, self-destructive part of me needed

o," I said,

overlooked the city. I stood in a corner, a glass of u

e ceiling, and a video began to play. A montage of Jaxon

uilding a snowman in Aspen. All the places he and I had dreamed of going. He was doing it al

t of them on their wedding day. He was looking at her, his eyes shinin

ry was their ro

filled with white roses, Krystal' s favorite. My favorite, the wild, purple

, its teeth bared, launched itself out of the rose bushes. I sc

side in an instant, pulling her behind him, his bo

d, its jaws clamping down on my arm. Pain, sharp and blinding, shot through me. Bl

y heart was s

s terrified of big dogs after a childhood incident. H

fe' s dog tore me apart. His c