Chapter 2

Back in the room, I started packing without saying anything.

Cashmere coats. Silk nightgowns. Bags there'd been a waiting list for.

Everything I couldn't make myself buy back when we had nothing, Adrian had gone out and bought.

The diffuser on the table held a scent he'd mixed himself. He'd even put the dark green curtains back, the ones I used to like.

For two years after he dragged me home, he'd almost looked like the boy who used to see nobody but me.

But I wasn't soft enough anymore to be talked around by a few nice gestures.

I packed only the clothes I'd had on the day they took me.

I'd barely gotten them into the case when Adrian walked in.

He caught my wrist, slid the garnet bracelet back on, and closed the clasp.

"Keep it on.

"You don't give it away again."

I looked up, honestly surprised. He'd gone and taken it back from her.

Then his eyes went to the suitcase and his face changed.

"That's all you're taking?"

"None of it's mine," I said. "There's no reason to take it."

That set him off again.

"If everything I bought you is worthless, then fine."

He called for the staff.

"Everything I ever bought my wife — take it out of this house.

"Burn it.

"From now on, if she wants to use anything under this roof, she asks Nina first."

I picked up the case and walked out without changing my expression.

At the turn of the stairs, somebody shoved me hard from behind.

I went down the steps. My knee tore open on an edge and the pain came up hot.

Ian stood at the top, looking down at me.

"You never got better at all. You were faking it.

"You're trying to turn Dad against Nina.

"I'm warning you. Go after her again and I'm done with you."

Then he saw the medal half out of my pocket, and grabbed it.

"Give that back."

I pushed myself up and reached for it.

I'd knelt three nights at the shrine for that medal. It was for my mother.

Ian held it up over his head, pleased with himself.

"Every time you go after Nina, I'll wreck something of yours.

"Then you'll learn."

He tore it off the chain and threw it over the railing.

Somewhere below, it hit stone and kept going.

The last thing holding me together gave way.

I slapped him. Once, hard.

My voice came out colder than I'd ever heard it.

"The thing I regret most in my life is giving you my own heart.

"If you love Nina that much, go ahead and call her Mom."

Ian stared at me.

I left him there and limped into the small staff room downstairs.

I'd barely started cleaning the scrapes when the door banged open.

Adrian came in furious.

"Mia, he's a child, do you really have to—"

Then he saw the bruises and the raw skin, and stopped.

"How did you get hurt like this?"

He lifted me onto the bed. His hands were gentler than I expected while he cleaned the cuts and wrapped them.

For a second I could almost believe it was years ago. My eyes stung.

"Mia."

He leaned in to kiss me.

I turned my face away without thinking.

He went still. Then he took my chin and made it happen anyway.

I tasted blood. I stayed where I was and let him, and a hundred small pictures went through my head.

When his hand moved, my stomach turned over.

I shoved him off, got to the edge of the bed, and was sick.

"Mia." His face was terrible. "You find me that disgusting?"

I wiped my mouth and kept my eyes down.

"Sorry. I'm not well.

"If you want somebody, go to Nina."

The hurt in his face was real. His voice shook.

"You're still pushing me at her?

"Mia, I've told you a hundred times. I never touched another woman after you left. I looked after Nina because your father asked me to before he died."

I looked back at him, calm.

"I believe you.

"There's nothing between you."

The vein at his temple stood out further. He kicked the wastebasket over and slammed the door behind him.

A while later my phone lit up. A video call from Adrian.

I hesitated, then answered.

It was the master bedroom. It was the two of them.

He'd set the camera so our wedding portrait was in the frame, so I'd understand it had been arranged for me.

Nina looked into the lens and let herself smile.

Adrian's voice came through, cold and deliberate.

"You won't believe me, so I'll make it true.

"Watch. You don't get to hang up."