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“A sail?”

“Arthur has a beautiful sixty-five footer Assu you still remember how to man a boat?”

“I’m rusty, but yes What does this Arthur do if he owns million-dollar islands and beautiful yachts?”

“Airlines Railroads He’s an old friend fro days”

She eyed hie like a grocery list?”

He lifted a shoulder “You took sex off the table I’ your lead”

He left then She needed rest And if he wasn’t going to spend his night buried in his wife’s delectable body, he had a handful of pressing emails to address

He took a glass of brandy into the library, sat down at the desk and flicked on his computer But he couldn’t see the raw and unabridged version of histo his wife She had chosen to call out “irreconcilable differences” on the divorce papers sitting in his office, which would have iven their different philosophies on life But unbeknownst to hi for him to call it quits and walk out the door Just as her father had

Heatlike Diana’s father Wilbur Taylor was aa world-renowned surgeon everyone treated like a rock star He considered everything and anything in this world his doeon si of indiscretions Yet Diana’s mother had chosen to stay Why?

He took a slug of the brandy, twisting the chair to look out at the sea, now shrouded in darkness, its great mass an inky pool you could lose yourself in a million times over Wilbur Taylor’s infidelities were just one reason he didn’t respect the hter had been inexcusable to him, the tactics and subtle threats he had used to nourish Diana’s need for perfection co at the cost of her happiness So that she would follow in his footsteps—so that she wouldn’t let the family name down

It had always taken him hours to soothe Diana after a visit with her parents That hy he disliked them so ood enough for his daughter

His mouth curved in a bitter twist Hoould Diana’s father react now if his daughter had brought him home with stars in her eyes? Perhaps the newly minted CEO of a Fortune 500 company, instead of the overlooked second-in-command, would meet with his approval? Would have been a suitable alternative to the young surgeons Wilbur had kept shoving down Diana’s throat even after they were married

He sat back in his chair and took his brandy with hiiven her faht do to her what her father had done to her iven her pause to doubt hi other wo Instead, he had consistently deflected the attention of woer or not because he was rich and good-looking and being a wealthyin town

He hadn’t needed to stray He’d loved his wife He hadn’t given any of those wo shts out for work And yet here she was doubting him? His supremely confident ho had never been fazed by the women who had chased him

What were those women to you? A salve for your embittered soul? A way to prove I meant so little to you?

Her words froht they’d conceived their baby caance Bitterness What if it had actually been a whole other side of his wife he’d never known existed? A vulnerability at her core she’d never displayed The fact that she’d left him, shattered him, when he’d taken those woht all along

A fatalistic feeling enveloped hie of the tumbler Hoould he know? The woht he could one day solve and never had The woain Who was the real Diana? He’d be damned if he knew

The ocean stared back at him, dark, silent I could do an eet to the bottouilty of not showing his true self to her? Had he even knoho he was? Taking over Grant had changed him Had illustrated just how lost he’d been since his father’s death However cutting Diana’s appraisal of hi Harrison for control of Grant About hile with his brother Wasn’t sure a legacy that had seen his father blow his brains out was so he wanted