Delphine stood in the bathroom, rinsing her fingers with cold water. The bleeding had stopped, leaving a dark crescent moon beneath her nail bed. She watched the water swirl down the drain, trying to recall when she last slept through the night. The cool porcelain basin pressed against her clenched fingers, anchoring her in the present material reality.
The jazz stopped. Someone paused the music. The sudden disappearance of sound was more deafening than a shout.
A stranger was reflected in the mirror above the sink. Sunken cheeks. Bruised shadows beneath her eyes, eyes once described as striking. Her hair hung limply, the bronze highlights dulled, as if rusted. She leaned closer, searching in the familiar geometry of her bones for the girl she once was. She looked exactly as she was: a woman worn down day by day by subtle cruelty, until even her own face became unfamiliar.
“Darling,” Griselda’s voice lowered, becoming cautious and tinged with hurt, “Did I do something to upset you? If I crossed a line, if Braxton said something—”
She turned off the tap and dried her hands with a towel that cost more than her mother's monthly rent. The action was mechanical. Everything in this apartment was mechanical now. Waking up. Sewing. Waiting. Enduring.
"You'll be with him tonight."
Her phone buzzed on the marble countertop.
Silence. Delphine counted her heartbeats, slowly and deliberately. One. Two. Three. She imagined Griselda's perfectly maintained hands gripping the phone tightly, and the gears in her mind raced, concocting new arguments.
Delfin ignored it. She went into the bedroom, past the bed that had been hers alone for three years, and to the bedside table where her phone was charging. The screen showed a text message from Griselda. She didn't need to open it to know what it said.
“Well—” Griselda held her breath, her words both dramatic and precise. “Our meeting at the club was purely coincidental. He was very upset about your argument, Delfin. I just stayed to comfort him. As family.”
She opened it anyway.
“As family,” Delphine repeated. The words tasted like the blood on her fingers. “I’m divorcing him, Griselda. I want you to be the first to know.”
Dear Delphine, my dear. Braxton mentioned he'd be home late. I hope he wasn't too upset with you about the dress. I told him you tried your best, but of course, I'm worried you're taking on too much. Maybe you could manage your time better? Anyway, he promised to come home early tonight to be with you. You're so lucky to have him.
Silence spread. Delphine could hear her sister's rapid, shallow breathing as she weighed the pros and cons.
Delphine read it twice.
“You can’t.” Griselda’s voice changed. The warmth was stripped away, revealing something harder beneath. “Think about what this will mean for Mother. What it will mean for the family’s reputation. You will destroy everything we’ve built.”
The words now arranged themselves into familiar patterns, though it had taken her years to decipher them. That tender concern that positioned her as a loser. Words reminding her of Braxton's presence in Griselda's life, yet taken as comfort. Passive attacks delivered with practiced precision, designed to make the victim apologize for the bloodshed. The last word, always the last word, redefining her imprisonment as fortunate.
“What we built,” Delphine said. “Interesting wording.”
She remembered the scent of his cologne on his jacket. The coral stain on his collar. The way he said Griselda's name, like a command yet also like a caress.
“Don’t be so dramatic.” Griselda’s words were now faster, urgent and pressing. “You’re tired. Exhausted. Let me call Braxton, we’ll handle this—”
Your best. Your best effort. Griselda said this in this very bedroom three years ago, crying, explaining why she could never marry Braxton Morton.
“You’re afraid,” Delphine said. The realization came calmly, like a letter she’d been waiting for. “Not afraid of the scandal. Afraid of losing him. Afraid of losing control over both of us.”
“He’s too good to me, Delphine. Too successful, too kind. I’ll only be a burden to him. But you—you’re so capable. So steady. You can make him happy in ways I could never do.”
“That’s absurd.” But Griselda’s breathing became rapid and unsteady. “I sacrificed my happiness for you. I gave you everything—”
Delphine had believed her. She had believed that her sister's tears were real, that the sacrifice was sincere, and that she had received a gift, not something that filled a void.
“You gave me your leftovers and called it charity.” Delphine stood up, gripping the phone tightly until her knuckles turned white. “Enjoy that dress, sister. Find someone else to bleed for it.”
She walked to the wardrobe and took a black duffel bag from the shelf. The movement stirred the dust under the recessed lights. She hadn't traveled in three years. When every trip was undertaken alone, whether for business or leisure, and without explanation, she no longer needed luggage.
She ended the call and tossed her phone onto the bed. It bounced and landed next to Braxton's pillow, which he had never slept on.
She packed methodically. Three pairs of jeans she'd bought herself, already worn down at the knees. Five cotton shirts, none of them from the designer brands favored by the Braxton family. Her sketchbook, filled with designs that would never be commissioned. A small toolbox she'd assembled before her marriage: fabric scissors, a measuring tape, and a leather pincushion her father had given her before his death.
Delphine picked up her bag. The weight was off—too light, too utterly light. She had expected to feel something. Perhaps fear. Sadness. Instead, there was only the same cold clarity that enveloped her in the living room, the feeling of a door that should have been locked years ago finally closing.
She left the jewelry behind. The diamonds, a gift from Braxton like a contract, were never worn. The pearls Meredith insisted she accept felt heavy as an accusation. Everything with a price tag remained in its velvet box. Leaving them felt like shedding a layer of lead armor. She ran her fingertips over the velvet case one last time, not with longing, but with a definite sense of satisfaction at a debt being forgiven.
She walked down the corridor, past the closed doors of Braxton's study, past the formal dining room where she had dined alone for eight hundred nights. The elevator waited at the end of the corridor, its brass fittings gleaming with an air of indifferent wealth.
The zipper closed with a sigh-like sound.
Her finger throbbed faintly where she had stabbed herself. She pressed her thumb against the wound, embracing the pain. It meant she was still alive. It meant she could still feel something real.
Delphine sat on the edge of the bed and dialed Griselda's number. The ringtone was jazz, some expensive, niche tune. Griselda had chosen it herself; she had explained the artist's importance, and Delphine nodded in agreement, eager to join in.
“Delfin!” Griselda’s voice poured from the receiver, warm as honey, and as caring as a mother’s. “Are you alright? I was just thinking about you.”
"No," Delphine said.
The jazz music continued softly in the background. Delphine could picture the apartment: Griselda's own penthouse, smaller than Morton's, but more tastefully furnished. White orchids on the piano. Carefully arranged bookshelves. A photograph of the three children—Griselda, Delphine, and a boy who had moved to California—Griselda had framed it as a testament to her sentimental heart.
“I won’t finish that dress,” Delphine said.
