“WHAT?!” Charles exploded, sitting upright as though the words had physically shoved him.

On the other end, Amelia didn’t flinch.

“You heard me.”

“You are comparing me to him now?” His voice trembled with disbelief. “After everything you said about that man?”

“I’m not comparing you,” she replied evenly. “I’m stating a fact.”

“A fact?” he barked. “That you prefer your ex-husband?”

“At least,” she said carefully, “he didn’t make me feel like an ATM.”

The sentence hit harder than the previous one.

Charles laughed, a short and disbelieving laugh.

“Wow. So that is what I am now?”

“You tell me,” she said. “Since I arrived in the Bahamas, you...