"Silly girl. Am I not good to you now?"
"From the moment you got pregnant, I swore to myself I'd lay down my life to keep you and our child safe."
His eyes reddened as he spoke, his voice thick with sincerity. "Babe, I know I shouldn't be leaving you right now."
"But she's my mother. She raised me all on her own. I can't bear the thought of her going through surgery overseas by herself."
"You've always been so understanding. You get it, don't you?"
I looked into those anxious, hopeful eyes and nodded.
"Of course."
"Her condition is serious. I'd never stand in the way of you taking care of her."
Brad let out a breath of relief.
"Marrying a woman as kind and reasonable as you is the greatest blessing of my life."
He gazed at me, his face full of tenderness, his eyes brimming with the same devotion I'd seen a thousand times before.
But I wasn't moved by it anymore.
I couldn't help wondering. All that love I'd been so proud of—how much of it had been real, and how much had been a lie?
When had it started between him and that woman?
While I was lost in those thoughts, my mother-in-law walked in.
She must have overheard our conversation. The moment she stepped through the door, her eyes were already rimmed with red.
"Jill, I'm sorry. I'm getting old, and I haven't been any help to you. Instead, I'm causing trouble at the very time you need someone by your side."
Her voice cracked. Tears pooled along her lower lashes.
I looked at her, a tangle of emotions knotting in my chest.
In all the years since the wedding, Jean Delgado and I had always gotten along well. Every year on her birthday, I remembered the date before Brad did, starting on her gift a full month in advance. When she mentioned that the old family house was falling apart, I emptied my savings without a second thought and hired a crew to renovate it into something beautiful. Last year, when she broke her leg and ended up in the hospital, I was the one at her bedside every single day—sponge-bathing her, feeding her, handling the bedpan.
She had held my hand that day, tears streaming down her face. "Jill, you are the best daughter-in-law in the world."
"If my son ever does anything to wrong you, I'll be the first one to make him pay."
I had believed her.
I thought sincerity would be repaid with sincerity.