“Amelia Vance!”
I hadn't gone more than a few steps when Xavier caught up.
I stopped and turned around.
The narrow, cramped passage held only the two of us.
The air was so heavy it was almost hard to breathe.
Xavier stared at me, his eyes dark.
“You said just now that Dora and I brought this on ourselves?”
“Let me throw that right back at you. Our marriage turning out like this—that's what you brought on yourself!”
For a moment I just stood there.
A few seconds ago, I'd actually thought he'd come after me to apologize.
I never imagined he'd come to twist the blame onto me instead.
Only then did I realize how laughable that hope had been.
He saw the shock and hurt on my face, and it didn't move him at all.
“The youngest captain the airline's ever had. You must be pretty proud of yourself.”
“You think you did that on your own? Let me tell you, it was the money I invested in your company!”
“I helped you reach your dream, and what did you do for me?”
“How many meals have you ever cooked for me? How many business dinners have you shown up to? Have you ever done a single thing to help my career?”
“Do you even remember you're my wife?”
It was like resentment he'd been storing up for a long time finally had somewhere to go, and the loathing in his eyes was something he couldn't hide.
“All the things a wife is supposed to do, the things you never did—Dora did them for me.”
“Even on business trips abroad, she worried I wouldn't take to the food, so she'd humble herself asking the hotel to lend her a kitchen and cook for me with her own hands.”
“Only beside her do I feel what a home is supposed to feel like!”
Every word was a needle, driven into my heart one after another.
The road to becoming a captain—yes, my family had given up a great deal for that dream.
But I never forgot that Xavier had a bad stomach, and every time I came back I fought through the jet lag and exhaustion to make him a bowl of chicken soup with my own hands.
When his investments failed, I emptied out every bit of my savings to cover the hole, and I applied for the maximum overtime the company allowed, all so I could earn a little more and help him get back on his feet.
And there was one thing I never told him.
I should have made captain long before he ever put money into the company.
But the day before my evaluation, his angioedema flared up. I stayed at the hospital and looked after him for a week without sleep, and I missed it.
I was afraid he'd blame himself, so I never brought it up—and I never imagined it would let him believe I'd only gotten here because of him.
He faulted me over and over for not washing his clothes, not cooking, not playing the social game for him.
And he was blind to everything I'd given to him and to this family.
He never once spared a thought for how much pressure and torment I carried, every single flight, with hundreds of lives resting on my shoulders.
My heart went cold, all the way through.
And still Xavier wasn't done.
“You're not just a failure as a wife, you're a failure as a mother too!”
“You saw how frantic Dora was over Felix just now. Doesn't it make you ashamed of yourself?”
“So I didn't go to Nora's funeral—but didn't you go straight back to work the second it was over? Did you feel any grief at all over Nora's death?”
“Deep down you think it's a good thing Nora died, don't you—finally rid of the dead weight that was dragging down your career!”
Crack!
I couldn't hold back a second longer, and my hand cracked across his face.
At our daughter's funeral, Xavier's absence as her father had put something strange into the way everyone looked at her portrait.
Yet he felt not the slightest shame. Instead he read the worst possible motive into me, using our daughter's death to excuse his own affair!
I stared at him, my eyes gone red.
Xavier worked his jaw and let out a sneer.
“Fine. You can't do wife, you can't do mother—surely you can at least do captain?”
“Divert like a good girl. Don't try anything. If one thing goes wrong with Felix, I'll make sure you never work in aviation again!”
“And those keepsakes of Nora's you treasure so much—I'll burn every last one of them!”
Every sentence tore another gash straight into my heart.
Looking at Xavier, for one instant I felt dazed.
Ten years of love, and only now was I finally seeing him clearly.
My dream and my child were nothing to him but bargaining chips, things to hold over me for the sake of his mistress and his illegitimate son.
I closed my eyes and pushed down the sting behind them.
“Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to that boy.”
“But that doesn't mean I'm answering for your affair.”
“I'll divert because it's a captain's duty—to see every passenger safely back to the ground.”
