Chapter 7
Nathan bent down to the little boy, smiling, touching his face – a perfect miniature of his
own.
Cooper chattered excitedly about preschool while Claire looked on with a gentle smile. The picture–perfect Greenwich family.
When Cooper reached up for a hug, Nathan stepped back smoothly.
“Cooper, we’ve discussed this.”
The little boy’s lower lip trembled. “Why can all my friends at Greenwich Academy hug their daddies but I can’t? I don’t even drink milk anymore!”
Nathan gave Claire a cold look.
She quickly stepped in, her voice soft. “Daddy has to go back to work, sweetheart. Don’t *fuss.”
“Why does Daddy always work at night?”
Claire hesitated, then whispered to Nathan: “Can’t you stay? Just this once?”
His face darkened.
“If she comes to the office again, you leave the building immediately. If you appear in front of her again – accidentally or not – you know the consequences.”
He checked his Patek Philippe, pulled on his Brunello coat, and strode out.
Minutes later, when the living room cleared, I fled.
I drove blindly through the snow, my Cayenne cutting through the gathering storm.
Ten years ago, on another snowy day.
The Perfect Husband’s Secret
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hapte
was eighteen, cuddled in Mom’s lap in our Mercedes when we saw him a thin figure shivering in the snow, selling gloves from a street cart.
Our car skidded, knocking over his display.
The driver apologized, but Nathan just shook his head, silently gathering his scattered merchandise with reddened hands.
Selling gloves, but too poor to wear them himself.
I lowered my window, smiling. “How much for the gloves?”
He looked up, those dark eyes meeting mine. “Eight for ladies, ten for men’s.”
“I’ll take one of each. You choose.”
He handed me pink and black pairs.
“Keep the black ones,” I smiled. “They’re for you.”
s we drove away, I looked back.
The poor, lonely boy stood straight as an arrow in the snow, watching us leave.
We reunited at Harvard. Mom saw his potential, backed his education, sent us both to elite
schools abroad.
We’ve been married five years. Cooper looks about three.
Which means Claire got pregnant a year after our wedding.
Just six months after Nathan first mentioned her name.
Just weeks after Mom died at Sloan Kettering.
I gripped the steering wheel, sobbing like a child.
Before twenty–eight, my life was charmed.
The Perfect Husband’s Secret
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Beautiful, wealthy, popular everyone’s favorite Upper East Side princess. Divorced parents who remained friends – Mom the CEO, Dad the Columbia professor- both showering me
with love.
After marriage, Nathan worshipped me. Every look, every gesture screamed devotion.
When doctors said my PCOS would make conception difficult, Nathan just joked that meant he’d have me all to himself.
He made me believe I meant more to him than life itself.
But all along-
While I was drowning in grief over Mom.
While I trusted him completely, needed him desperately…
He was sleeping with Claire.
I couldn’t understand.
The world suddenly bared its fangs, revealing its darkness.
I was drowning in emotion: Shock. Rage. Terror. Fear.
“Mom, what do I do…” I whispered through tears.
CRASH
A violent impact.
The world spun.
I was thrown clear.
Lying on the ground, watching the sky.
The snowflakes finally seemed weightless.
34.2
Beautiful, wealthy, popular everyone’s favorite Upper East Side princess. Divorced parents who remained friends – Mom the CEO, Dad the Columbia professor both showering me
with love.
After marriage, Nathan worshipped me. Every look, every gesture screamed devotion.
When doctors said my PCOS would make conception difficult, Nathan just joked that meant he’d have me all to himself.
He made me believe I meant more to him than life itself.
But all along-
While I was drowning in grief over Mom.
While I trusted him completely, needed him desperately…
He was sleeping with Claire.
I couldn’t understand.
५
The world suddenly bared its fangs, revealing its darkness.
I was drowning in emotion: Shock. Rage. Terror. Fear.
“Mom, what do I do…” I whispered through tears.
CRASH
A violent impact.
The world spun.
I was thrown clear.
Lying on the ground, watching the sky.
The snowflakes finally seemed weightless.
The Perfect Husband’s Secret
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I‘
Drifting down.
Into my eyes.
