“I can’t believe you went through my things.” Now he came to her, swiftly, his polished leather shoes appearing beside her huddling, shaking body.
“I had to know…” It was all she could say. “I had to know what you were up to. Everyone was being so secretive, I couldn’t take it anymore!”
“You didn’t even ask me?”
“How could I have…” What? Trusted him? Lana cut off that thought before she completely embarrassed herself even further. “I wanted to see it for myself. Kenneth…” She held up the tattered papers. “What is this?”
He bent down, hands snatching the papers away and putting them back in neat order. “A manuscript.” The papers slid back into his desk drawer, where he plucked out one of the bound proofs and held it above his wife’s head. “I wrote a book. A memoir.”
“What?”
Her tears had abated. Now she saw her husband through puffy eyes. She saw a man disappointed with himself, his wife, and whatever this project was that he held in his hands. “It was going to be a surprise, Bunny.” It surprised Lana to hear her nickname. “I was going to show you this proof while we were on our honeymoon. It’s being published in a couple of months.”
Lana couldn’t believe her ears. “A memoir?” She didn’t even know Kenneth wrote outside of legal documents and the occasional note to somebody. The man had their personal assistant at work transcribe most of his letters. “Since when have you been writing a memoir?”
“Since a year ago. One of my old college buddies is a publisher in New York. He approached me saying he wanted to do a line of memoirs from successful businessmen and women. He was interested in you writing one too, or us writing one together, but I suggested I write one about you, in a way. He agreed. Now here I am, the biggest fool in the universe.”
“You’re not…”
“I must be, for not foreseeing this. If I hadn’t been wearing my blinders that said this should be a surprise… I should have told you about it the moment I finished the first draft.”
“And Chloe?”
“Chloe?” Ken laughed. “She was one of my first readers. All the others, including the editor, were men. I wanted a woman’s view. Who else would I have asked if not you? Roberta?”
“The package…”
“…That I got by the pool that day? Forget it all, Lana, that was the proof! I didn’t want you to see it yet.”
“And those letters from you were really your handwritten drafts…” Holy shit. She was terrible. “And you gave her a key to your desk so she could…”
“…Put back what she finished commenting on and take out the next parts. Yes. I wanted to change the lock anyway, and was going to after this project was finished. It won’t matter if she makes a copy of the key, because it won’t work in a few months anyway.” Ken snorted. “Apparently I need to find a new hiding spot for my keys.”
“I’m so sorry!” Lana was on the verge of tears again. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
She couldn’t hold back the drops falling from her eyes. She tasted salt. Bitter. Sour. Everything was sent up from her heart for the sole purpose of making her throw up.
“Ken…”
He put a hand on her shoulder. Tender. Firm. “I don’t know what to say, Lana. I never in a million years expected this from you.”
And never in a million years did Lana expect to snort at a statement like that. “Are you kidding? You know better than anyone what a vindictive bitch I am. I was ready to rip out that girl’s entrails and parade them in front of you!”
“You should probably go apologize to her. At least now I know why she’s being so skittish around us. Besides…” He nicked his finger against her chin. “I do know how vindictive you can be. Don’t think of it as being vindictive, though. It’s kind of hot that you’re possessive…”
“No it’s not. It’s messed up. Kenny, I…” Finally, she forced herself to look at the man she married. The man she didn’t trust. I can see the pain in his eyes. How could she do that to him? How could she become someone who didn’t trust her husband? Who was suspicious of everyone and everything around her? Didn’t she know how hard Ken worked for them to live like this? How compromising he was? He does it because he loves me. Who else would ever love her like that? “I’m not used to things being so good for so long. You’ve seen my family. They’re all some level of miserable. I don’t know anything else. My brain was looking for a thousand reasons to break up with you.”