She did not tell Damian about Vanessa's visit.
She thought about it that evening when he came home and found her quieter than usual and asked if she was alright with the careful attentiveness he had been showing more freely lately. She almost said it then. Almost told him about the white dress and the practiced smile and the things said on the terrace that had burrowed in and made a home in the quieter parts of her mind.
But she did not.
Partly because she did not want to seem threatened. Partly because some of what Vanessa had said was true and she was not ready to examine that out loud with him yet. And partly because there was a version of this conversation that ended with Damian feeling guilty and overexplaining and she did not want that either.
She wanted to think first.
So she s
