Chapter 1

Our wedding portrait hit the floor with a crash.

Glass burst apart and skittered to a stop around Helena's feet and mine.

I picked up a broom without a word and swept the ruined frame, photograph and all, straight into the trash.

Anger flooded back into Helena's eyes as she watched me do it.

Nobody knew better than she did how carefully I'd once guarded that portrait.

Now it wasn't worth the effort of picking up.

She reached over and took Felix's hand.

"If it means nothing to you, Felix and I will go get ours taken. His and mine are what hang on that wall from now on."

I nodded calmly and answered, "One."

Felix couldn't keep the triumph out of his eyes, but he made a show of being flustered.

"Helena, isn't that a little much? I already feel awful enough about moving in and putting you out of your own bedroom, Simon."

He'd barely finished when I booked a session with the same studio that shot our wedding photos.

I forwarded the confirmation straight to Helena's phone.

Her face went flat and unreadable. She took Felix by the hand and walked out without a word.

It didn't bother me.

In the guest room, a notification lit up my screen. My flight was confirmed.

I pulled out a suitcase and started packing, piece by piece, everything that was mine.

Then my phone chimed.

Felix had posted to his LinkUp feed and tagged me in it.

A full carousel of wedding photos.

Laid out exactly like the post Helena made the day we got married.

There was only one difference.

The image at the center was a short looping clip.

The two of them kissing like neither one could stand to pull away.

I hit the like button without any expression at all and typed a single word underneath.

"Congratulations."

After midnight, Helena shoved my door open.

She came at me reeking of liquor.

"Simon, what is it going to take for you to forgive me?

"Felix and I are getting portraits done. Why aren't you angry? I waited all day. Why didn't you come stop us?

"You were never like this. You used to get jealous."

I looked at her and said nothing.

My thoughts had already drifted somewhere far away.

She wasn't wrong. I used to be a jealous man.

The first time I caught her cheating, I drove to her office and slapped Felix across the face.

Helena paid me back by accusing me of falsifying research.

The university terminated me, and my career went with it.

The second time, she and Felix were in our own bed.

I was steadier by then. No shouting, no scene.

I just sent the photos I'd taken to the company-wide staff channel.

To make sure Felix came out on top, Helena cut off the grant covering my mother's treatment.

And the only road back to her forgiveness, the only way to keep my mother alive, was for me, a former law professor, to strip on a live-streamed party feed while strangers watched.

After that, even the smallest firms in town sent my resume back unopened.

Every source of income was gone, and my mother's bills didn't stop.

Felix mentioned offhand that the food in the company cafeteria was terrible.

So I went from lecturing at the front of a classroom to cooking Felix's meals.

The hand that used to hold a pen blistered over from the burns.

Dishwater softened the skin every day until the blisters tore open.

They wept, crusted, and finally scabbed.

Each round bought another week of my mother's medication from Helena.

Then it started again.

Eventually the scarring got thick enough that it took several layers before anything bled.

Not so different from my heart by then.

Helena cupped my face and got the words out in pieces. "Simon, I made him take the post down.

"He got hurt protecting me. Once he's healed, I'll send him away.

"Let's stop this. Please."

My fingers went still.