Chapter Five: Matrimonial Indeed     

Chapter Five: Matrimonial Indeed  

The car horn startled me awake, and I sluggishly walked to the window before my eyes were fully open.  

I saw Edward's car door swinging open and him stepping out.  

My stomach dropped.   

I let the curtain fall and stepped back. My hands were unsteady, and I looked down at them. I felt I was a bit nervous, though I didn't know why.  

I sat on the edge of the bed and pressed my hands flat on my thighs and breathed. I was not going to let him see me shaking.   

I waited for his footsteps on the stairs.    

They did not come.    

I got up, opened the bedroom door, and sneaked into the hallway.    

Margaret's voice floated up from downstairs, sweet as poison.    

"So she is back. Isn't it time for her to leave?" I said in a low voice.   

My blood went cold.    

Then I heard footsteps, fast, and coming up the stairs toward me.   

Immediately, I ran.    

I hadn't run like that in almost two years and my lungs reminded me just how long it had been. I made it to the bed and dropped onto it just as the door flew open. I clamped one hand over my mouth, my chest heaving as I tried to look like I had been sitting calmly the whole time.    

Edward walked in and the look on his face told me Margaret had already gotten there first.    

"Why did you fight my mother?"    

Not a question. A verdict.    

"What do you mean by that?" I kept my voice even. "Your mother came here to fight me."   

"Excuse me." He stopped walking. "Are you trying to say my mother is lying?"   

"I didn't say that."   

His jaw was tight. Eyes steady, hard and waiting.    

"Fine." I sat up straight. "Your mother walked into this room and told me I was lazy, that all I know how to do is spend your money. I tried to leave to avoid a problem...." I paused, searching his face for any reaction, any flicker at all.  

Nothing.   

His expression remained completely flat.   

"Then what?" he said.  

"Then she pushed me. The vase fell and broke. I got a cut on my leg and your mother didn't even look back. She just hissed and walked out like I was nothing."   

He looked at me for a long moment.   

Then he walked past me, sat on the edge of the bed and reached down to pull off his shoes.   

"Next time be more polite to her."   

The words landed like a slap.  

"....Just like that?"   

He pulled off the second shoe, and set it beside the first.    

"Edward." My voice came out quieter than I wanted. "Don't you think you should at least tell me when your mother is coming? So I can prepare myself?"   

"I didn't know she was coming either." he replied, sounding tired  

"Then why didn't she tell anyone?"  

"My mother doesn't need permission to visit," he replied without looking up.   

"I’m not talking about permission." I picked up the wrapped vase pieces from the corner where I had left them all day. "I am talking about a simple heads up. One message. So I can prepare myself mentally before she walks through the door."   

Two seconds of silence.   

"She'll be going back tomorrow."    

I looked at the back of his head. Completely unbothered. Already done with the conversation before it was over.   

I shut the door and went to dispose of the vase.  

---   

I came back to find Margaret on my bed, her shoes off and her head resting against my pillow, her legs stretched across my side of the mattress… like she had personally paid for it. Steam curled from under the bathroom door.    

I walked in and sat at the edge.   

"Hey." Her voice was sharp and immediate. "Leave this room, you can sleep in the guest room."  

I turned and stared at her. "....What?"   

"I want to spend the night with my son."   

"In our bedroom." My voice stayed flat. "On our matrimonial bed."   

*Matrimonial,* something in me said. *Matrimonial indeed.*  

The bathroom door opened. Edward came out, towel around his neck, looked between us a,nd I watched his face do the calculation instantly.   

"Babe," he said gently. "It's just one night."   

I could see him silently asking me to be reasonable, to compromise, to shrink just a little more, just this once.   

I had been shrinking for a very long time.  

"Fine," I said.   

I grabbed my pillow and left.  

Margaret did not even watch me go. 

---   

I sat on the floor outside our bedroom door, with my back against the wall, pillow across my lap, and tried to understand how I had arrived here.  

Outside my own bedroom.   

On the floor.   

While my husband's mother slept in my bed.  

*I know mothers and sons can be close,* I thought. *I have never had a problem with that. But this has a completely different name.*    

Their voices came through the door. Low at first. Then Margaret's sharpened just enough.  

I leaned on the door to listen clearly, and what I heard broke every single thing that was holding me together.