The air had turned cold and still, right up until Mia came walking over, her shadow stretching ahead of her.
“Please don't fight over me. I won't move in here, and I won't take anything that belongs to the Sheridan daughter-in-law.”
She slid the jade bracelet off her wrist,
and held it out to me.
I didn't reach for it.
I stepped around her and walked away.
Mia suddenly grabbed my hand, trying to press the thing into my palm.
Then her grip loosened,
and the bracelet dropped to the floor, breaking into pieces.
Mia knelt down to gather them up,
a few tears falling to the floorboards.
“I'm sorry. You have every right to be angry……Marion, please don't misunderstand things between Silas and me. Yes, we were once engaged, but that was a long time ago.”
A shard cut into her finger,
and Mia pulled her hand back with a wince of pain.
The next second, Silas had her hand cradled in his palm.
Silas stared at the string of blood beading at her fingertip,
his eyes cold enough to freeze,
and that look settled on my face.
“Mia didn't ask for a single thing, yet all night you've done nothing but go after her.”
“Do you have any idea that Mia's hands are for playing piano?”
I met his eyes without hesitation.
“You won't even hear a word of explanation?”
“What's left to explain? I've seen all of it with my own eyes.”
In that moment, Silas was terrifyingly calm,
and yet something dark seemed to gather all around him.
“Apologize. Admit you were wrong.”
At once I thought of him in that alley, of his fist coming down again and again on that man's face.
I took a step back.
“I'm sorry.”
Mia started to stand, then stumbled and fell back into Silas's arms.
“Marion……”
“Don't call me that. I don't have a sister.” I looked at her coldly.
“From the moment I walked in, you've never once called me his wife. That's because you still want to marry Silas.”
The color drained from Mia's face in an instant, and she waved her hands.
“No, that's not it. I never meant to break up your family……”
She clutched at Silas's sleeve, at a loss.
“Marion didn't break the bracelet on purpose. Let it go, please. Can't we just not fight?”
That one sentence was enough to thaw some of the chill around Silas.
He glanced at the broken pieces on the floor.
“I'll have it repaired for you.”
“That won't be necessary.”
I looked at Mia, curled up in his arms.
“First thing tomorrow morning, let's get divorced.”
I was done playing this sickening game.
Silas's expression didn't change.
His arm tightened around Mia, enough to make her frown without thinking.
“Over one little thing, you're threatening me with divorce?”
I said nothing and walked straight out of the courtyard, meaning to get in the car.
The driver blocked my path and gave a slight bow.
“Ma'am, Mr. Sheridan said you can't leave until tomorrow morning.”
I dug out my phone. The signal outside the gate was weak,
and the old estate was so remote it was nearly impossible to call a car.
It seemed I wouldn't be able to reach a lawyer until tomorrow.
I walked back inside,
into the room that had originally been prepared for Silas and me.
I gathered my clothes and moved them into the room next to Silas's.
I'd barely set my things down
when the housekeeper came in, his face full of apology.
“Ma'am, this was the master's old room. It can't be used without permission.”
Only then did I notice
that, compared to the other rooms, this one did carry a certain age.
Spotless as it was, you could still feel time itself frozen inside it.
I walked over to the long table inside, where a small cabinet with a lock sat.
It was an old-fashioned lock, the kind you had to turn to the right combination to open.
I thought for a moment, then dialed in 0205.
‘Click!’ The lock opened.
Seeing this, the housekeeper hurried out behind me.
