My knees weakened.
“So I was part of your investigation?”
“At first, I thought you might know something about your father’s business. I thought there might be old documents in his house.”
“And the proposal?”
He looked devastated.
“I loved you by then, Claire. I wanted a future with you. I kept telling myself that I would explain everything once I had found the evidence.”
“Once you had used me enough?”
“No. That’s not what I wanted.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I was ashamed. And because I was afraid that if you knew how we had met, you would leave me.”
I stared at him.
He had spent months telling me that honesty was the foundation of marriage.
Yet he had built our relationship on a lie.
And then he had taken that lie into my mother’s bed.
“Did you plan this affair, too?” I asked.
“No,” he replied immediately. “That part was never planned.”
