I Apologized

POV: Ava

Sharon was right about one thing. I would have worn that stupid dress just to please Dillan. That's how stupid I was, so foolishly in love with a scumbag.

This time, the dress they sent stayed in its box.

I chose my own, dark green, well-cut, nothing anyone could later describe to a room full of strangers as the outfit of a woman sneaking off to meet somebody. I did my own hair. I clipped the recording, backed up now to my lawyer's server and a drive under my maiden name, and I booked an emergency meeting with the one person who could help me get back my contract and my company.

I had a few hours before that meeting. I decided to spend them exactly the way I used to, right up until the moment I couldn't stand pretending anymore.

I went downstairs, and for the first time in years, I walked into my own kitchen without being told I shouldn't. I wanted tea. Green tea, nothing complicated, something simple I could make with my own two hands without Sharon hovering over me with her clipboard, telling me what I should and shouldn't be putting in my body.

I had stopped coming in here after Dillan brought her into the house, and I still remembered exactly how he'd explained her presence to me, like he was doing me the greatest favour of my life.

"Sharon's here to help you lose some weight. She's a nutrition expert. She'll only give you food that's good for you."

I had been too tired to question it at the time, running myself ragged between the company and Dillon and a husband who complained about everything I cooked. So I had believed him.

How stupid I had been.

I poured the hot water and watched the steam curl up out of the cup, letting myself have a few seconds of quiet before everything started up again.

For ten years, I let them walk all over me, I thought, taking a slow sip. Not anymore.

Footsteps came down the hall, and Sharon walked in with two of the maids trailing behind her. The second she saw me standing there with my own cup of tea, she stopped dead, and for half a second something genuinely surprised crossed her face before the usual sweet mask slid back into place.

"What are you doing in here, Ava?" she asked, all warmth. "You should let me handle breakfast. I can send it up to your room."

I looked at her over the rim of my cup, studying that innocent expression I used to trust completely. It was the same smile she'd worn across my kitchen table twice a week for six months while she filled my body with whatever kept me exactly where she wanted me.

"Thanks for everything you've done, Sharon," I said pleasantly. "But starting today, I'm making my own meals. I'll eat what I want, when I want."

"But Dillan said—"

"Dillan is my husband," I cut in, calm, and set my cup down on the counter. "You're his employee. So I'd suggest you remember your place, and stay out of my personal affairs."

The kitchen went completely still. The maids exchanged a look. Sharon's face coloured, just slightly, the way it does when someone isn't used to being spoken to like that.

Good.

I wanted her rattled. I wasn't going to give her a reason to think I knew everything, not yet, not before this afternoon's meeting was locked in, but I could give myself this much.

A few minutes later Dillan came in with Dillon, and Sharon rushed toward him with the wounded look she'd clearly perfected over years of practice.

"Dillan," she said, "I was only trying to help her, and she was so rude to me."

Dillan looked at me with the same tired disapproval he always did. "She's only trying to help you," he said, like he was scolding a child. I almost laughed out loud.

Of course. Always her. Always him taking her side.

"She can keep helping you and Dillon," I said, keeping my voice level even though my pulse was going hard under my skin. "Actually, let her take over everything."

Dillan frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Meals, schedules, our son, whatever she's been so eager to manage," I said, picking my cup back up. "Just keep her away from me. I don't need her help anymore."

Before Dillan could answer, Dillon stepped forward, his face twisted up the way it always got right before he said something designed to hurt.

"You're so fat and mean," he said. "Stop being horrible to Sharon or I'll stop calling you Mum."

A year ago that sentence would have taken the floor out from under me. I had spent a decade trying to earn that boy's love. This morning, after everything I already knew about who he actually was, it barely touched me at all.

Not today.

I turned to him and smiled, calm and even. "That's fine, Dillon."

He blinked, clearly braced for me to fall apart.

"You can call Sharon Mum from now on," I said. "In fact, whenever you need one, go to her. Don't come to me."

Everyone in that kitchen froze. Sharon crouched down beside him fast, all soft concern. "He's just a child, Ava, you shouldn't take it to heart."

"Then he should learn that words have consequences," I said, and didn't look at her again.

I picked up my bag and my laptop, done wasting time in that kitchen. "I've heard enough," I said, and turned for the stairs.

"Ava." Dillan's voice stopped me halfway there. I turned around.

"What?"

"You owe Sharon an apology."

For one very dangerous second I wanted to tell him exactly what I thought of him and his precious Sharon, in detail, in front of the maids, in front of Dillon, in front of God. I didn't. I couldn't afford to look like a different woman than the one they thought they knew, not with hours still left before that meeting could close the case shut for good.

So I gave them the version of me they expected. Eyes down, voice soft.

"I'm sorry," I said to Sharon. "I didn't mean it. Bad morning."

She smiled like she'd won something. "It's alright. I understand."

"Good." I pressed two fingers to my temple. "I've got a headache. I'm going up to rest."

Dillan waved a hand at me, already turning back to his phone. "Fine. Go rest."

I climbed the stairs slowly, keeping my face perfectly blank until I was almost at the top, and then I heard Sharon's voice drift up behind me and stopped, flattening myself against the wall where they wouldn't see me listening.

"Dillan," she said. "Do you think she suspects anything?"

My heart gave one hard knock against my ribs.

Dillan laughed. "Ava? She's too dumb to notice anything." A pause, and then, lower, uglier, "She's probably just trying to get my attention. Wants me to touch her. She's a sex-starved pig, remember?"

Sharon laughed softly. "She was acting a bit strange this morning."

"Don't worry about her," Dillan said. "She's still exactly who she's always been."

I stood there another second, letting it settle, and then I kept climbing, and by the time I reached my room a small, cold smile had found its way onto my face.

They really thought I was stupid.