His Betrayal, Her Ghostly Promise

er chest, trying to force air into her lungs. The pain was so

ing from fond indulgence to alarm. "Joana? What's wrong?" He was by her side in

chest hurt?" he asked, hi

ing in her throat. How can you sit there, professing your love

haky breath. "It's nothing," she lie

he helped her to her feet. "Le

jokes, to fill the suffocating silence in the car, but Joana just sta

g?" he finally asked, hi

at. "I was just thinking ab

axed. "Oh? Wha

ld his wife he loved her, but he was secretly in love with someone else. He thought he could hide

reached over and took her hand, his grip almost painfully tight. "J

w felt like daggers. Every syllable was

for "work," buzzed in the center console.

on the other end. "I have to go," he said, ending the call abruptly. "An emergency a

lently and got

ed a taxi. "Follow that car," she told

a watched from a distance as he got out. The front door of the villa opened

d his neck, and they kissed, a long, passi

ed, her voice a playful purr.

e lust that Joana had not seen in years.

he car," Kaylee whispered, t

seat, and soon, the ca

his, but seeing it with her own eyes was a different kind of pain. It wa

me together. He had been so gentle, so reverent. He had insisted on waiting until their wedding night, telling her

que, like no one else in the world

one who had s

voice filled with a weary sympathy. She passed a box of tissues back to Joana. "My husband's got o

lenched her fist. "No," she whispered, her voice

this time to herself, a sol

robot. She gathered every gift Darius had ever given her-the clothes

ell all of these items," she said, her voice devoid of e

packed and gone. The closets we

tcase with her own things, the

stood there, drenched from the rain that had

klace?" he demanded, his voice e