CHAPTER 1
She stood at the breakfast bar and looked out over her large home, now emptier than it had ever been.
A part of her life was now behind her; the one where little children were underfoot, softball games were every weekend and first dates had come and gone. Now, she and her husband were empty nesters.
“Miss Julie, is there anything else I can do for you today?” her housekeeper, Agnes, asked. Agnes had been cleaning her house since her daughters were knee high to a grasshopper, as her grandmother would say.
“No, but thank you, Aggie. Head on home and put your feet up!”
Agnes smiled gratefully as Julie handed her an envelope with her final paycheck, plus a dash extra.
“I wish I could take you to the new beach house with us, but the place just isn’t big enough to need a housekeeper. I guess I’ll have to learn to do it myself,” Julie said with a sad laugh. It truly was the end of an era in so many ways.
“I know this place will make another family a great home,” Agnes said, looking around. Julie hoped the older woman would finally retire, although she said cleaning was her hobby and she might as well get paid for it.
Julie looked around also. Memories were housed in every nook and cranny, from the corner where they always put the Christmas tree to the gouge in the molding where their old Great Dane had slid across the hardwood floors chasing after a ball and crashed into the wall.
Memories were good and bad. Her eyes started to mist, which was not something she enjoyed, so she quickly changed the subject.
“Thank you for getting this place so clean. Our real estate agent already has three families interested, so I don’t think we’ll even have to put a sign in the yard! One of them has already made an offer, in fact.”
Agnes smiled. “I’ll miss you. Please tell the girls I love them and to send me a postcard, okay?”
Julie pulled her into an embrace. “You know they love you like a grandmother, Aggie. They’ll keep in touch. I promise.”
Julie was so proud of her daughters. Now both adults, they were taking the world by storm. Her nineteen-year old daughter, Meg, was studying abroad in France for another year, and Colleen, her twenty-year old, was at college across the country in California. She had a prestigious internship at a law firm out there, so she rarely came home for a visit.
That just left Julie and her husband of twenty-one years, Michael. For as long as she could remember, she’d had one dream that never died - to buy a little beach cottage along the South Carolina coast and enjoy their empty nest years while they were still young.
At only forty-three years old, Julie didn’t consider herself retired. Quite the contrary, in fact. She ran a popular online boutique, and she would continue to do so from her new beach house. In fact, she and Michael had put a contract on a place months ago, and the wonderful sellers had agreed to wait for them to get their house sold and tie up loose ends. The closing was coming up in a couple of weeks, and Michael had just enough time to go on one last business trip before officially retiring from his sales job.
Once they moved, he’d be starting his own business too, and her dreams of them being beach bums in their forties would finally come true. Julie could hardly wait.
The beach was her happy place. The constant ebbing and flowing of the water gave her a peace she couldn’t explain in words, and the house they were buying sat right at the water’s edge. She often imagined what it would be like to sip her morning coffee while watching the dolphins swim by, and soon that would be her reality. She could hardly contain her excitement.
Michael wasn’t as big a fan of the beach, but he’d always let her dream and gone along with what she wanted. She was the one always reaching for the stars, but Michael had always been more of the worker bee type, never really dreaming much past the present moment. Still, he’d succeeded in his job so well that they’d lived a pretty luxurious life, and Julie was thankful for that. Although her boutique brought in money, it was nowhere near enough to support them without Michael’s income.
When the girls had both left home, there’d been a year of what almost felt like shock for the both of them. The house was quiet. Gone were the days of dozens of kids packing their house on the weekends, with loud sleepovers and dance parties til three AM.
They’d complained about it at the time, but when it was gone, the silence had been deafening. It took a few months before Michael, especially, had seemed back to normal. They developed new routines, like having breakfast on their patio together before he left for work. And, all the while, Agnes had continued making their house pretty and clean even though there wasn’t really anyone there to mess it up anymore.
As Julie stood in the big front window overlooking her driveway, she watched Agnes pull away in her small compact car and through the gates of her wealthy neighborhood. Yes, they’d been so blessed financially over the years, but now they were blessed in a different kind of way. With love. With a strong marriage that had stood the test of time. With a new start in a whole new place, away from the hustle and bustle of suburban Atlanta.
Julie smiled at the thought of it. Her dreams were all about to come true.
IT WAS ALMOST SEVEN O’CLOCK, and Michael still wasn’t home. His plane had landed at four, and she’d even looked online to make sure it landed safely. She’d called his co- worker who was on the trip too, but Marc had made it home over an hour ago, even with the crazy Atlanta traffic.
Where was Michael?
She’d tried texting him, but no response. Calls went straight to voicemail. She was getting more worried by the minute. Should she call the police? Was she overreacting?
Just as she was about to dial 911, she heard the garage door open. Out of the window, she saw the tail end of his black BMW pulling into the side garage. A mixture of relief and outright anger flowed through her veins. Why was he late, and why hadn’t he answered her numerous texts and calls?
“Thank God you’re okay!” she said when he finally walked through the door. He wasn’t wearing his normal business suit; instead, he was in khaki shorts, a pale pink polo shirt and boat shoes. He never wore that sort of thing on a business trip, even on the plane ride back.
“Why wouldn’t I be okay?” he said, a certain level of irri‐ tation in his voice. He didn’t look at her as he walked in and rolled his one piece of luggage into the corner.
“Your plane landed hours ago, and I’ve been texting you.
And calling. Why didn’t you answer?”
“You’re overreacting, Julie. I was driving. You know I don’t mess with my phone while I’m driving. Remember Kit?”
He often referred to his old friend, Kit, who was killed in a car accident years ago by a distracted teenage driver. Still, it normally didn’t take him over three hours to get home.
“Was traffic bad? Because Marc made it home an hour ago.” She was getting more and more dubious about his answers, and he still wasn’t making eye contact.
He looked at her, his face turning red from anger. “Seri‐ ously? You called Marc? Are you trying to make me look like an idiot at work?”
“Michael, I was worried! I was about to call the police!” “Oh my gosh… get a grip, Julie! I was a little late. It’s not
the end of the world, okay?” He stormed down the hall to their bedroom and sat down in the chair to take off his shoes. Something was off. His demeanor had never been like this.
Michael wasn’t one to even raise his voice, which had made her the prime disciplinarian of their girls over the years. She was always the “bad guy” and he got to play the “good guy” role.
“And why would you care what Marc or people at work think? This was your last trip, right? I mean, we are moving to the beach in a few weeks…”
He froze in place. The silence in the room was deafening, and for a moment she thought her ears had stopped working. He wouldn’t look at her again.
“Michael? Has something happened?”
“I don’t want to do this tonight, Julie. I’m tired. It was a long trip.” He stood up and walked to the closet, staring at his side of the large closet for a few moments before turning to her.
“What? You’re freaking me out. Tell me what’s wrong. I can help you, honey,” she said, reaching out to touch his shoulder. He pulled away.
“I’m moving out.”
“I know. We both are, sweetie. To our new beach house.
Everything will be wonderful there.”
“No. Julie, you’re not listening. I’m… leaving you.”
She stopped breathing. The heartbeat in her head was like a pounding jackhammer. The room started to spin a bit as she tried to get her equilibrium again. She grabbed the handle of the closet door and struggled to suck in a deep breath.
“What?”
“There’s… someone else.”
Someone else? How could there be someone else? They had a good marriage. A happy life. Two girls. A maid. A new beach house. Maybe he was drinking? Or someone had slipped him a drug on the plane?
“This can’t be happening…” she stammered. “Who?
Why?”
Michael sighed. “Does it matter, Jules?”
“First of all, don’t call me that! Cheaters don’t get to call me that!” Now she was angry. She walked toward him, her finger pointed at his face, rage literally coursing through her veins like waves after a hurricane. “And second, yes it matters! I want to know who the home wrecker is!”
He walked past her and back into the bedroom before sitting in the chair again. He covered his face and leaned back. “I really didn’t want to do this tonight,” he repeated.
She followed him out and stood in front of the chair. “Oh, I’m sorry. I know you must be tired. Would you rather crush my heart and smash all of my dreams tomorrow then? What time shall I pencil you into my calendar to be a gigantic cheating jackass? Is lunchtime good for you? No? Might mess with your digestion… I know how you get constipated easily… Have you told your hussy that little tidbit about yourself?”
“Enough, Julie! I never meant for this to happen!” he said, standing up. “It just….”
“Happened? Yeah, I hear a lot of cheaters say that on those trashy daytime talk shows. Unfortunately, that’s a crock and you know it! You made a decision, Michael! At least give me the respect of telling me who… and how… this happened.”
He sucked in sharply and sat back down. Julie calmed herself enough to sit on the bed a few feet away, preparing herself to hear the gory details she never thought she’d hear.
“Her name is Victoria. She lives in Boston.”
All of those business trips to Boston… Now it made more sense.
“So these business trips were all fake?” Her heart hurt as she felt the first of the unwanted tears dripping down her face.
“Not all of them. At first, I was there to set up our new division. One night, after a particularly crappy meeting, I went to a restaurant. They didn’t have seating for one. I sat at the bar. Then this woman came in…”
“Good Lord, this is unbelievable.”
“You can’t help who you fall in love with, Julie.”
She stood up again. “Seriously? You were supposed to be in love with me, Michael! Me! Your wife of twenty-one years! The mother of your two daughters! Was that all fake too?”
“Of course not! I loved you!”
“Past tense? Really?”
He sighed again. “Victoria just gets me. And there’s some‐ thing else…”
“There’s more? Lovely.”
“We have a six month old son. His name is Charlie.”
Once again, she couldn’t breathe. Michael had always wanted a son, but after two difficult pregnancies, Julie had said no more. That had created a huge rift in their marriage for years, but they’d eventually gotten past it. Now, he had his son and his perky-bosomed soulmate. She wanted to vomit.
“How could you? So you’ve been living this secret life where you go to Boston a couple of times a month and spend time with your other family? Dear God, what are Meg and Colleen going to think of this?”
“You can’t tell them.”
“Have you fallen and hit your head? They have to know they have a little brother!”
“I just mean, let me tell them. Please.”
She sat down and pushed back her tears. “Fine. Spin it however you want, but good luck. Your daughters aren’t idiots like me. They’ll smell your lies a mile away.”
“Julie, I never meant to hurt you. But life is short, and I want to be happy again.”
“I was the fool who thought I made you happy all these years.”
“You did… for a long time.”
“Wow. Well, sorry I didn’t make the cut for the second half of your life. I guess I’m not young and hot enough anymore.”
“Julie, she’s only a year younger than you are. It’s not like that.”
Well, that was a punch to the gut. She couldn’t even blame this on a younger, hotter woman. Nope. She just wasn’t enough all the way around.
“I have a flight leaving tomorrow, and I’ll send movers for my things next week. I spoke to the real estate agent yester‐ day, and our counter offer was accepted so the buyers will close in three weeks.”
“And where am I supposed to go, Michael?”
“I wasn’t going to leave you in the lurch, Julie. You might think I’m a horrible person right now, and I do too, honestly.”
“Not enough, apparently. You’re still going to Boston.”
“I have to go. My son is there, and seeing him off and on isn’t good for his development.”
“I don’t even know what to say. This is like some cheesy TV movie.”
“Here,” he said, reaching into his pocket and handing her a set of keys.
“What are these?”
“Keys to a suite at the extended stay hotel on Davenport.” “An extended stay hotel? Seriously?”
“I’ve paid for six weeks after the house closes to give you some time to get on your feet.”
Julie stood there in stunned silence. This wasn’t the man she knew. This wasn’t the man who nursed her back to health after a bout with the flu four years ago. This wasn’t the man who diligently went to every Lamaze class with her when she was pregnant with Colleen. This certainly wasn’t the man who stood in front of her and renewed his vows a few years back. She didn’t know this guy.
“I just can’t believe this.”
“I need to also tell you the beach deal isn’t happening, Julie.”
“Obviously.”
“I’m truly very sorry to kill your dream of living there.”
“I thought it was our dream,” she said, softly, unable to stop the tears from flowing.
“It was never my dream, Julie. You knew I was just going along.”
“And what is your dream, Michael?” “My dream is in Boston.”
And just like that, her heart shattered into a million pieces, scattering all over the floor of a home that once housed only precious memories.
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