Dying Flame (Ironcliff Falls #8)

1. Chapter 1

ONE

EMILY

It’s our fifteenth wedding anniversary today. I’m watching the clock in my office as the minutes count down to when I have to leave and go home. Time has been haunting me all day. I don’t want to see him tonight; I don't want him to give me that smile that everything is ok, when I know it’s not.

For the first time in years, Devin has made dinner reservations and is home from work on our anniversary.

There are always excuses: work trips, conferences, meetings he couldn’t miss, and late nights that run into the next day.

I’m never surprised anymore when I wake up and his side of the bed is untouched and cold.

My office has become a safe haven where I can finally breathe and let my muscles relax. I’m always on guard, and my senses are heightened around Devin at home. It’s getting harder and harder to fake being clueless and comfortable like I once was with him.

We first met in college; he was a senior and I was a sophomore, and we had the same major: business. Conversations flowed easily for years. There were no secrets between us, or so I thought. I was always open, kind, and understanding. Devin became distant, calculating, and emotionless.

He is not the man I met and married almost twenty years ago. Or, maybe I never really knew him at all.

Five o’clock, time to go home and get ready for dinner with my husband.

The monster that lives with me.