I was slow by nature, always a beat behind in matters of love. It was Julian who loved me, who took me exactly as I was, who married me against everyone's objections.

I thought I was the luckiest woman alive.

Until the fifth year of our marriage, when I stumbled onto the secret between Julian and my sister.

They'd been carrying on behind my back for a long time. They'd even had the gall to make a baby together.

He ruffled my hair, gentle as ever, his voice soft and doting. "I've fallen for your sister. The same way I once fell for you."

"You could be generous about it. Accept her. Accept us."

Every drop of blood in me seemed to freeze, and the tears wouldn't stop.

I didn't scream. I didn't fall apart.

I just shut the door and walked away.

But Julian was the one who lost his mind.

Six months later, when I still assumed the two of them were long since married with a baby, he was the one crying, begging me not to leave, like a dog begging for scraps.

This month, Julian's business trip dragged on longer than any before it.

He used to hate being away. He'd cut every trip short if he could.

And every time he came home, he stuck to me like a human magnet, keeping me up the whole night.

But starting last month, something in him had changed.

"Last time he came home, he said he was tired. Wanted an early night."

"He's never been like that before."

"And this month he keeps putting off coming back. I've actually started to miss him."

When I said all this to my sister, Chloe rolled her eyes at me, half laughing.

"You really have to wonder? Your husband's obviously cheating."

She cradled a tall cup of coffee and took a careless sip.

"I told you from the start, he was only with you for the novelty. You wouldn't listen. What man doesn't want someone younger?"

I shook my head. "Don't say things like that. Julian promised he'd take care of me his whole life."

Julian was five years younger than me, and the only heir to the Sterling Group.

When he proposed, his parents fought it with everything they had.

He'd already been promised to someone else, an engagement his family had arranged back when he was a boy, to the daughter of an old family friend.

To stop him from marrying me, his father resorted to the family’s disciplinary punishment.

Julian gritted his teeth and bore ninety-nine blows from his father. His back was a mangled mess of flesh and blood, swollen and burning with searing pain.

How could a man who'd sacrificed that much for me ever cheat?

Chloe sighed and shook her head, lips pressed flat.

I've always been emotionally dense, a beat too slow on everything, the textbook "bookworm" everyone calls me.

My half-sister Chloe, though, has been sharp since we were kids. Over the years, she's worried about me more times than I can count.

Three days later, while I was running an experiment in the university lab, a student called me out of nowhere.

"Professor Quinn, I'm at a bar downtown and I just saw your husband get into it with some guy. The other guy's threatening to call the cops. Maybe you should come down?"

I laughed a little. "You've got the wrong person. My husband's still away on business."

But after I hung up, my hands went still over the equipment.

Without quite knowing why, I got in my car and drove to the bar the student had named.

Outside one of the private rooms, I caught a voice I knew.

"Julian, you went way too far. The guy barely brushed against me. Why'd you hit him that hard?"

It was Chloe.

Something in my chest gave a faint shiver.

Had someone bothered her? Was she hurt? Thank god Julian was there, or who knows what could've happened.

My work back at the lab wasn't finished. I was about to slip quietly away when my feet stopped on their own.

Julian was supposed to be away on business. Why would he be here, alone, with Chloe?

My heart clenched, and before I could think I'd stepped closer.

Through the gap in the half-open door, I saw Julian sprawled lazily in Chloe's lap, one hand already wandering up under the hem of her dress.

"You're mine. I won't let anyone else touch you."

Chloe gave a soft snort, tracing little circles on his cheek.

"Don't say that. If my sister ever found out, it'd break her heart."

"And I couldn't bear to see her hurt."

I stood frozen, like I'd been struck by lightning.

It was the height of summer, and yet I was cold all over, like I'd been dropped into a well of ice.

Just then a delivery guy walked up, checking the "VIP" number on the room over and over before setting a bag down at my feet.

It was a delivery from the pharmacy.

As if I already knew what was inside, I tore the bag open with shaking hands.

A box of condoms stared back at me.

Julian had told me about this brand once. He said he loved the fresh strawberry flavor.

My mind snapped back to the past.

Chloe. Strawberries were always her favorite.

My heart sank like a stone.

So this had started a long, long time ago.

The delivery guy gave me a few pitying glances as he left.

I stood there staring dumbly at the box of Durex in my hand, my head swimming.

The breathing inside the room had already turned ragged, impatient.

Julian was never a patient man.

I drew a slow breath, tucked the box back in the bag, and pushed the door open.

"Your delivery's here."

I set the bag on the table by their hands, calm as if nothing in the world had happened.

Julian shoved Chloe off him.

He scrambled to fix his shirt, and when I caught the red mark on his collar, my stomach turned over.

"Vivian, what are you doing here, I —"

His voice cut out.

"Vivian, let me explain."

"Explain what?"

I didn't get the chance to answer. Chloe spoke first.

"Why bother explaining, Julian?"

"My sister's slow. She's not blind."

Chloe pulled Julian aside.

"Julian, it's come to this. There's no point hiding it anymore."

Then she walked straight up to me.

"All this time, Julian's been lying to you, telling you he wasn't back yet. He's been here with me the whole time."

"A few days ago, when you asked about the mark on my neck and I said it was a mosquito bite, I was lying then too. It's a love bite. Julian gave it to me."

Her eyes met mine, taunting.

"Vivian, I fell for your husband. And I slept with him."

"So what are you going to do about it?"

I looked into her eyes. In thirty plain, quiet years, I'd never been handed a problem this hard.

I shook my head numbly.

I didn't know.

"Chloe, stop stirring things up."

Julian fumbled to drag her aside.

"Vivian, don't be upset. We'll talk about all this at home."

"Don't you still have to get back to the lab? Go on ahead. I'll take Chloe home, she just had a scare, I don't want her on her own —"

I didn't wait for Julian to finish. I yanked the door open and bolted out like I was fleeing for my life.

In the car, watching the scenery slide backward past the window, the blank fog in my head slowly filled with old memories.

When Julian and I first got together, he and Chloe couldn't stand each other.

They bickered the second they were in the same room, and I was always stuck in the middle, soothing one and then rushing off to calm the other.

Then somewhere along the way, the two of them got quiet around each other.

When Julian and I went out, he'd often suggest bringing Chloe along.

"She's home all alone with nothing to do. Let's invite her."

We'd eat out, and Julian would order Chloe's favorite dishes.

We'd watch a movie, and Chloe would act all coquettish as she squeezed into the seat between us.

He'd even swap out her ice water for warm ginger tea in a thermos when she had her period.

And I just smiled through all of it, never noticing a thing.

I'd actually thought, how nice, those two have finally made peace.

Now I was waking from the dream.

They'd made peace, all right. I was the one left out in the cold.

Back at the university, I sat alone by the lake and thought the whole night through.

I didn't believe it.

I couldn't believe that the little sister who'd trailed after me my whole life, swearing she'd protect me, would do something to hurt me.

She must have some reason she couldn't say out loud.

The next day I called Chloe and asked to meet.

The same coffee shop.

The same cup of coffee.

This time Chloe didn't hold anything back. She drained her coffee in long gulps and slid me a sideways look.

"Vivian, I won't dance around it. Julian started cheating with me ages ago. He says when he was chasing you, he thought you were the best woman in the world. Then he caught you, and realized you were nothing special after all."

My heart clenched hard.

Five years ago, Julian had chased me so loudly the whole city talked about it.

He set off fireworks in the heart of downtown.

He confessed to me on the giant screen above the square.

He had a whole sky of roses rain down for me.

I'd said, "Julian, I'm dull, I don't know the first thing about romance, and I'm older than you. You like me now, but it's just the thrill of something new. Once —"

I never finished. Julian kissed me before I could.

Then, in front of every camera and reporter there, he dropped to one knee and asked me to marry him.

I was so overcome the tears spilled over, and I threw my arms around him on the spot.

For five years after the wedding, he was good to me.

He never once forgot an anniversary gift, and even living half his life on business trips, he brought home a little surprise every time.

I was never good with people. I stayed on at the university after I graduated, and thanks to his care and protection I poured myself into research and became the youngest associate professor on campus.

I thought we were made for each other, two people who brought out each other's best.

I thought my marriage was flawless.

But now the bare, brutal truth had smashed my beautiful dream to pieces.

Across from me, Chloe was waving a little keychain around, gloating.

"Julian brought this back for me last month. Officer Judy, from Zootopia."

"He's got the matching one. Nick the fox."

A loud ringing went off in my skull, and my whole mind went blank.

He'd brought me a little gift just like that too.

Mine was a Flash keychain, the sloth.

He'd said I was just like Flash in the movie, slow but sweet.

I'd curled up in his arms, smiling, never once realizing the keychains were a couple's set.

They were the couple.

I was the outsider.

I gripped the keychain so hard my knuckles went white.

"Why?"

It took everything I had just to get the word out.

I wanted to know the answer, and I was terrified to hear the truth.

Chloe only let out a mocking little laugh.

"I'm not like you. You're dull, no sense for romance. Me, I like a thrill."

"And there's no bigger thrill than sleeping with your sister's husband, is there, Vivian?"

The last sliver of hope shattered. My throat swelled, raw and aching, and I couldn't get a single word out.

"I always said he was no good. Otherwise, why would he come running the second I crooked my finger?"

"Or maybe life with you was just so suffocating that he was sick of you long ago."

My heart felt like it was being eaten alive, an unbearable, splitting pain.

But Chloe just grinned, as if she couldn't see the agony on my face at all.

Then, slowly, she pulled out an ultrasound printout and laid it in front of me.

"Intrauterine pregnancy. Six weeks. Heartbeat normal."

My eyes stayed fixed on that ultrasound for a long time.

Chloe had never even dated anyone. How could she be pregnant?

Had someone forced himself on her, or was it something I didn't want to imagine?

"It's Julian's."

Chloe's voice was flat.

My breath caught.

My heart seemed to skip a beat too.

"What's wrong, Vivian? Aren't you happy?"

Chloe's voice carried over.

She pointed smugly at the gray smudge on the printout. "You're going to be an aunt."

I drew a deep breath, and everything in front of me went white.

I'd never imagined my life could hold a scene like this.

The two people I loved most in the world, the two who mattered most, had betrayed me together.

In that moment, panic flooded me.

I didn't know how to face the sister I'd grown up with, or the man I'd spent five years loving, or the great storm of a marriage we'd built.

A violent ringing rose in my ears, and a heat spread from my chest out through my whole body.

I shot to my feet, grabbed the coffee cup beside me, and in a fit of rage, hurled it contents straight at Chloe.

Chloe shrieked and stumbled back, landing hard on the floor.

She clutched her belly, brows knotted, pain twisting across her face.

At the same moment the coffee shop door banged open, and a familiar figure rushed in.

It was Julian.

He reached Chloe, shoved me aside as I scrambled to help her up, and slapped me across the face with everything he had.

The force of it sent me sprawling. My temple cracked against the corner of the table and swelled red in an instant, and my vision washed white.

"Chloe, Chloe, are you okay?"

Chloe's brows pinched weakly, and her voice broke into tears. "Julian, save me. Save our baby."

Julian swept her up into his arms at once.

From start to finish, he never once really looked at me.

I pushed myself up, the pain throbbing through me.

Watching the man I loved fuss over another woman like that, my heart felt like it had been seized in a giant fist and squeezed until it ached.

"Vivian. You knew Chloe was pregnant, so you knocked her down on purpose. Didn't you?"

Julian's tone was hard and cold.

As if the woman in front of him wasn't his wife, but his enemy.

I'd meant to explain. Now every word jammed in my chest, suffocating.

"How could you be so vicious?"

"Chloe's fine this time, so we'll let it go. But if anything happens to her, I will never let you off!"

In five years of marriage, Julian had never once scolded me like this.

He used to smile and ruffle my hair.

"You know something? You're the purest, kindest girl I've ever met."

"Vivian, I'll love you forever."

Something warm slid down from the corner of my eye.

I wiped it away and lifted my chin, stubborn.

"Think whatever you want."

Then I bolted out of the coffee shop.

The sky was black with clouds, and thunder rolled overhead.

The rain came down in sheets.

I heard Julian's footsteps behind me.

I spun around, only to see him carry Chloe into his car.

The door shut, and they sped away.

It left me standing there, hollowed out, sobbing in the downpour.

I ran through the rain toward home, slipped, and went down into the mud.

The rain hammered against me. I struggled a few times, then sank back into it, like the last of my strength had drained away.

If I could, I thought, just let me die right here.

By the small hours of the morning, I'd spiked a fever.

Half conscious, I instinctively called Julian.

I tried over and over. No answer.

Then his phone shut off completely.

And just like that, my head cleared.

I dragged my limp, useless body to the hospital alone.

After they gave me a shot to bring the fever down, I saw Julian and Chloe outside one of the rooms in the ward.

Julian was murmuring to Chloe, gently coaxing her to sleep.

He patted her back the way you'd soothe a child.

When he turned and saw me, he crept out on tiptoe.

"What are you doing here?"

He touched my swollen, bruised cheek, and his voice softened.

"I lost my temper. Don't take it to heart."

Then he pulled me into his arms, tender, as if nothing had happened at all.

"Chloe's fine, and the baby's safe. Don't worry."

I shook my head stubbornly and pulled free of him.

"Julian."

My voice was hoarse.

"Could you just not be with her? She's my own sister."

Getting those words out took everything I had, and cost me every scrap of pride.

I loved this man. So much.

In five years of marriage, clumsy as I was, I'd rarely said anything close to a word of love.

But today, facing him again, I was ready to set it all down, ready to ask him whether he'd love me the way he used to, whether he'd come back to me.

I looked up at him, my eyes brimming.

Julian went still for a moment.

Then he laughed out loud.

"How could that be, Vivian?"

"After everything, you still don't get it? I've fallen for Chloe. I mean it, the same way I once meant it with you."

"I can't live without her."