Free The Ultimate Betrayal by Kimberla Lawson Roby

be with Brad, but she also thought about her pledge to drink a shake for her last meal of the day. “If you don’t mind, I’d rather not. I’m trying to cut back as much as I can.”
    “You can order something healthy. Baked fish, veggies. I’m sure they have much more than steaks on the menu.”
    “Yeah, but I don’t want to be tempted by food I don’t need.”
    “You’re not obsessing over your weight again, are you?”
    “No, I just don’t wanna eat badly this week.”
    “Okay, fine. We can just have dinner here. I can pick up something on the way home.”
    Melanie hadn’t planned on telling him yet, but she figured now was as good a time as any. “Until I lose all this weight, all I’m having is a salad for lunch and protein shakes for breakfast and dinner.”
    Brad raised his eyebrows. “Protein shakes? And that’s all?”
    “That’s the plan.”
    “Well, what weight is it that you need to lose exactly?”
    “Brad, please. Don’t pretend you don’t see all these bulges.”
    “I don’t.”
    “You must be blind, then.”
    “Wait a minute. Didn’t you say you had lunch with your mom yesterday? Was she trippin’ about your weight again?”
    “It’s not about her. I decided to make these changes over the weekend.”
    “Have you looked in the mirror lately? Because if you get any smaller, you’ll be skin and bones.”
    “I only have eight more pounds to go.”
    Brad dropped down on the bed. “Baby, why have you always been so unhappy with the way you look? Especially when you look fine. I mean, so what if you have a few bulges. I don’t see any, but if you do, you can fix that with toning.”
    “I have to lose the weight first.”
    “Is that why you still won’t change clothes in front of me? Why we never make love unless the room is dark?”
    Melanie no longer wanted to talk about this. “Let’s just leave well enough alone, okay?”
    “Baby, I’m not trying to upset you, but not wanting to be naked in front of your own husband isn’t normal. Especially when you don’t have a thing to be ashamed of. Plus, I wouldn’t care if you were thirty pounds overweight, I would still love you just the same.”
    “I don’t expect you to understand.”
    “I really don’t.”
    “And you probably never will, but this is something I have to do for me.”
    Brad raised his hands in defeat.
    Melanie turned toward the doorway. “I’m heading downstairs. You want any breakfast?”
    “Thought you were having a shake?”
    “I am, but I can still make you something.”
    “Don’t worry about it. I’ll get something on my way to the office.”
    Melanie knew he was angry, but she left the room anyway. There was no sense arguing about something Brad couldn’t comprehend. He’d never had a weight problem and could eat whatever he wanted, so how could he possibly understand how she felt?
    When she walked through the kitchen, she filled the coffeepot with enough water to make six cups and pushed the Start button. She was glad she’d already inserted the paper filter and poured in the coffee grounds the night before.
    She took her multivitamin and then drank her premixed protein shake, which tasted delicious. So far so good. Yesterday, she’d stuck to her plan and she’d lost two pounds, and now she felt energized. She knew that once she finished her workout, she’d feel even better.
    But suddenly, out of nowhere, her mother’s words struck her again and she didn’t feel so great. “ You’re looking like a size ten again .” Melanie sat down at the granite island and thought back to her childhood. Her parents had argued all the time, and while she’d hated listening to them, it hadn’t compared to hearing the names her dad used to call her. Miss Tubby, Miss Butterball, and Mellie Melon. He would laugh out loud about it and hadn’t seen a thing wrong with what he was saying, and as Melanie had gotten older, her self-esteem had diminished little by little. Her mother had never thought