Page 35 of Deal Takers

He sighs. “Our third.”

“Three years,” I repeat, surprisingly calm. “Just so I’m clear, that means you married her a few months after we started dating?”

“Yes.” He hangs his head.

I quickly replay the early days of our relationship in my head. I think I may actually vomit when I piece together when he would’ve had time to getmarried.

“Your week-long retreat in the Bahamas,” I say. “It wasn’t really for work, was it?”

Adam puts his hands in his pockets and rocks back on his heels. “No. We had a destination wedding.”

“How fucking nice for you,” I scoff.

“Rainey, please, you have to believe me. I don’t want to be with her. I want to be with you!”

I’m quickly losing my composure. “Adam, you’ve been with another woman throughoutour entirerelationship! Youmarriedher while we were together! If you really wanted to be with me, it would’ve never gone that far. You would’ve broken up with her when we first started dating! Better yet,beforeyou asked me out!”

“It’s not that easy,” he argues. “She was pregnant when I married her. It’s theonlyreason I married her.”

“You have even more kids I don’t know about?” I shriek.

“We have a two-year-old daughter,” he confesses. “And another on the way.”

“Yeah, I got that much.” My fists are clenched so tightly my nails are about to break through my skin. “I don’t even feel like I know you! Was any part of our relationship real?”

“Everypart of our relationship was real!” he insists.

“Adam,you’ve made me a fucking mistress!” I scream. “Everypart of our relationship was a lie!” He tries grabbing my hands, but I push him off. “Does she know about me? Doesyour wifeknow you’ve beencheating on herwith mefor the past three years? How the fuck did you explain last night to her?”

“Does that even matter?” he asks. “This isn’t about her, Rainey. This is aboutus.”

I wouldn’t be surprised if there was literally steam coming out of my ears right now. I count to ten in my head before I ask the one thing that’s been nagging me the most. “How did you pull it off? There are traces of me all over your house, for God’s sake! How did you explain every night we’ve spent together?”

His silence gives me the opportunity to puzzle it out on my own. He could easily explain a night away here and there, considering the hours he keeps at the hospital. But the apartment? I don’t understand. Unless… “That’s your fuck pad, isn’t it? It’s not your real house?”

“Itismy condo, Rainey. It’s been mine for over ten years.”

“But not your primary residence,” I infer. “It’s your bachelor pad, right? You have another place where you live with yourwife and child?”

Adam actually has the nerve to look contrite. “Yes. We have a house just outside the city.”

I feel like I’m having an out-of-body experience as I digest everything he’s said. I’m almost positive he’s being truthful, considering it’s all been incriminating. I suppose he figured being honest was the only hope he had of continuing our farce of a relationship. In fact, I’d bet money on it. I close my eyes, steeling my nerves for what comes next.

“What were you hoping would happen from here,Adam?” My voice is barely above a whisper. It’s taking every ounce of strength I have not to cry right now. He’s already taken so much from me. I refuse to give him my tears, too.

“Baby, this doesn’t have to be the end. I love you, and Iknowyou love me. I’ll figure out a way to end things with Norah. I swear, my attorneys are trying to find a loophole so I can divorce her as soon as humanly possible.”

If it’s possible to physically feel your heart breaking, I’m pretty sure that’s what’s causing this pain in my chest. “And until then?”

His smile couldn’t be any wider, already giving me my answer. “Until then…we keep going as is. If you want, you can move your things into my apartment. It’s right next to the hospital, and we could be together more often. We can get married as soon as my divorce is finalized.”

“And how long will that take? A few months? A few years?”

“I don’t know. My attorneys said it won’t be easy, so it may take a while.”

“And in the interim—for however long that may be—you would continue being her husband ineveryway? And I would continue being your mistress?”

Adam frowns. “Mistress is such an ugly word. Why do we have to give it a title?”

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