Chapter 2
Chapter Two
The next day, I got up and did it all again.
I only worked part-time at the library. I didn’t need to work at all, really. Michael’s salary was more than enough.
But I wanted to.
It felt good to have something for myself.
I was still moving in a frozen state when Michael called just as I was getting off work.
“Come to the hospital,” he said. “That stupid woman left her phone out and Dr. Ben-David found it. I need you there to reassure him that everything is aboveboard.”
Ah, right. Because Alix’s husband was the Chief of Surgery. And Michael wanted to be Chief of Surgery when Reuben retired.
And his adulterous ways put that at risk.
So I did what I had always done.
Obeyed him without question.
When I got to the hospital, I hurried to his office, where Dr. Ben-David paced the room, Alix perched uneasily on the edge of the desk. Her pretty face looked worried, while Reuben’s was angry. He was a powerful older man with thick salt and pepper hair and beard.
Michael, however, was leaning against the door, looking bored and pissed. Not a blonde hair out of place.
“Ah, there you are,” he said, taking my hand and holding it in his much bigger one.
“How long has this been going on?” Reuben demanded.
“As you can see,” Michael said, waving his other lean tanned hand toward me. “I have no intention of divorcing my wife. There is no threat to your marriage here. We have an open relationship, and I was under the mistaken impression that you did, too.”
My heart pounded with shock.
An open marriage?
It was a naked, bald-faced lie, and surely they would see right through it.
My mind flashed back to our wedding vows.
His promise to love and cherish me
To always be faithful
Absolutely no talk of open marriage had ever passed Michael’s lips.
Dr. Ben-David looked skeptical, flicking his eyes back and forth between us.
After all, he wouldn’t want to cause friction with the hospital’s most talented surgeon. And he must love his wife. He wanted to believe.
“We have discussed the idea,” Alix said quickly.
“Not agreed,” he snapped.
Michael said nothing, just leaned against the door, his hands in his pockets.
Because Michael was fucking smart. All he had to do was stand his ground and his confidence would win them over.
It always did.
But surely even if Reuben accepted this to save face . . . everyone else would know it was a lie.
Alix would know for sure. That I was not the cool kind of person who would do that.
But Reuben seemed to be nodding his head.
He was skeptical but he would buy what Dr. Michael Carrington said.
Everyone always did. That was the kind of man my husband was. Calm, charismatic, assured. He spoke and people listened.
An unaccustomed anger flared through my little mouse-like self.
It was now or never. Otherwise, I could feel myself sinking, falling into his lies, too.
I cleared my throat.
“We do have an open relationship,” I said. “Michael and I swap partners a lot. He intended for Reuben and I to have sex too.”