Chapter 13

13

I know. We seemed like the perfect couple, didn't we?

And we were the perfect couple. For a long time, we had that fairy-tale romance little girls dream about. The kind of romance where I sometimes pinched myself because I was sure that it had to be a dream.

Grant claimed that when he first saw me, he knew that he wanted me to be his wife. The truth is, I felt the same way about him. It was as close to love at first sight as I had ever imagined. He was so incredibly handsome, with those gold highlights in his hair, the perfectly chiseled features, the blue, blue eyes like the waters of Aruba—it was hard not to fall madly in love with him. And that was before I discovered he was also successful and wealthy and funny to boot. He was perfect.

On our first date, he took me to a French restaurant. I had never been to such a fancy place in my entire life, but he was not patronizing when he ordered for the two of us. He held my hands across the candlelit table and told me that I looked so beautiful. It was a magical evening, and truth be told, I fell completely in love with him that night, even though I was trying not to.

As we walked out of the restaurant, I noticed him looking at me out of the corner of his eye with a strange expression on his face. "What?" I asked.

"I think," he said, "that I'm not sure I can make it home without kissing you."

I couldn't help but smile at his statement. "Oh?"

"Yes. The fact that I failed to kiss you will quickly consume all my thoughts. I won't even be able to focus on the road when I'm driving home. I'll surely get into a terrible accident."

Nobody had ever expressed to me that they were so consumed by thoughts of me that they could think of nothing else. "Well, I wouldn't want you to get hurt ."

"You are so kind, Alice," he said as he pressed his lips against mine.

It was like a tiny atomic bomb had been planted inside every single molecule of my body, and during that kiss, they exploded simultaneously. I had been kissed before but never like that . He had feared that he might get in an accident if he failed to kiss me, but after that kiss, I didn't think I'd be able to think of anything else ever again for the rest of my life.

But even after that kiss, I tried my best not to fall in love with Grant Lockwood. I kept telling myself that this was what men like Grant did. They wined and dined you, but after they took you to bed, they quickly lost interest. As I fell deeper and deeper into the hole, I reminded myself of this fact.

Grant was a fling. Nothing more.

About eight months after that first dinner in the French restaurant, when we found ourselves dining in that very same restaurant. I ordered the same chocolate soufflé that I had been dreaming about since that first evening together, and while we were waiting for it to rise sufficiently in the oven, Grant dropped his napkin on the floor.

"Let me just pick that up," he told me.

I was surprised. Grant wasn't usually clumsy. While he didn't have much time for sports with his busy schedule, he had a natural athletic grace. Stumbling or dropping things wasn't par for the course for my boyfriend. But a second later, he was on the floor—except it wasn't to pick up his napkin. Grant was down on one knee.

"Alice." He gazed into my eyes as the woman sitting at the table next to ours gawked at us with palpable jealousy. "These last eight months with you have been the best of my life. I would be honored if you would make me the happiest man alive. Will you marry me, Alice?"

I had a huge lump in my throat that made it difficult to talk. But all I needed to get out was one syllable. "Yes!"

The wedding took place six months later. Neither of us had much family, so we decided not to make it a big affair. Then we moved into his big, sprawling house with the five bedrooms, planning to fill them with children.

I had never been so happy in my entire life. No, Grant wasn't absolutely perfect—he worked long hours, and I didn't get to see him as much as I would have liked—but he was very much the man of my dreams. Every night, I fell asleep wondering what I had done to get so lucky.

I had no idea my husband was a monster.