Theirs to keep

~ MIA ~

"Her name is Vanessa. We've been together about a year. Give or take."

Daniel said it like he was reading off a grocery list, like the words coming out of his mouth weren't ripping my entire life apart.

I was still standing in the doorway of his office, my keys digging into my palm so hard I knew there would be marks later. The takeout bags from his favorite Italian place were sitting in the entryway where I had dropped them. I had come home early to surprise him, had wanted to do something nice for once, have dinner together, maybe talk like we used to before everything went wrong.

Instead, I had walked in on him telling another woman he loved her.

He hadn't even bothered to hang up when he saw me. Just smiled, finished his conversation, told her he would call her later, and set the phone down like I was an interruption he could deal with whenever he felt like it.

My chest was so tight I could barely breathe. My hands wouldn't stop shaking, and I curled them into fists at my sides, trying to keep my voice steady.

"A year," I said. "You've been sleeping with someone else for a year, and you're telling me like it's nothing."

Daniel leaned back in his chair, and the leather creaked under his weight. He looked relaxed, comfortable, like this conversation was a minor inconvenience in his otherwise pleasant evening.

"What do you want me to say, Mia? You caught me, it happened, I'm not going to sit here and cry about it."

I kept waiting for the guilt. For him to at least look uncomfortable. But there was nothing. Just that same bored expression he always wore when I tried to talk to him about anything that actually mattered.

"You're not even going to apologize?"

He laughed. Actually laughed, like I had said something funny.

"Apologize for what? For being honest with you? Most men would have lied. I'm giving you the truth, you should be thanking me."

I stared at him. Five years. Five years of marriage, three affairs that I knew about, and God knows how many I didn't. And he was sitting there acting like he deserved a medal for admitting he had been cheating on me.

My throat was burning. I wanted to scream at him, throw something at his head, watch him flinch for once instead of looking at me like I was beneath him. But my body wouldn't cooperate. I just stood there, frozen, while my husband smiled at me like I was a child throwing a tantrum over nothing.

"I want a divorce," I said.

The words came out before I could stop them. I hadn't planned to say it, hadn't even thought it through, but the second they left my mouth I knew I meant them. I was done. I couldn't do this anymore.

Daniel's smile didn't falter. If anything, it got wider.

"Okay," he said. "You can leave whenever you want. But you're leaving with nothing."

My stomach dropped.

He stood up from his chair and walked around the desk, slow and deliberate, like he had all the time in the world. He stopped a few feet in front of me and slid his hands into his pockets.

"The company is mine," he said. "The board is loyal to me. That prenup you signed when you were twenty-two? It protects my assets, not yours. If you want to walk out that door, go ahead. But you'll be walking out with the clothes on your back and whatever's in your bank account. Which, last time I checked, isn't much."

I felt sick. My legs were unsteady, and I had to lock my knees to keep myself from swaying.

He was right. I had read that prenup a dozen times since he first cheated, looking for a loophole, looking for anything that might help me. There was nothing. Daniel's family lawyer had drafted it, and the Westons didn't leave room for mistakes.

"You can't do this," I said, but even I could hear how weak it sounded.

"He can do whatever he wants."

The voice came from behind me, and my whole body went cold.

Helen Weston stood in the hallway, still wearing her coat from whatever charity event she had come from. Her eyes swept over me once, dismissive, before she walked past me into the office like I wasn't even there.

"Your father called," she said to Daniel. "He wants to confirm the numbers for the board meeting next week."

"I'll call him in the morning."

I stood there, waiting. Waiting for her to acknowledge what she had just walked into, waiting for her to say something, anything. She had heard what Daniel said. She knew what was happening.

But Helen just set her purse down on the desk and finally turned to look at me.

"Mia," she said, her voice flat. "You look upset."

I almost laughed. Upset. Like I had spilled coffee on my shirt or gotten a parking ticket.

"Your son has been cheating on me," I said. "For a year. With someone named Vanessa."

Helen's expression didn't change. Not even a flicker.

"Yes," she said. "I know."

The floor tilted under me.

"You knew?"

"Of course I knew. Daniel tells me everything." She smoothed down the front of her coat, like we were discussing the weather. "Vanessa is a lovely girl. Very discreet. Much better than the last one, honestly."

I couldn't breathe. My lungs weren't working right, and there was this ringing in my ears that wouldn't stop.

She had known. This whole time, she had known, and she had sat across from me at family dinners and smiled and asked about my work and never said a single word.

"How could you—" My voice cracked. "How could you not tell me?"

Helen looked at me like I was being deliberately stupid.

"Tell you what, exactly? That my son is a man with needs? That marriage isn't a fairy tale?" She shook her head slowly. "I've been married to Gregory for thirty-five years. Do you think Daniel's father has been faithful to me? Do you think any man stays faithful?"

I couldn't speak.

"This is what men do, Mia. The sooner you accept that, the easier your life will be." She picked up her purse and checked her phone like she was already bored with this conversation. "You have a good life. A beautiful home, a position at the company, a husband who provides for you. Don't throw all of that away because your feelings are hurt."

My feelings are hurt.

Like finding out my husband had been sleeping with another woman for a year while his mother covered for him was the same as someone forgetting my birthday.

Daniel was watching me, that same smug smile on his face. He knew exactly what his mother was doing. They had probably talked about this before, planned out what to say if I ever found out.

I had never felt so small in my entire life.

"Think about it," Daniel said. "We stay married, you keep your position at the company, your lifestyle, your reputation. You can do whatever you want in private, I really don't care. Just be discreet about it."

Helen nodded like this was perfectly reasonable. "It's a generous offer. More than most women in your position would get."

I looked at both of them, mother and son, standing there like they were doing me a favor. Like I should be grateful that my husband was willing to keep me around as a prop while he slept with whoever he wanted.

I didn't say anything. I couldn't. If I opened my mouth, I was going to start screaming and I wasn't sure I would be able to stop.

So I turned around and walked out.

I heard Helen say something behind me, something about being dramatic, but I didn't stop. I grabbed my jacket from the closet by the door, the old leather one Daniel always hated because he said it made me look cheap, and I walked out the front door without looking back.

I ended up at a bar downtown. The Velvet Room, one of those private places that required a membership to get in. My name was still on the list from the last work event I had attended, and the guy at the door waved me through without a second glance.

Inside, it was dark and quiet. I found a seat at the bar and ordered a whiskey because I didn't know what else to order.

The bartender set the glass in front of me without asking any questions. I took a long sip and felt the burn spread through my chest. It didn't fix anything, but at least it made me feel something other than numb.

I was on my second glass when I heard a voice behind me.

"Mia? Mia Carrington?"

I turned around, and my brain short-circuited.

Because standing about three feet behind me were three men I hadn't seen in over two years. Three men I had grown up around, watched at every family barbecue and holiday dinner, teased and laughed with and then promptly forgotten about once I got married and life got complicated.

Nate Lawson. Cole Mercer. Adrian Cross.

My older brother Ryan's best friends.

Nate looked exactly how I remembered him. Tall, broad shoulders, dark hair. Cole stood to his left, leaner and sharper, with pale gray eyes that always made me feel like he could see straight through me. And Adrian was on the right, his brown hair messy, a familiar grin already spreading across his face.

They were all staring at me.

And I was sitting alone at a bar at ten o'clock on a Thursday night, looking like my whole world had just fallen apart.

Adrian moved first. He closed the distance between us and wrapped me in a hug before I could say anything. My body relaxed into it before I could stop myself.

When he pulled back, the grin was gone. He looked at me, really looked, and something in his expression shifted.

"What happened?" he asked.

I opened my mouth to lie.

But I was so tired of lying.