“What did you just say?”
“He knew exactly why you agreed to marry him five years ago.”
Heat rushed into my face.
Suddenly I was thirty-five again, standing in this same kitchen with an eviction notice folded inside my purse and tears burning my eyes because my daughter needed medicine I could not afford.
Suddenly I heard Richard’s voice.
I know I’m old enough to be your father, sweetheart.
Marry me.
And suddenly every whispered insult from five years earlier returned.
Gold digger.
Opportunist.
Desperate woman.
Young widow who married an old rich man for his estate.
I had endured all of it because I believed Richard knew the truth.
Now I wondered if he had believed exactly what everyone else did.
My voice shook.
“Did he think this was funny?”
“No.”
“Did he spend five years testing me?”
