Chapter 2: Something Wicked in Her Smile

Julian blinked, caught off guard, then scowled. "Mom, why would you even come here? It's Aunt Chloe's birthday. Dad only planned this whole thing to make her happy. Don't ruin it."

Naomi almost laughed.

Almost. What came out instead was quiet, and bitter, and tired.

This garden. This house. This had been her wedding venue once, seven years ago. And now her own son was asking why she dared show her face at another woman's proposal.

"Relax," she said. "I'm not here to ruin anything. I'm here to make sure it actually happens."

She lifted her chin and found Ethan's eyes across the fountain the same eyes she'd loved since she was nineteen years old and too naive to know better.

"Divorce me, Ethan. I'll set you and Chloe free happily. I only want one thing in return. Lily comes with me."

The garden went dead silent.

Everyone here had watched Naomi love this man since their college years. Everyone here knew about the twins. Nobody not one person in that crowd expected her to file for divorce in the middle of his proposal to someone else.

Chloe's mouth curved, brittle and careful. "Naomi, I think there's a misunderstanding. This this ceremony, it was just something Ethan and I talked about as a kind of closure. It doesn't mean anything. Think of Julian. You can't actually mean to divorce him."

Ethan's jaw tightened. "What is this performance, Naomi?"

Julian's small face stayed ice-cold. "Mom, are you sulking again? Could you maybe work on that instead of making scenes? Honestly, you're not even fun to be around anymore. All you ever do is tell me what I did wrong. Aunt Chloe's better company than you."

Lily, standing quietly at her mother's side, rolled her eyes at her twin. "You're a wolf wearing a sheep costume."

Naomi's chest hollowed out. She had carried this boy for nine months of a pregnancy so hard the doctors nearly lost them both she remembered going into premature labor the night she heard, secondhand, that Ethan had gone to the airport to welcome Chloe home. She had bled for this family. Stayed awake for this family. Put her own body between danger and this family more than once.

And her son looked at her like she was an inconvenience he'd outgrown.

She took Lily's hand and looked at her son one last time.

"Julian. I know you don't want me. I know you'd rather have Chloe. I spent years telling myself that was something I could fix. I'm done trying."

Her voice went flat, almost gentle, in a way that was somehow worse than shouting.

"From here on, you get to choose who raises you. The Blackwood housekeeper, or the woman Chloe's always dreamed of becoming either one can have the job. Pick whoever you like."

She had spent years pouring herself into her husband and her son, sometimes forgetting the quiet daughter who never once asked her for anything.

That ended tonight.

She was done being Mrs. Blackwood in name only, tolerated by a husband who barely looked at her and a son who'd learned to be ashamed of her.

She didn't linger. She turned and walked toward the gate, Lily's hand warm in hers.

Behind her, Ethan's voice cracked through the quiet, sharp with something that might have been anger, or might have been the closest thing to alarm he allowed himself.

"Naomi. It's a proposal ceremony. That's all it is. Don't make this into something with Julian watching."

Just a proposal ceremony.

Something she and Ethan had never once had themselves.

Her heart twisted, then went cold and still. "I'm fixing something for both of us. Julian won't have to be embarrassed by a mother from nowhere anymore."

She didn't look back again.

Behind her, Chloe pressed a hand to her collarbone, eyes wide and wounded. "Ethan, this is my fault. I didn't think she'd take it so hard. Let me go after her, I'll explain"

"Don't." Ethan's voice was flat, controlled. "This isn't about you. She's overreacting, the way she always does."

Julian nodded along, already comforting Chloe like it was his job. "Don't worry, Aunt Chloe. Mom would never actually divorce Dad. Besides, Dad's too busy for her drama right now he's got the whole Sinclair project riding on this quarter."

He said it with the easy confidence of a kid who'd grown up eavesdropping on boardroom conversations he was too young to fully understand.

Nobody in the crowd thought twice about the comment.

Everyone in Crestview knew the Sinclairs. Old oil money, older influence even families like the Blackwoods answered to a phone call from that house. Three formidable sons and a daughter they'd taken in, and every one of them sharper than the last.

Whatever tantrum Naomi Hart was throwing tonight, it wasn't going to matter next to something like the Sinclair account.

"She's got a soft heart, that one," someone murmured. "Give her a few days and she'll be back here apologizing to Ethan."

"Where else would a girl like that have to go?" another voice added, not quite low enough. "Small-town girl, no family, no money of her own. She needs the Blackwood name a lot more than it needs her."

Ethan said nothing, which everyone took as agreement.

Seven years of this exact pattern had taught him what to expect: she'd storm off, she'd cool down, and within a week she'd be standing in his study with her head bowed, apologizing for a fight that was never really her fault to begin with.

Given her circumstances no family, no leverage, nothing but the Blackwood name to her credit how long could she really keep this up?

A divorce wasn't something a woman like her could simply *decide.

The scene of Naomi's exit took some of the shine off the party. People drifted, murmuring, and Chloe lingered near the fountain, clearly hoping to stay the night.

Ethan's voice, when it came, was gentle but final. "Grandfather doesn't like overnight guests here. It would upset him if he found out."

Something in Chloe's expression flickered hurt, quickly smoothed over. She didn't push. Instead she turned and pressed the proposal bouquet into Julian's arms.

"I won't be staying tonight, sweetheart. I know it's hard to say goodbye, so keep these safe for me, would you? Just until next time."

Julian remembered, vaguely, his mother's warning about pollen. He hesitated for half a second then beamed and nodded. "I'll take good care of them, Aunt Chloe. Promise."

What does Mom know, anyway. If it were actually dangerous, Aunt Chloe would've said something. This was the first time she'd ever trusted him with anything of hers.

He never touched the allergy medication his mother kept refilled in his nightstand. He hadn't touched it in days. And that night, after hours curled around a bouquet of white roses, hives bloomed red and furious across his arms and throat.

"Daddy it itches it really itches"

He was in tears, clawing at his own skin by the time Ethan came running.

Ethan barked for the housekeeper to bring the emergency kit. She returned empty-handed, wringing her hands. "Sir Mrs. Blackwood keeps all of Julian's medication. I don't know where she keeps the spare."

Ethan called Naomi. The phone rang and rang into silence.

Something ugly moved across his face not quite guilt, but close enough to unsettle him.

She'll throw a fit over anything, but she can't be bothered to answer for her own son?

"Get the doctor. Now."

Julian's reaction, thankfully, wasn't severe an antihistamine shot and it began to fade, the doctor lecturing them both about allergen exposure on his way out the door.

Once the medicine kicked in, Julian's sniffling took on a different tone resentful, sulking. "This is Mom's fault. If she hadn't made a scene and gone crying to Grandpa, Aunt Chloe could've stayed and none of this would've happened."

Grandma always says people who grow up poor never learn to let things go.