Chapter 2

It struck me then how absurd it all was.

Joe used to look down on Yara. He said she was like a giant baby who'd never grown up, that I was the only one who could put up with her.

I even argued with him over it, told him to be kinder to her.

Now the tables had turned.

I looked at the ring on my finger. He'd insisted on slipping it on before I left for the trip.

"My wife's so wonderful, everybody loves her wherever she goes. I can't have some handsome guy overseas stealing you away. Wear this ring, and everyone will know you're taken."

I never imagined that the marriage I'd waited so long for would end before it even began, and end in betrayal.

I couldn't hold back the fury inside me. I grabbed the glass of water and threw it in his face.

"You make me sick!"

His expression didn't change at all. His voice stayed calm, but there was a warning in it.

"Zelda, I know you're upset. It's normal to want to vent. If that wasn't enough, I don't mind letting you throw another. But you'd better not take this to Yaya. I don't want her stressing over something like this."

"Otherwise, we both know how much of your youth and energy you've poured into that company. It's like your child. I don't think you'd have the heart to walk away from it, would you?"

"After all, starting over sounds easy, but very few people ever pull it off."

I stared at him, unable to believe it, my nails digging into my palms.

He was using his position as my boss to pin me down.

The company, the projects, the team. All of it was years of my heart and effort.

Joe really was a capable businessman.

He knew the more you'd invested, the more you had to lose, so he threatened me without a shred of hesitation.

Not until he was gone did the tears I'd held back for so long finally fall.

The next day was Yara's weekly day off from the boutique.

I took a cab to her apartment.

When she saw me, she looked away, uneasy. "Zellie, why... why are you here?"

I pointed at the ninety-nine shopping bags behind me. "To return these. What, aren't you going to invite me in?"

She pressed her lips together, hesitating, but in the end she stepped aside from the door.

Once I was inside, I finally understood why she'd hesitated, and why Joe had left so cleanly.

He hadn't even packed his things, just texted me to throw it all out.

He'd already made a home here.

There were his-and-hers slippers by the entryway, matching toothbrushes in the bathroom, and the body wash he always used was already half gone.

A whole row of his clothes hung in the closet, and on the wall was a photo-booth strip of the two of them, heads pressed together.

Looking at all of it, I let out a soft laugh.

"How nice. While I was away, the two of you were living the good life."

She fidgeted with the hem of her shirt, trying to change the subject. "Zellie, those clothes are my way of making it up to you. You don't have to return them—"

I laughed, bitter.

"Yara, when your ex-husband beat you and cheated on you, I was the one who brought people over in the middle of the night to stand behind you, who pulled strings to help you win the case."

"You said you didn't want to trouble your parents, that you'd fallen out of touch with the world and were done living at other people's mercy. I paid for your apartment, rented your storefront, covered your advertising. Every dime you spent on inventory came from me."

"People laughed at me for being a sucker, but I didn't care. We grew up together. As long as you were okay, that was enough. But now you're living in the apartment I gave you, sleeping with my boyfriend, and using my money to make it up to me. Don't you think that's ridiculous?"

Her eyes went red, and she dropped to her knees. "Zellie, I know what I did was wrong, but I'm two months pregnant. I want to keep this baby. I want to give him a whole family."

"I love Joe. There's no one else I can lean on like this, no one who makes me feel safe. You've been good to me since we were kids, always giving in to me. Can't you give in to me one last time?"

Yes. I'd known since childhood that I had to be good to Yara.

The year I was seven, my father and stepmother decided I was dead weight, that I'd drain resources away from my little brother.

In the dead of winter they dumped me at a bus station and the three of them moved to another city.

I found my way home by memory, only to find the house already sold. I had nowhere to go, and I nearly froze to death on the roadside.

It was Yara, from next door, who carried me back home and got her parents to take me in, splitting everything they had with me.

So I made up my mind to repay them, to always give in to her.

Once I had money, I bought them a house, paid Frank's medical bills, handed over cash by the fistful every year.

But it was precisely because I'd treated her like my own sister that her betrayal was the one thing I couldn't accept.

I stared quietly at her belly.

"Yara, for the sake of the twenty-some years between us, and out of respect for your parents, I'll give you one chance."

"Get rid of the baby and cut things off with Joe. Sisters or a cheating man. You decide."

Her hands flew to her belly, and she shook her head, choking back tears. "Zellie, I admit you've given me a lot, but I want a happy family. I can't live without Joe, and my child needs a father too—"

"I'll close the boutique, I'll give the apartment back to you. But Joe, he's the one thing I can't give you."