The Year Everything Changed by Georgia Bockoven Read Free Book Online Page A

had never believed and had trouble reconciling. If that amount of self-delusion was really possible, she should be more surprised. She must have known on some level.
    Until now it had been easy to find explanations for all the clues, the times she’d called his cell and had to leave a message, the fact they hardly fought anymore, his easy acceptance when she pleaded she was too tired for sex. Most damning of all, Jeff was happy. Happier than he’d been in years. She’d put it off to their private celebration that past New Year when they’d shared a bottle of obscenely expensive champagne and toasted the new century by vowing to make the rest of their years even better than the ones before.
    Jeff’s happiness had seemed contagious. Rachel had even noticed a change in the kids. Cassidy seemed to be outgrowing the need to dominate her brother, John, and John had stopped looking for ways to get under Cassidy’s skin.
    Jeff was the hands-on parent; she was the breadwinner. A stupid, old-fashioned term. She didn’t win the bread her family consumed, she worked damn hard for it. They lived well because of her. Better than well. They lived in a thirty-five-hundred-square-foot home that sat on the side of a hill in one of the most prestigious communities in the Bay Area.
    The money Jeff brought in from the part-time consulting work he did from home barely covered the taxes and utilities. He could earn more, he was a genius at taking an impossibly difficult architectural design and fitting an air conditioning and heating unit into that design that would actually function the way it was supposed to. But as it was, it took her income to pay the mortgage, the children’s tuition at their private school, the country club membership, the retirement plan, the Range Rover, the Lexus—everything else fell on her shoulders.
    How could Jeff do this to her? To them? To their family? Was he so unhappy? Why hadn’t he come to her? Why hadn’t he given them a chance to work things out before he threw it all away? Did she mean so little to him?
    The driver pulled up to the house and started to get out to open her door. He normally carried her briefcase and whatever work she’d brought home that night, then handed them to Jeff. Lacking the patience to listen to the small talk the two men customarily exchanged, Rachel waved the driver off with, “I’m fine.”
    He nodded and closed her door. “Have a nice weekend.”
    “You, too,” she answered automatically. At least one better than mine.
    She waited for him to back out of the driveway before she climbed the dozen steps that led to the front door. Digging her key out of her purse, she paused before slipping it into the lock.
    Defining moments are discoveries made in hindsight. Rarely is anyone aware when they are in the middle of a situation they know unequivocally will change their life forever. Perhaps it is hope that keeps most people from knowing, a need to believe they can manage a crisis without losing everything that is important to them. Rachel held no such illusions. The minute she walked through the door and confronted Jeff, her life would change. Everything between them that she’d taken for granted would be over.
    For one brief, sorrowful moment she considered turning around and walking away. But where would she go, and to what end?
    The key heavy in her hand, it took three attempts to slip it into the lock. The door finally open, she took a deep breath and went inside. Jeff met her in the hallway.
    “I thought I heard you out here.” He gave her a quick kiss. “You look beat. Rough day?”
    She dropped her purse on the hall table, her briefcase on the floor. “Are the kids still up?”
    “When you didn’t call I figured you and Connie were going to make a night out of it, so I put them to bed. Cassidy has an early soccer game tomorrow.” He helped her off with her coat and hung it in the closet.
    Rachel watched him, trying to see him as a stranger might. At