Breaking Point
901 Words
CHAPTER 4
Three weeks had passed since our agreement started.
Three weeks of eating breakfast together. Three weeks of Richard coming home for dinner most nights. Three weeks of small conversations that never went deeper than the weather or the news.
But it was more than I had ever had before.
I was folding laundry in my room when Patricia knocked on my door.
"Grace. Come downstairs. We need to talk."
Her voice was cold as always. I followed her down to the sitting room where Judith and Annabel were waiting.
"Sit," Patricia ordered.
I sat.
"I've been patient with you," she began. "I've allowed you to stay in this house even though you have no right to be here. But this nonsense has to stop."
"What nonsense?"
"This pathetic attempt to make my son care about you. These dinners, these breakfasts, pretending to be a real wife."
"Richard agreed to it."
"Because you manipulated him!" Judith snapped. "Your guilt tripped him into giving you three months."
"I didn't manipulate anyone."
Patricia stood up and walked over to me. "Listen carefully. My son loves Victoria. He has always loved Victoria. You are nothing but an obstacle that we've tolerated for too long."
"I'll be gone in three months."
"That's not soon enough. I want you out of this house now."
"Richard agreed to three months. I'm staying for three months."
Patricia's hand came out of nowhere. The slap was so hard my head snapped to the side. My cheek burned, and my eyes filled with tears.
"How dare you talk back to me!" she screamed. "You ungrateful, worthless girl! We gave you a home, we gave you everything, and this is how you repay us?"
I stood up, my hand on my burning cheek. "You gave me nothing. You've made me feel like trash from the moment I walked through that door."
"Because that's what you are!"
"Then why do you care if I stay for three more months? If I'm so worthless, why does it bother you?"
Annabel jumped up. "Because you're embarrassing us! Everyone knows Richard is going to marry Victoria. Everyone knows you're just... temporary. Do you know how humiliating it is to explain why our brother is still married to you?"
"That's not my problem."
"Get out!" Patricia screamed. "Get out of my house right now!"
"It's not your house. It's Richard's house."
"I am his mother! Everything he has is because of me!"
"Then ask him to throw me out. Because I'm not leaving until the three months are over."
Patricia moved toward me, and I stepped back. But before anything could happen, a voice cut through the room.
"What is going on here?"
Richard stood in the doorway. His eyes moved from me to his mother to my red cheek.
"Did you hit her?" he asked Patricia quietly.
"She was being disrespectful."
"Did you hit her?" His voice was louder now, harder.
Patricia lifted her chin. "She deserved it."
Richard's face went dark. I had never seen him look so angry.
"Get out," he said to his mother.
"Excuse me?"
"All of you. Get out. Now."
"Richard, she..."
"I said get out!" He was shouting now. "This is my house, and I will not have you putting your hands on my wife!"
Patricia's mouth fell open. "Your wife? You don't even love her!"
"That doesn't give you the right to hit her. Get out of this room before I say something I'll regret."
The three of them left, but not before Patricia gave me a look that promised this was not over.
Richard walked over to me. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine."
"Let me see."
He tilted my face gently and looked at my cheek. His touch was soft, careful. Nothing like the way he usually kept his distance.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I should have said something sooner. The way they treat you... it's not right."
"You never cared before."
"I know. But I'm saying it now. This stops…Today."
I looked up at him. "Why are you defending me? You don't... you don't care about me."
He was quiet for a long moment. "I made a promise to Emmanuel. That I would take care of you. I haven't kept that promise. But I'm going to start now."
"Because of the agreement?"
"Because it's the right thing to do."
He let go of my face and stepped back. "I'll talk to my mother. She won't touch you again."
"Thank you."
He nodded and started to leave, but I called out to him.
"Richard?"
He turned back.
"Why did you really agree to the three months?"
He looked at me for a long time. "I don't know," he said finally. "Maybe because you were brave enough to ask for what you wanted. Or maybe because I was tired of pretending you didn't exist."
"And now?"
"Now I'm trying to figure out who you are. The real you."
He left before I could respond.
I sat down on the couch, my heart racing.
For the first time since we got married, Richard had defended me. For the first time, he had called me his wife like he meant it.
Something was changing between us.
I could feel it.
And it terrified me.
Because in less than three months, I would have to leave. And the more real this became, the harder it would be to walk away.
- Writer
