Chapter 2
The next morning, I woke to an empty space beside me, cold to the touch. Lucas hadn't come home all night.
I sat up in bed. Sunlight sliced through the gap in the curtains, casting a harsh blade of light across the floor.
No anger, no sadness, my heart was terrifyingly calm.
The door opened, and Lucas walked in, still carrying the chill from outside. He looked terrible, with dark circles stamped beneath his eyes.
He tossed a bank card onto the nightstand. "There's twenty thousand in there. Go get your prenatal checkup. Buy whatever you need."
His tone was cold, distant, like he was dealing with an inconvenience.
A while ago, that would've shattered me. Now, I just found it pathetic.
"Mom, Dad's not ignoring you. He stayed up all night coding, and his boss shot down his project. He's just in a bad mood." The voice in my head piped up right on cue.
So work went south, and he came home to take it out on his family.
I lifted my gaze, arranging my face into a mask of concern and tenderness. "Honey, did something happen? You look exhausted."
Lucas blinked, caught off guard. He looked away, his voice clipped. "Work stuff. Don't worry about it."
I didn't press. I just quietly picked up the card. "Okay. Go take a shower and rest, then. I'll have maid Lily get breakfast ready."
My easy compliance and gentleness seemed to ease something in him. He grunted and headed into the bathroom.
I watched him go, smiling coldly to myself.
When things went wrong at work, that made it okay to cheat and dump all one's stress on one's wife? What a selfish man.
*****
The doorbell rang while I was drinking my milk. Lily answered it, and a moment later, Evelyn's syrupy voice drifted in.
"Serena, I came to check on you. I heard you weren't feeling well yesterday, so I made you a gift."
Here she was. Faster than I expected.
I set down my glass slowly and watched her walk in, toting a thermos. She'd dressed for the part today, white dress, loose hair, delicate makeup.
But I knew exactly what kind of poison hid beneath that sweet face.
"Evelyn, what are you doing here?" I asked, making myself look surprised as I stood.
"I was worried about you." She looped her arm through mine with practiced intimacy, setting the thermos on the table. "And Lucas really shouldn't upset you, not in your condition."
Her tone was full of reproach, but it was also a subtle flex. All words were designed to remind me who really belonged in this house.
Her eyes swept over me, gleaming with smug contempt.
She said, "Serena, you haven't been sleeping well, have you? You look awful. A woman really should take better care of herself, you know. Otherwise, you age fast, and then you can't keep a man interested."
Her words were so deliberate. My hands curled into fists at my sides.
"Mom, she's lying. There's a urology clinic report in her bag. She was going to hide it in our house and make Dad look sick, so you'd have to divorce him," my baby said.
My pupils contracted sharply. This woman was even more vicious than I'd thought. She was willing to destroy Lucas's reputation just to get what she wanted.
I took a slow breath, forcing down the fury building inside me. Then I pressed a hand to my mouth and gagged, face crumpling with discomfort.
"Serena, what's wrong?" Evelyn asked, all false concern.
"Nothing, I think the smell is making me queasy," I said weakly.
I stumbled, my shoulder accidentally knocking the table. The thermos toppled and hit the floor, brown liquid splattering everywhere.
"Oh," Evelyn shrieked.
"I'm so sorry, Evelyn, I didn't mean to," I apologized frantically, bending down to clean it up.
As I crouched, my elbow just happened to knock her purse off the sofa.
It landed with a snap, spilling its contents across the floor, lipstick. compact, a folded white slip.
I grabbed it before she could. "What's this?" I unfolded it with innocent curiosity.
The moment I read it, my expression shifted from confusion to shock to deep concern. "Evelyn, you're not feeling well? Why were you at a urology clinic?"
The color drained from Evelyn's face.
She had never imagined her carefully laid trap would be exposed like this.
"No, l-let me explain," she stammered, lunging for the paper.
"Explain what?" The voice came from the bathroom doorway, ice-cold.
Lucas stood there in his bathrobe, hair still dripping, his face carved from stone. His eyes were fixed on the paper in my hand, a storm gathering behind them.
Evelyn went rigid.