"I promise you, there is nothing between Jesse and Edith. Nothing physical ever crossed the line!"
"He has always been faithful to you!"
Faithful.
The word turned my stomach.
That kind of faithfulness, I didn't want any part of.
I pushed past Michael and went home.
Every corner was saturated with Jesse's presence. And with his lies.
I opened the closet and started packing.
At the very bottom, my fingers brushed against a box.
Inside was a white dress shirt, stiff with dark, rust-colored bloodstains.
Jesse's.
Five years ago, that monster of a professor had cornered me in his office. Jesse burst in like a man possessed.
He beat the professor until bones cracked, and took five knife wounds himself. He nearly died.
I'd kept this shirt all these years, a reminder that he had once loved me enough to die for me.
Now it just looked like a joke.
My phone rang, cutting through the silence. Jesse.
His voice was brimming with excitement.
"Lucretia! The investor roadshow was a massive success! We landed the biggest deal yet!"
"I'm reaching out to specialists overseas right away. Your dad's surgery is going to happen!"
I listened to the triumph pouring through the speaker and let out a quiet, bitter laugh.