Melissa quickly added, “Chris, if you feel guilty, then rent a place in the city for Nadine. She can live there with Matty. It is better than squeezing in with all of us anyway.”
Chris had been hesitant, but after hearing that, he finally agreed. He gripped my hand tightly, his eyes filled with guilt and tenderness. It brought to mind the day he learned I was quitting my job to go back to the countryside.
But I no longer knew whether that tenderness was real or fake.
Silently, I took out our marriage certificate and handed it to him.
Ten years of foolish devotion, every last piece of it, had turned out to be nothing more than a dream mistaken for reality.
A guest’s dream, destined to dissolve into smoke.
What I did not expect was for Gemma to burst into tears suddenly.
She hobbled toward me, her wrinkled hands cupping a pair of heirloom bracelets.
“Nadine, our family has wronged you. These bracelets were given to me by Chris’s grandmother. I am giving them to you now.”
With watery eyes, she gently slid them onto my wrists, her fingers softly brushing over the calluses on my hands.
I let her hold my hand, emotions swirling chaotically beneath the surface.