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okay?”
    “I’m fine,” she said, still focusing on the backlit screen of her tablet, the fingers holding her stylus still shaking over the on-screen keyboard. Faker .
    “Then can you tell me about the bruise on your cheek?”
    Veronica made direct eye contact with Grandma Kate and knew she hadn’t fooled her at all. She’d thought the layer of foundation and powder had disguised the fading bruise at the engagement party. She was pretty sure Cord and Jackson hadn’t noticed the fading mark but leave it to eagle-eyed Grandma Kate to notice the slightest changes. She normally didn’t wear much foundation and Kate undoubtedly remembered that.
    It’s in the past. No point in stirring things up. In the end, nothing will change what happened. The important thing is that he should be packing and moving out right now.
    “You know how klutzy I am, Grandma Kate. I tripped on an electrical cord.” Yup, you sure did, right after Brent slapped and pushed you.
    Grandma Kate chewed her lip for a second and then nodded and faced front again. Veronica hated lying to Grandma Kate. Hated it. It was such a betrayal of their relationship. Kate had never asked hard questions so Veronica had never had to lie before.
    “Brent and I had a little disagreement,” she whispered, disbelieving that she was even speaking about it but Kate’s nonconfrontational response had drawn the truth from her.
    “I’m sorry, sweet girl,” Kate whispered, and Veronica could hear the steel in her tone. She was holding back anger. Strangely, it didn’t make Veronica feel better. It was in the past. Couldn’t be changed, so why get upset about it?
    From the beginning, she’d been attracted to Brent’s naturally dominant personality. He’d thought it was cool that she was a successful published author, and he’d put up with her introverted personality and reclusiveness, as well as the long, odd hours she put in at times. In the beginning, their encounters had been off the charts, but the fires had gradually cooled. She’d felt responsible for that, because of the hours she kept. She’d left him on his own once too often.
    “He cheated on me about a week ago.”
    He’d invited her to join them at one of his friends’ apartment in the same complex and like always she’d told him no, to go on without her since she’d had a deadline. Only she’d changed her mind and decided to join him for once. She hadn’t worried when he didn’t answer her call letting him know she was coming after all. She’d knocked on the door to find a party in progress and lots of people she didn’t know. She’d asked around for him and they’d pointed her in his direction, toward one of the bedrooms. She’d walked in just as he’d built up a real head of steam, pounding his cock into some giggling bimbo. She hadn’t felt the need to stay and hear his explanation. She was furious as she’d walked back to their apartment, but by the time she walked in her door, she’d been ready to concede that he was left to his own devices because of her work too often, and that she shouldn’t be surprised.
    “What did you do?”
    “I asked him to move out. He asked for a second chance. I told him I’d think about it.”
    “What did you decide?”
    In the back of her mind had been the suspicion that the only reason he wanted her to take him back was because the lease was in her name and she paid most of the bills but she’d agreed to consider giving him another chance. Finding a G-string that didn’t belong to her in his pocket a few days later had helped her make the right decision.
    “He cheated on me again and I asked him to move out the night of the chat last week. He got upset and slapped me.”
    It’d bugged her that asking him to move out hadn’t hurt as much as she’d thought it would. Shouldn’t she have been upset? Crying? Heartbroken? What was wrong with her? But remembering the way she’d put up with his bullying personality in order to be able to enjoy