“Nothing happened the way Rowan is making it look.”
“How long?”
“Axton was confused.”
“How long?”
She looked toward the window.
“Nine months.”
The number entered the room without drama.
No music.
No breaking glass.
Just my sister’s voice and the refrigerator humming behind her.
Nine months meant the affair had begun before Axton and I chose our wedding date.
Before she helped me try on dresses.
Before she cried while fastening our mother’s veil into my hair.
“Did you love him?” I asked.
Mila’s eyes filled.
“He said he loved me.”
“That was not my question.”
“Yes.”
I let the silence stretch.
She began filling it exactly as my lawyer had predicted.
Axton had approached her after a family dinner.
He told her he felt trapped by the expectations surrounding him.
He said I was kind and dependable but did not understand the pressure he faced.
Mila understood.
Mila was spontaneous.
Mila made him feel alive.
Every compliment he gave her had been built from an insult about me.
“Why did he marry me?” I asked.
Mila wiped her face.
“His board was voting on the chief executive position.
His mother thought marrying you made him look stable.
Your work with the hotel foundation had impressed several directors.
They liked you.”
I stared at her.
Axton had encouraged me to volunteer with the foundation.
He had praised my judgment, asked me to help prepare presentations, and brought me to dinners where directors questioned me about community programs.
I thought he was proud of me.
He had been displaying me.
“He said the marriage would not change what we had,” Mila continued.
“He said after the vote, he would find a way out without destroying anyone.”
“Except me.”
She flinched.
“He was going to make it gentle.”
I laughed once, because the phrase was so obscene.
“Was whispering your name in my bed part of making it gentle?”
Mila covered her mouth.
“He told me that did not happen.”
“You texted me before I told anyone.”
“Axton called me that morning.”
There it was.
Not only had he known exactly what he said, but his first instinct after I disappeared had been to warn her.
“What did he tell you?”
“He said you might accuse us.
He told me not to panic and not to contact you unless you contacted me first.”
“But you did contact me.”
“I was scared.”
