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Daniel descended the stairs, not shocked to see me on his doorstep. He carried my duffle bag in his left hand, his wedding ring missing.
“I took the liberty of packing a bag for you. We can schedule a time for you to pick up your other belongings. I’m willing to make this divorce as swift and painless as possible, if only to preserve what Parker, Michell, & Ward have built with Nexcom.” He’d pitched his tone perfectly. Not too sad, as to show strength, but not too businesslike, because he wouldn’t want to appear cold and distant. He flinched at the sight of Cole’s bruise on my neck, and he averted his saddened gaze at the mention of Nexcom, as if the reminder of Cole pained him, as if he couldn’t bear to look me in the eye when speaking of the man I’d betrayed our vows with.
If I didn’t know what I knew, this last vision of him would’ve haunted me forever. The guilt would’ve eaten me alive.
“How long would you have allowed this mockery of a marriage to go on?” I asked, stepping down into the living room, flinging my coat onto the wingback chair, enjoying his visual struggle with the disorder it created.
“Things weren’t flawless,” he said with the perfect hitch to his breath, “but I loved you—”
“You’re not capable of love!” I tossed the folder onto the coffee table, receipts scattering everywhere. A sheet floated over to where he now stood at the end of the sofa. He squatted, picking it up, and then all pretenses fell away. It was like the sun incrementally lighting a dark cave. I saw him, then. I saw all of him. “Why?”
“Because I could,” he said around a deviant smile. “Because they didn’t think I had what it took.Noneof them did. But I showed them.”
“You couldn’t succeed under your own merit, so you decided to use me as your meal ticket?”
“Everything I’ve accomplished has been because of me!” he raged. “Everything I’ve suffered has been so—”
“Suffered?”I scoffed. “You’ve been in your element, Daniel. Even this, right now, has you oozing delight. You’re happy we know. The game isn’t the same without spectators, right?” Those hazel eyes I’d once found beautiful and inviting were now callous and cold. I’d once proclaimed that the arrogance he harbored in his slender limbs was a defense mechanism, labeling it “not the real him,” but it was clear now it was the truest thing about him.
“I thought it’d be easy. Seduce you, gain your trust, get access to all your secrets, insert myself into whatever remained of your family tree,” he said, as if sharing a brilliant plan with a friend. “You made my job more difficult than it needed to be with your damninsufferablemartyrdom. So you fucked your stepbrother,killingyour mother in the process.” The stab was perfectly aimed, knocking me back a step, and his eyes shone brighter at the scent of my blood. “What I’d have given to trade places with you. What? Oh don’t look at me like that, you’ve met my mother.”
I choked down the rising bile. “Did you ever care for me at all?” Showing vulnerability to a narcissist wasn’t the best move, but he couldn’t hurt me any more than he already had, and there were certain things I needed to know for my own sake.
“That’s rich coming from you,” he said, but then for the briefest of seconds his mouth softened, reminding me of the Daniel I thought I knew.
“I did begin to develop feelings for you while I waited for you to open up. It wasn’t love. I don’t believe I’m capable of that emotion. But I thought maybe it might be nice to rule the world with someone. We didn’t need love in order to dominate. Only you wouldn’t get with the program.” He chuckled darkly. “You wanted to ensure society’s castaways had a fighting chance. That the lazy get a slice of my one-percenter pie.” He tilted his head, considering me. “You became a challenge. A pet project. In many ways you were easy to influence. Even got you to shut up in public. But when it came to your career, you wouldn’t give in, and I wanted to win. It kept me busy while I patiently waited you out. Until I had Nexcom in my hands, and Parker & Mitchell could no longer discard me.” He reveled in his brilliance.
“You could have been great on your own, Daniel,” I said, following his trajectory toward the bar. “Could’ve made anhonestname for yourself.”
“Are you not listening?” he snapped, dropping a few cubes of ice into his glass. “Everything that firm becomes will be thanks to me, and then when I leave them, taking all their contacts and high-profile clients, they will fall because of me too. And Jasper,” he chided. “Honest men don’t make great lawyers. Good liars do.” And liars didn’t come any better than Daniel.
“You’ve had Nexcom for months. We could’ve ended this months ago and spared everyone all this pain.”
“Leave you? So your brother could be rid of me for using, and then casting you aside? No. I needed you to leave me. I needed you to plead my case to your brother because you were so consumed with guilt over having an affair, you’d have done anything to minimize the personal and professional damage to me.”
“Affair?” I asked, caught off guard. Had he known Cole and I had been having an ongoing affair?
“Oh, did you think I believed that filthy performance I walked in on was an isolated incident? God, how could you be that stupid, Jasper? I practically shoved you into his bed!” He tossed back his drink, smiling through the burn. I needed a seat, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing me buckle.
“The night Cole showed up here to what was supposed to be a romantic apology dinner. You said wires got crossed—”
“Yes, yes,” Daniel said, his hand fluttering over his head. “I’d had Jessica call his insufferable assistant and reschedule our informal meeting. It was fun watching him squirm as I ran my hands over you across the dining room table.”
“Jessica,” I whispered. “Did you have her set Cole up the night of your partnership party? Did you have her send him to your office with that flash drive so he could walk in on us?”
“Of course. You don’t think I’d actually have sex with you on the desk I sign contracts on, do you?” He shivered from the thought of it. I had found it odd, but I was filled with jealousy at having to see Leland stand so close to Cole all night, whispering in his ear, vanishing to the restroom… I’d have let my husband fuck me as some sort of asinine payback for my lover canoodling with his assistant and best friend.
“I had to have a whole crew come in and disinfect the place after your little tryst in there.” He laughed at my stunned expression. “What? Did you think I didn’tsmellwhat had happened when I returned? I really should be insulted,” he said offhandedly while pouring a refill. “But I’ll blame it on your need to see the best in people, and all that smothering guilt you drag around like a security blanket. It blinds you. Makes you easy prey. I must say I expected more from your brother—or is it lover? But he was too obsessed with you to see me coming.”
“Was sending me to Club Bale that night part of your grand scheme?” I asked, encouraging his rhapsody. If he wanted to hang himself, I’d happily provide the rope.
“Yes. And I take it you’d finally got what you were after that night. You stopped begging me to assault you after that. You are one sick puppy, Jasper Des Moines.”
“What else?” I asked, more than happy to give him the stage to admire himself on.
Now on his second drink, he swiveled the contents around as he smirked evilly at me. It was the most effervescent I’d ever seen him.
“The morning he showed up at my door thinking I’d left him waiting in the car so I could fuck you. I really thought I’d need to replace my bed that day.”
