"Oh my, what's my little sister-in-law hiding here? Let me have a look!"
Maggie snatched the envelope while I wasn't paying attention, and I flew at her in a rage.
"Why so nervous? Don't tell me some secret lover sent it to you."
"Maggie, unless you want your dirty little business dragged out for everyone to hear, give that back to me."
She hesitated for a second, but my tone was too frantic. She could tell whatever was inside mattered a great deal to me, and the more it did, the more curious she got.
"Trying to scare me? I'm not afraid of you."
With that she started to tear it open. I lunged and ripped the envelope back, pulling out what was inside and stuffing it into the lining of my clothes. The instant she saw Nolan, she flung herself backward and dropped.
"Gwendolen, have you lost your mind?"
Maggie crumpled boneless into his arms, trembling all over.
"It's all my fault. Some man sent her a letter, and I was only worried she'd do something foolish. I just wanted to show it to you. But she got so nervous she shoved me."
He narrowed his eyes, his gaze lingering on me for a moment.
"Apologize to Maggie."
"I didn't shove her!"
"If Maggie says you shoved her, then you shoved her. Apologize!"
I didn't give an inch.
"Why should I apologize to her? I've never owed her a thing. You're the ones who owe me. I won't apologize to her. She's the one who should apologize to me, and I'd take that just fine."
Nolan hadn't expected the weak wife he knew to be this hard, and for a moment it threw him.
"You shove someone and you think you're in the right?"
"I told you I didn't shove her. Believe it or not, that's up to you."
There was no point wasting explanations on them. Two days left. I meant to make my final preparations.
Nolan saw me packing, and something about it sat wrong with him. He checked and rechecked, only to find the relocation roster was still the original one, untouched.
I knew he'd been watching me the whole time, but I ignored him. After all, the only use Nolan had to me was being Edward's father. The day he lost even that use, he could vanish from my world completely.
"In two days we leave. Here's some money for you. As long as you don't cause trouble, I'll send you money every month."
I opened the bankbook and looked. Of the original three thousand dollars, only a hundred was left. Maggie walked up to us holding the two thousand-odd she'd taken.
"Nolan, why not just leave it for her?"
I looked at the two thousand-odd in her hand. I had saved that up over eight full years.
"No need. A hundred dollars will feed the two of them a long time, and I'll send them money every month too. You're more delicate, you have more expenses. Keep it."
"Nolan, you're really something."
I hurled the bankbook straight at his face, and I threw it so hard it landed with a loud crack. A man like him could never stand that kind of humiliation.
"That's enough. Otherwise you won't even have grocery money each month. If you were smart, you wouldn't fight me. The only one who loses is you."
"Nolan, I hope you can comfort yourself the same way once you get to the Capital."
He watched me walk away, teeth grinding, and yet a strange unease crept over him, though he couldn't say where it came from.
Since being reborn, my attitude toward him had changed completely. All these years I'd had nothing but him, and it was exactly that which had emboldened him to treat me this way, certain I couldn't live without him.
He glanced at my luggage, gave it a kick as if the sight of it offended him, and only then did the knot in his chest loosen a little.
By evening Edward still hadn't come home. Not only him. Maggie, Curt, and Nolan hadn't come back either. My heart kept pounding, and I couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to happen.
