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everything.
    In a fit of rage, Carter thought of a way to hurt Avery the most. He proposed to Julia as part of an overall plan that was supposed to end with him taking Connor away from Avery. He hadn’t been able to bring himself to that yet, because, despite trying desperately, he still felt something for Avery that prevented him from hurting her to that degree.
    â€œI have tried,” Julia said, shaking her head. “I have tried to make you love me, make you forget about Avery, but you won’t.”
    â€œAvery is the mother of my daughter,” Carter said. “But I’m marrying you.”
    â€œBut you love her.” Julia’s voice sounded as if she was on the verge of tears.
    Carter was not in the mood for another self-pity session. “I don’t want to talk about her!”
    â€œDo you think I do?” Julia asked desperately. “How can I ignore her when I see you look right through me whenever she is around?”
    â€œYou’re getting what you want,” Carter shouted as he shot up from the bed. He zipped his pants back up, looking down at her. “Let’s not fool each other, Julia. You want me more for what I can give you access to than my heart.”
    Julia’s expression flattened. “I want it all, Carter. Is that so wrong?”
    Carter turned his back to her, headed for his balcony. “No one gets it all, Julia.”
    Carter welcomed the fresh air as he stepped out onto his balcony. He wondered how he was going to manage this. He didn’t love Julia, but love had ripped him to shreds. He wasn’t going to let it do that again. He had always assumed that he would find someone to share a life with, because he wanted what his parents had. Whatever their faults, Janet and Steven had shown their children, through example, what a loving marriage was. But after Avery, Carter had just come to accept that this kind of love was very rare, and it wasn’t going to happen for him.
    It hurt just to think of how foolish he was to believe that he and Avery could stay as happy forever as they were for that short time. He was filled with regret and was sick to his stomach playing over and over in his mind whether or not every step he made was right or wrong and what could have been if he’d chosen differently. He had admitted to all his missteps, his lies and deceptions. None of it mattered. She still left him, and he doubted that she ever really loved him.
    Â 
    That morning, Avery was just closing a deal with a customer for a Nubian princess sculpture created by a seventeen-year-old artist from Compton when Carter walked in. He had that all-too-familiar look of contempt on his face as he darted right for her. She quickly thanked the customer and promised to have the piece delivered in two days. Carter had done this before, stormed into Hue, the art gallery owned by Avery’s mother, Nikki, and interrupted Avery with some gripe or another. He never cared that there were customers around.
    â€œWhat are you doing here?” he asked as soon as he reached the counter.
    Avery noted the $5,000 gray suit he was wearing. “You came all the way down here from L.A. to ask me why I’m here? I work here, Carter.”
    â€œNot on Tuesdays,” he said. “I’ve been calling your cell phone for two hours.”
    Avery reached into the back pocket of her jeans, expecting to find her cell phone, but it wasn’t there. “I must have left it in my purse in the back room. What’s wrong? Is it Connor?”
    â€œHow in the hell would I know?” Carter asked loudly. “I’m frantic wondering what is going on with my daughter, and—”
    â€œOur daughter,” she corrected. “And she’s with my mother.”
    â€œI found that out,” Carter said, “after I called her. Dammit, Avery. You don’t work on Tuesdays. You’re supposed to be taking care of OUR daughter.”
    â€œFor your