Page 25 of Cursing My Cheating Husband

I shuddered. “I wish I could get out of it. It’s just going to be ‘I told you so’ about Maddox, and ranting about how the Council has ruined her perfect little enclave.”

Brie jerked her head up. “Ruined? Callie, you don’t know?”

“Know what?”

“This was all your mother’s idea. Becoming the Vegas of witchcraft was her project. She spearheaded the whole initiative.”

“What?” That was impossible. My mother was the ultimate traditionalist. She would have chosen for witches to stay hidden forever, and she had never been more furious than when the Hellebore Coven revealed all of us. “The Council didn’t force this on her?”

“No, it was the other way around. She brought the Council on board, over their skepticism,” Brie said emphatically.

“That makes no sense. Astrea never wanted anything to do with the outside world.”

Pensive, Brie took a bite of the swordfish. “It’s not only the buildings that have changed here.”

As I took my own bite, I realized I had no idea what awaited me tomorrow.

It was a bizarre maternal dynamic when you were the daughter of a High Priestess. It was the only parent/child relationship where the parent could expect to watch all her children die of old age, while she remained mostly ageless. On my deathbed, Astrea would appear only a few years older than she had the day she gave birth to me.

That kind of longevity led you to become uniquely intractable and stuck in your ways. At least, that had always been my theory for explaining my mother.

But the mother I knew never would have been able to support this transformation of our community, much less conceive and execute it.

If I had gotten that so wrong, I no longer had the first clue what I would be walking into tomorrow.

CHAPTER 12

MADDOX

Quitting time, at last. What a shit day. I wasn’t sure I’d ever been a bigger fuckup at work than I had just been. I was normally the shark of the office, but today I had missed one great trade after another.

Fucking Ryder swept in and scooped up what should have been my wins. Ryder! The guy couldn’t read a balance sheet to save his life, but today he was the one crushing it while I sat there with my thumb up my ass.

But honestly, how could it be anything other than that? Was it any wonder I couldn’t focus on work, given my situation? All I could think about was the doctor’s appointment I had made for tomorrow. My last chance at finding a way out of what Callie had done to me.

I still struggled to understand how she could have found it within herself to do something this severe.

I mean, fine, I understood now that the cheating had been wrong.

But people make mistakes! When you’re married, you’re supposed to talk it out and work through it together! Why hadn’t she just confronted me, told me how much I’d hurt her, and given me a chance to apologize? She hadn’t given me any opportunity to make it right. Instead, she went straight to permanent, irreversible dick curse. How was that fair?

Her punishment was not proportionate to the crime! I deserved some punishment, but not a life sentence!

And there was no one to take my appeal to. Callie had been my judge, jury, and executioner. Her sentence trapped me forever. Why not just put me in a permanent coma? At least then I wouldn’t be aware of what I’d lost.

Duke interrupted my self-pitying reverie. “Fuck man, you look like hell.”

I hadn’t even noticed Duke had entered my office. I’d totally zoned out at my desk, and he’d found me staring blankly into the middle distance, my despair naked on my face.

Not for the first time, the overwhelming terror that one of my buddies might learn of the curse surged through my body. If Duke or Ryder or any of the guys discovered what had happened, I’d never live another moment where I wasn’t the butt of every joke. None of them would allow me to live it down. They’d broadcast my shame to everyone we worked with. The entire financial industry would love gossiping about my ruined member. I’d have to quit my job, delete my entire online presence, leave town, and live off the grid for the rest of my life.

I couldn’t face the world if the world knew I couldn’t fuck.

So, I better get a convincing mask on before anyone figured it out.

“It’s nothing. I’m fine,” I insisted.

Duke’s raised eyebrows told me I needed to provide an actual excuse.