As we continued toward home, Diego’s tone softened.
“Don’t be mad. She’s just a young girl, new at work, trying too hard to prove herself. When she digs her heels in, even I can’t change her mind.”
He chuckled lightly, a smile touching his eyes.
“She’s got spirit.”
Just as the car stopped in front of our house, he suddenly leaned over and kissed my cheek.
I didn’t move away.
From the back seat, our daughter piped up, “Mommy, Aunt Courtney smells really nice. She smells like Daddy.”
Diego’s smile froze in an instant.
I smiled as if nothing had happened. “Of course, Daddy’s car smells like him. What does that have to do with the auntie?”
“Oh.” She blinked, half-understanding.
I stepped out and carried her into my arms.
Looking up, Diego spoke in a flat tone, “If raising Madeline feels too much for you, I can hire professionals. She’s the pearl of the Powell family. Your carelessness can’t taint her.”
From the moment I married into this family, I had learned to stomach the cold indifference of the man beside me.
He had kept mistresses before. One-night stands, too.
The year our daughter was born, I lost control just once.
That was the first time I saw him truly enraged. His face went rigid, cold enough to pierce through flesh.
“Kelly, don’t forget, whatever I’ve given you, I can take away at any time.”
I thought of our daughter’s future. And in the end, that storm never even reached the shore.
It ended before it began, quiet as a whisper.
After that, I learned to stay in line.
No matter how often he changed women, he never forgot that he still had a family waiting at home.
Sometimes, I wondered, maybe that tenderness in his eyes when he looked at me was real.
I was his legal wife. Maybe, deep down, I truly was different from the others.
He built a tall, firm wall between our home and the world of singing birds and swaying willows.
I stayed behind the wall, pretending not to see.
They stayed outside, sharing one indulgent affair after another with him.
But Courtney’s appearance shattered that fragile line.
She wasn’t left outside. He invited her in. Brought her right in front of me.
After coaxing Madeline to sleep, I returned to the master bedroom.
He stood on the balcony, the night breeze brushing his sleeves, a faint smile on his face as he skimmed through something on his phone.
“All right, you’ve worked hard these past few days. Go rest early.”