From the back seat, his mother leaned forward, pearls gleaming. “Honestly, Elena. Stop dramatizing everything. Devon has obligations.”
Elena didn’t respond. She had learned silence was sometimes armor.
Patricia continued anyway. “If you’d kept yourself together, perhaps he wouldn’t feel the need to seek appreciation elsewhere.”
Something inside Elena went cold and steady. Not hurt—clarity.
Devon answered the phone this time. Elena watched his face soften, watched warmth return to him in a way she hadn’t seen directed at her in months.
When the call ended, he spoke without hesitation. “We’re going to pick her up.”
It wasn’t a suggestion.
“What about me?” Elena asked.
“You stop centering yourself,” Devon replied.
Patricia smiled.
Rain streaked across the windshield, stretching the highway lights into blurred lines. Elena remembered the woman she used to be—the one who apologized to keep peace, who swallowed disappointment and called it love.
That woman was gone.
Devon had married Elena believing she was ordinary. A receptionist. Quiet. Undemanding.
He never asked questions.
He never wondered why bills were always paid, why doors opened for him, why life with her felt effortless.
He assumed the ease was his doing.
He didn’t know about Antonio Martinez.
He didn’t know about Apex Automotive.
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