Chapter 34
His expression stormy, Harrison sank into the bathtub, enduring the scalding water. He’d told the housekeeper countless times: the water should be exactly 104 degrees Fahrenheit.
The aromatherapy candles were supposed to be lit ten minutes before he entered. Harrison leaned his head back against the leather bath pillow, only to notice the lights in the bathroom were all wrong as well.
“Tsk.” Such a simple routine, and in seven years, Selene had never missed a detail.
Harrison drew a deep breath, forcing himself to be patient. Just a few more days, he reminded himself, and Selene would be back.
The next morning, Selene picked up her phone to find a message from Manager
Holt.
“Miss Thompson, are you sure you want to put the entire six million into the stock market?”
“I’m sure,” she replied. “Please buy as soon as the market opens.”
“Alright.”
Holt sent another note: “Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Selene opened her laptop and pulled up the stock analysis program she’d written herself.
According to her model, the domestic market was about to rebound from rock
bottom.
When the market opened, the stocks she’d asked Holt to buy started climbing.
Selene had barely closed her/laptop when her phone rang again.
She glanced at the screen.
Unknown caller.
She’d been sending out résumés lately, and didn’t want to miss a call from HR, so she answered.
“Hello, ma’am? It’s Nadine.”
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Nadine’s voice came through the line.
“Do you know where Mr. Harrison’s red cat’s eye cufflinks are?”
Before Nadine could finish, Selene hung up.
What did Harrison’s cufflinks have to do with her anymore?
Selene headed to the kids‘ room to check on Daph’s homework.
Before long, the landline started ringing in the empty living room, the sound echoing in a way that gave her goosebumps.
Selene got up, strode over, and yanked the cord out of the wall.
She hadn’t even made it back to the kids‘ room when the doorbell rang.
She opened the door to find the building’s concierge, who silently handed her his cell phone.
She had no choice but to take the call. An icy, glacial male voice sounded in her ear: “Where’s the refill for my usual body wash?” Harrison’s tone was laced with
annoyance–she hadn’t replaced it before he ran out.
“Harrison, did you find it yet? I’ll just use some soap if I have to,” Felicity’s voice piped up in the background, only then realizing Harrison was on the phone.
“Are you calling Selene? She’s going to get the wrong idea! Never mind, never mind, I’ll skip the shower!”
Back on the line, Harrison explained/“Felicity spilled breakfast on herself while eating with Dames.”
He was justifying himself, but the subtext was clear: he was reminding her that Selene, as Dames’s mother, was, shirking her responsibility.
“Harrison, we’re divorced. Could you please stop calling me?” Selene’s patience was running thin..
He replied, “The Vaughn family’s last nanny had a three–month handove left.”
Sometimes you just had to laugh at how ridiculous things got.
hen she
Harrison–if you never respected me, why did you marry me? You pulled me into your world, made me run myself ragged for you, gave you my loyalty, made me watch myself fall for you like a fool, only for you to stand aside and sneer at my
Chapter 34
background, my experience, mocking everything I ever gave you as if it meant nothing.
“Why don’t you wait until you’ve found yourself a new wife? Then you two can handle the handover together. Man–child. Absolute moron.”
“What did you just say?!”
“If you can’t find your body wash, try dunking your head in the tub and giving it a shake. With all those bubbles in your brain, it should be enough to wash the whole family!”
“Don’t know where your cufflinks are? Why not pop out your eyeballs and use those instead?”
“You’re unbelievable! Our son’s been weaned for ages–how come you still haven’t managed it?”
Chapter 35
