2: 2
The call had barely ended when Beatrice sent Giles another message.
【Giles, we agreed on this from the start. Once my sister has the baby for us, you divorce her. So when?】
【Rainey's still nursing. Let's at least wait until the baby's two.】
【Then promise me. She's had the baby now, so from now on you don't touch her.】
【I know, my jealous little thing.】
My hands and feet went cold as I read them going back and forth.
So all his begging for me to remarry him was because Beatrice wanted a baby.
But she was afraid of the pain, and afraid of losing her figure.
So he came up with the idea of letting me carry it instead.
【Nanette's one of us, we can trust her. Once the baby's born, I'll divorce her and take custody.】
I laughed out loud, all at once.
And as I laughed, my throat began to tighten.
For three years, everyone had said Giles loved me more than his own life.
He'd drive four hours round trip in the middle of the night to buy the fruit pastries I suddenly craved.
When I ran a high fever, he'd work and watch over me at the same time, three days and three nights without closing his eyes, and once my fever broke he was the one who collapsed.
When my legs cramped during the pregnancy, he'd rub my calves every night before bed, and only after I fell asleep would he slip out to the living room to ice his own aching, sore knuckles.
So all that tenderness was the wages he paid me, his little tool.
The joke of it was that I'd felt sorry for him, going to work and taking care of me and the baby both, so I'd handed in my resignation, planning to stay home and raise our child.
Lost in it, I heard the message tone go off again.
【I saw you gave her a necklace in the bedroom a couple of days ago. Didn't you say you bought it for me?】
【If you want it, I'll just buy you another one.】
She was getting worked up now.
【That's not the point! You promised that to me. Why would you give it to her?】
【And last time, you said you'd take me to a movie, and then because she got a clogged duct you drove halfway across the city looking for a lactation consultant for her, and I waited until the movie was over and you never showed up.】
【Aren't you being too good to her?】
This time he was quiet for much longer before he answered.
【Beatrice, whatever else she is, she's still your sister, not your enemy. In the end we're the ones who wronged her. I'm only making up for it.】
Reading his words, I felt nothing but the irony of it.
Beatrice was supposed to be the closest person I had.
Our parents died too young, and I'd taken on the burden of raising her when I was very small, which was how I grew into someone mature and steady.
Back then Giles had said he loved how quiet and reserved I was, then after he met Beatrice he changed his tune and said a girl ought to be lively and bright.
It wasn't that I hadn't noticed the special way he treated her.
But when I told him to keep his distance from my sister, he only smiled and ruffled my hair.
Told me not to be petty, that she was going to be his little sister-in-law.
What came afterward was so dramatic that I hadn't let myself think about it for a long time.
They grew closer and closer, close enough to share a single straw.
The first time we married, even for the wedding rings, he insisted on picking the style she liked.
On our first anniversary, I walked in on the two of them tangled together, and Beatrice didn't tell him to stop. She just fixed her eyes on me and stared.
When I demanded, half out of my mind, to know why, her voice was very soft. She said, “An older sister is like a mother. You should share everything with me. All of it.”
And he, he kept Beatrice tucked behind him and said nothing, offering no defense.
I couldn't bear that the two most important people in my life had betrayed me.
I divorced him and blocked both of their numbers.
I thought our paths would never cross again as long as we lived.
But he threw himself into getting me back so completely that I softened again.
Thinking of all this, I laughed like a fool, and the tears kept falling.
I really was stupid. Stupid enough to believe he'd changed, stupid enough to want a heart that was true.
But peel back the disguise, and it had rotted through long ago.
Thank goodness there was still time.
