doing. Will was a teacher, and he had always known that was what he wanted to do. Andrew…well, I wasn’t sure what the hell Andrew was doing, but he seemed happy. Was I the only one that had fucked up my life by trying to be something that maybe I wasn’t?
A knock at my door had me pulling myself out of those distracted thoughts. Rebecca stood at my door, a small smile on her face. I stared at her with no expression on my face. I didn’t know what to say or do.
“Can I come in?”
I straightened in my chair, like I did every time a client walked into my office. “Of course. How can I help you?” I asked, doing my best to remember my manners.
“I was just dropping by because we’ll be moving in a few days.”
I nodded. “That’s good. Once you’re out there and you establish residency, we can really get the ball rolling on all this. How’s the security detail working for you?”
“It’s fine. Honestly, they’ve been very discreet, and I don’t think my husband really suspects anything.” She smiled mischievously. “Not that he would notice anything anyway. He’s too wrapped up in the nanny.”
I nodded, not knowing what to say.
“I have to say, I’m surprised that you’re here instead of with Anna. Aren’t you supposed to be on your honeymoon?”
It was then that it hit me that we hadn’t fooled Rebecca at all. She had come here, knowing that I would be here. If she had really believed that we had gotten married, she wouldn’t have come here at all.
“I think you already know that Anna and I aren’t really married.”
She smiled. “Well, you did a great job pulling that wedding off. I’m guessing someone else was supposed to get married that day?”
“My brother and his wife. They weren’t too upset about it. They didn’t want to get married in front of the whole town. So, what gave us away?”
She shrugged. “I knew from the start.”
“Really? Then why did you go along with it?”
“Because you two really do love each other. That much I was sure of. But it was clear that Anna didn’t want to be here.”
I huffed out a laugh, nodding slightly. “Yeah, she ended it after the fake wedding when I asked her to move in with me.”
“And you’re here.”
I gave a slight shrug. “I have nowhere else to be. This is the dream, right? A big office, a fancy apartment, a great car…”
“And no one to share it with.” She leaned forward and tilted her head. “Robert, can I clue you in on something?”
“Go for it.”
“Do you know how I got where I am?”
“Hard work, long hours, dedication…”
“Exactly. And along the way, I lost sight of what really mattered. Sure, I’m rich and I have what seems to be the perfect life, but my husband is sleeping with the nanny, and if the audio I have isn’t lying, he’s desperately in love with her. You see, I may be pissed at him for cheating on me, but even I can see that all those nights that he spent alone only widened the rift between us. Maybe we could have worked it out if I had been around more. Maybe not, but now I’ll never know. We’ve both made mistakes that have put us where we are today. So, maybe you need to ask yourself what would have happened had Anna come to live in the city with you.”
“You think we would have broken up eventually.”
“What I think doesn’t really matter. But ask yourself, was Anna ever herself when she was here? Was she happy? Did she like being here?”
I huffed out a laugh and shook my head. “Not even a little.”
“Can I give you one more piece of advice?”
“You’re just full of knowledge today.”
“Ask yourself if you’re really happy here. Now that you know the price of working here and living here, do you really still want all this? Because if you really love Anna as much as I think you do, I think you’re going to be miserable. Those vows that you said to her, all the times I saw you together, I saw what she really meant to you. You can’t fake that kind of love. She won’t be happy here, and you won’t be happy without her.”
I knew she was right. When I got Anna back, it was like a piece of me was put back into place, something I had been missing for a long time. But