"Mom, meet my new secretary. Bold, isn't she? No stage fright, no matter how big the occasion."
"Her nerve is impressive," he continued. "Daring to come to a place like this."
My mother's expression darkened. She hadn't expected Jesse to be this brazen—parading his mistress in front of his mother-in-law.
My blood ran cold. "Jesse. That's enough."
I could tolerate his disrespect toward me—I extracted tangible benefits from our arrangement. But I wouldn't let him humiliate my mother. She had treated him like her own son for a decade.
Jesse didn't care. He grinned, his eyes gleaming.
"I heard your husband had a penchant for secretaries too. Caused quite the scandal. Nearly divorced you over it." He paused. "But don't worry, Mom. I won't go that far. As long as Tessa stays obedient, she can keep the title of Mrs. Gilbert forever."
My father's infidelity was my mother's eternal wound—the shadow that had darkened my entire childhood.
Jesse knew this. He used it as a punchline.
The boy who once wept in my arms ten years ago is dead, I thought. The stranger before me shares his face, but none of his soul.
The disappointment cut colder than the betrayal.