I was about to say, I didn’t do it for you. Then an insidious doubt drifted through my mind, making a vulnerable spot inside me fold in on itself.

Was I doing it for her without knowing it?

I twisted the base of my empty champagne flute around and around on the table. “He was going to marry you.”

“And it was the biggest mistake of my life walking away.” Her hand went to her throat, her slender fingers restlessly stroking, as if toying with a necklace she’d normal y find there. “I was young and in some ways he frightened me. He was so possessive. It wasn’t until after I married that I realized possessiveness is much better than indifference. At least for me.” I looked away, fighting the nausea that rose in my throat.

“You’re awful y quiet,” she said.

“What is there to say?” Magdalene tossed out.

We al loved him. We were al available to him. In the end, he would make a choice between us.

“You should know, Eva,” Corinne began, looking at me with those clear aquamarine eyes, “he’s told me how special you are to him. It took me some time to gather the courage to come back here and face you two together. I even canceled a flight I had booked a couple weekends ago. I interrupted him at some charity event he was giving a speech at, poor guy, to tel him I was on my way and to ask for his help getting settled.”

I froze, feeling as brittle as cracked glass. She had to be talking about the advocacy center dinner, the night Gideon and I had sex for the first time. The night we’d christened his limo and he’d immediately withdrawn; then left me abruptly.

“When he cal ed me back,” she continued, “he told me he’d met someone. That he wanted you and me to meet when I got into town. I ended up chickening out.

He’s never asked me to meet a woman in his life before.”

Oh my God. I glanced at Magdalene. Gideon had left me in a rush that night for her. For Corinne.

He was just turning away from the bartender with two glasses in his hands when I intercepted him. I took my drink and gulped it down, my teeth aching as the cubes of ice knocked against them.