The day my husband chose to save his secretary's dog over our daughter in a fire—the day my little girl burned alive with no one coming for her—was the day everything changed.
People in our circle noticed it almost immediately. I stopped obsessing over where Garry Sanchez was every hour of the day. Stopped showing up at his office with home-cooked meals to mark my territory. Stopped paying reporters to run puff pieces about our perfect marriage.
Even when his secretary came to our door for the tenth time to provoke me, I just sat there, eyes fixed on my daughter's portrait. "Do whatever you want."
Garry scoffed. "Should've learned your place a long time ago."
What he didn't know was that in three days, I'd be on a flight to start a new life abroad. I wasn't being obedient. I'd simply stopped loving him.
——
Kayla Coleman swept the dishes I'd just prepared off the table, her shrill voice cutting through the room. "Ida Swanson, if you know what's good for you, you'll get away from Garry. Otherwise you'll end up just like that worthless daughter of yours—dead before your time!"
My pupils contracted.
Ever since Lily Abbott died in the fire, every servant in the house had walked on eggshells. No one dared mention her, terrified of setting me off.
But Kayla planted her hands on her hips and kept going. "You don't know this, do you? I was standing right there at the door that day. I saw everything. Your little girl—she'd barely learned to talk—was screaming and crying, calling out for her daddy, begging someone to save her. The blood from her hands stained the window glass red. And Garry still chose to save my dog."
"Shut your mouth!" My expression went dark, and I slapped her so hard she hit the floor.
Kayla wasn't angry. If anything, she looked triumphant, casting a deliberate glance over her shoulder.
Right on cue, Garry stormed in, not bothering to ask what happened. "Ida, if you have a problem, take it up with me. Why do you always have to go after Kayla?"
A wave of revulsion rose inside me. This scene was so familiar—an echo of every time Garry had taken her side over mine.
Garry and I had grown up together. Our families were equally wealthy, and our parents had arranged our marriage when we were children.
But life had other plans. My parents died in an accident, and the Swanson family declared bankruptcy overnight. The Sanchezes refused to honor the engagement. It took Garry kneeling outside their front door for three straight days and nights—kneeling until his knees became so infected the doctors warned of amputation—before his family finally relented.
After the wedding, I was happier than I'd ever been. Garry was attentive to every detail of my life. When doctors discovered I couldn't conceive due to a cold womb, he told his family he was impotent—a man with that much pride, lying to protect me from their pressure.
When the Sanchezes pushed me to try IVF, Garry was so worried about what I'd have to endure that the very next day, he made a show of scheduling a vasectomy.
I was the one who dragged him out of the operating room. I'd been so moved I could barely speak. "Garry, I want to have a child with you. Willingly. Happily."
All of that happiness ended the moment a female secretary appeared at his side.
Garry offered little explanation. He said Kayla Coleman had once saved his life, and he owed her a debt. So he traveled the world with her. Strolled with her through candlelit evenings. Walked with her in the rain.
I lost my mind. I became hysterical, paranoid, suffocating. And all it earned me was Garry siding with her, again and again and again.
Then, last week, the fire broke out. Lily was trapped in her bedroom. Garry charged into the blaze and was about to wrench open her door when Kayla appeared out of nowhere.
"Garry, our puppy is still inside!" Tears streamed down her face like rain on white petals. "He's the only family I have left. I can't lose him. Please, forget about the baby for now!"
I wanted to wrap my hands around her throat. "A dog or a human life—which one matters more? Garry, save our Lily! She's your own flesh and blood!"
"Garry, you promised our puppy was the most precious thing in the world. You can't just abandon him!"
