Once Upon a Marriage

he time wasn’t right. And what did it hurt, really, if he told her before he moved in, or afterward?

When the thought occurred to him that it would be better to wait because it would be harder for her to kick him out of her life if he didn’t have anyplace else to go, if his things were already comingled with hers, he knew that he had to get off the slippery slope.

He was on the verge of crossing the line into manipulation.

There was no justification for that. Except selfishness.

He had two choices. Protect his client. His career. And hope that Marie would never find out the truth and his marriage would be saved. Hope that he could learn to live with the man he’d become, knowing that his integrity was a farce. Knowing, every time he saw his mother-in-law, that she’d know it, too.

Or he could tell Marie the truth and risk losing everything anyway.

“What’s wrong?” Marie had finished taping the last box and was looking at him.

He opened his mouth. Tried to fill his lungs with air. To find believable deniability. To tell her nothing was wrong.

“I have something to tell you.”

The blood drained from her face, leaving her pale, as she slid down to sit on the box of books she’d just packed.

“It’s Gwen, isn’t it?” she asked. And it took him a second to figure out she was referring to the FBI agent.

“No! I haven’t heard anything else about Liam’s case, if that’s what you mean. I need to talk to you about something else.”

He sat on the floor in front of the box. Wanting to take her hand, but afraid the act would be a purely selfish one.

“I’m not going to like it, am I?” Her gaze was direct, which was why he could feel her fear all the way through him. He shook his head.

And all the words he’d rehearsed over the past week flew out of his mind as he said, “I knew your mother before you introduced us in Las Vegas last week.”

She frowned, clearly just confused at first. “You’d met her before? Why didn’t you say so? For that matter why didn’t she? Are you telling me she didn’t remember you?” Her voice had started to raise.

This was not going to be easy. Or go over well. He knew that. Just as he knew there was no going back.

Part of him hoped Gabi would get there soon. Marie was going to need her.

“I hadn’t actually met her,” he said, inanely. As though that detail mattered.

“How?” Marie stood her ground, even sitting. Smudged T-shirt and all. “How did you know her?”

He straightened his shoulders when he wanted to drop his head to her lap. “She hired me.” The words were killing him. He felt their blow.

He could feel the room deflate. Like a tire losing all its air. There was no anticipation, no energy or sense of family there. At least not that included him.

His gaze settled on his wife, on the emptiness in those brown eyes, and he lost every ounce of energy he had.

He’d known it was wrong. All of it. Marrying her. But way before then, too. Since he’d first started to fall in love with his client’s daughter. He should have gotten out then.

Or been strong enough to fight the attraction.

Instead, he’d made one bad decision after another. For good reason, possibly, but he wasn’t even sure about that anymore.

Maybe he’d just convinced himself the reasons were good. Because he’d met Marie and her friends, been taken in by the closeness they enjoyed, three nonbiologically related family members. He’d met Marie. And felt things he’d never felt before in his life. Hope. He’d started to see a future he’d given up without even realizing he’d done so until it was suddenly there, in front of him. For once in his life he’d refused to settle for being on the outside looking in.

“What did she hire you for?” The question was a good full minute in coming. Her voice sounded...cold. Something he’d never heard before. Not even with an irate customer.

Liam and Gabi would be there soon, and Elliott didn’t doubt for a second that they’d both spring to action, too, just as soon as they knew what Marie needed them to do.

“To investigate Liam and watch over you,” he said to her. He could leave it at that. But didn’t. “Originally she was concerned because of the three of you forming a company and buying the Arapahoe. You’d told her you were sinking your life’s savings into the deal and she was afraid Liam had talked you into something. It was supposed to be a quick job. Simple investigating, a written report and out.”