M Jane Colette

Consequences (Of Defensive Adultery) M Jane Colette

Twenty-five-year-old Elizabeth did not plan to break up his marriage when she had an affair with her law school professor. But she did. Fifteen years later, she's still coming to terms with the consequences of her youthful infatuation: trying to love a stepdaughter who hates her, financially and emotionally supporting an ex-wife who will never forgive the betrayal, and enduring the relentless overtures of a sister-in-law who's determined to be her best friend. As her sister-in-law plunges into a reckless affair and her stepdaughter aggressively explores her sexuality, Elizabeth finds herself forced to reconsider her definition of love, commitment, and responsibility--a process that finally releases her from the shackles of her past mistakes and shows her the way to her own happily-ever-after.



TEASER

"What's that?"

--This? Nothing. A photograph.



He looks at the photograph, and demands a story I don't want to tell.



"Isn't this what all women want? A lover who as passionately interested in the quotidian details of their boring, dysfunctional lives as in their desirable bodies?"



No. Not me. Or do I? I start to talk. I tell him about... about all of them. And, inadvertently, me. Things I've never put into words for anyone before...



"That's the game you and I are playing. Do you not know that? I am looking for the key. You're trying not to give it to me. But you want to play, and so you keep on talking, and so eventually, you will."



I'm careful not to say too much. I am not going to take my sociopathic lover of the moment into the tragedy of my life.



"Why not? Tragedy is erotic. The things that make you laugh don't arouse, lover. Check yourself."



Really? I'm doing this? Why?



"Because you want to. Because you're compelled. Does it matter? Just talk."



So. I do.