When he saw it was me, Vincent's expression shifted, and he pushed Hazel behind him.
"It's this late. Why aren't you sleeping? What are you wandering around for?"
I pressed a hand to my chest and dragged out a mocking smile.
"Watching you and your little maid play your games, of course."
"Vincent, is this why you brought her home?"
"Is doing this with her how you have her atone?"
His face darkened. He gestured at his own clothes. "We didn't do anything. Do you have to be so snide about it?"
"Nothing? If I hadn't opened this door, you were about to do everything, weren't you?"
"Enough, Faith! It's late. You should go back to bed!"
He grabbed my wrist and tried to drag me back to the bedroom.
His grip was strong, and it hurt where he pulled. I wrenched my hand free, my voice raw.
"Vincent, let's get a divorce."
He froze for a few seconds, as if he hadn't expected me to say the word.
"Out of the question. I promised your grandfather I'd take care of you for the rest of your life. Can't you stop being so difficult?"
"Difficult?"
I choked the word back out at him.
How could any of this be me being difficult?
Vincent and I were a business marriage.
At first I hadn't wanted it. But Grandfather was hanging by a thread, and his last wish before he died was to see me settled with someone good.
Vincent swore to Grandfather that he would take care of me.
So I married him.
It was only after the wedding that I learned Vincent had an ex-girlfriend he could never quite cut loose, Hazel Simmons.
He would hold my hand and promise me, over and over, that the two of them had broken up long ago, that it was only Hazel who kept clinging to him. He said he would handle it, that he would never put me in a difficult spot.
I believed him.
After all, Vincent was the man Grandfather had chosen for me.
I trusted Grandfather's judgment.
But I never imagined that when I was six months pregnant, Hazel, furious that she couldn't win Vincent back, drove her car straight into me.
"Divorce, Vincent. Since you think I'm being difficult, let's divorce."
There was more resolve in my voice now.
He knit his brows, irritated, still trying to coax me around. But Hazel, beside him, gave a cold laugh.
"Divorce? You still don't know? Your marriage certificate is fake."
The air went silent. I looked at Vincent in disbelief.
He closed his eyes. This time he didn't lash out. He told me calmly instead.
"Things have gotten to this point. You'd have found out sooner or later. Our marriage certificate really is fake."
"Back then, with the business marriage, my parents forced me to accept you. But by then I'd already gotten a marriage certificate with Hazel."
"Later my parents threatened me. If I didn't stay with you, they'd go after Hazel. I had no choice but to accept you. The marriage certificate between you and me is fake too."
"Faith, all these years, I can tell you plainly, I've come to feel something for you. I kept looking for a chance to tell you the truth, but there was never time..."
