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CHAPTER ONE

VIVIAN SAT ON an uncomfortable chair in the starkly decorated lobby of her husband’s apart and waited for Karl to co for hours, her feet propped up by a couple of suitcases, garnering suspicious looks, but the doorman hadn’t kicked her out yet He’d tried, but she had a e certificate that said she was Karl Milek’s wife Unwilling to throw her out onto the street, he’d also been unwilling to let her into Karl’s apartment

She was pretty sure he was regretting both decisions At least Xìnyùn, her father’s blue parrot, had stopped talking an hour ago His chipper conversation wasn’t welcohtness was an unwanted distraction in the white-and-black interior

Every ti doors, the February winds whistled and Xìnyùn responded with his own tune, dancing up and down the rainbow ladder in his cage Not a single person who’d walked past had s as cold as his hands

She had called his office five ti,” they said “We will pass on the e,” they said She didn’t tell thereed upon, he probably hadn’t told his coworkers about his Vegas ured—as she had—that their secret would keep until the divorce was finalized, and then it wouldn’t matter anymore They’d be divorced and have moved on with their lives But now she needed hi hiain his cooperation

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas

She was supposed to have stayed in Vegas

The energy in the lobby flared when her husband walked through the door He was the cold, stiffafter, and he didn’t seeover Maybe he didn’t notice the freezing tereen scarf wrapped around his neck and a tan wool coat as though they were for show, so the people around hih snow naked and not get frostbite No hat covered his brown hair His hazel eyes were lasses didn’t soften the sharp planes of his face She had assury—but he didn’t have a reason to be angry Yet

She needed Karl to be the man whose eyes had been mostly brohen he’d offered to buy her a drink, but had turned a lush green when she’d brushed her hand against his as she reached for that drink The ainst hih they had both known she wasn’t cold Thein her life could ever be funny again

Perhaps that iven flesh only by the carnival lights of Las Vegas That she was even sitting here in the lobby of this apart was evidence that she wasn’t as iht she’d been

The doorman scurried over to her husband, his arles shot down her spine when Karl looked over at her He showed no hurry as he walked across the lobby to her, his face as blank as she remembered

“You were the wo

“Hello to you, too” They hadn’t planned on seeing each other again, but there was no reason not to be civil In theory, theirs was an amicable divorce “Can we talk somewhere private?”

His eyes took in the pile of suitcases and the birdcage sitting next to thee and a suitcase and walked toward the elevator Vivian scra her purse over her shoulder, picked up two more suitcases and hurried to follow hi on the marble floor

On the elevator ride up to his apartment, Vivian opened her mouth a couple times to speak, but Karl silenced her with a raise of his eyebrow “You wanted private We can at least wait until we are in my apartment”