Chapter 8
One night, Fred woke up again and noticed the other side of the bed was still empty.
He used to sleep like a rock, but now he was tossing and turning all night.
That weekend, he stopped by his parents‘ house. The moment his mom saw him, she frowned and asked, “Why do you look so worn out? You seem totally drained–are you feeling okay?”
He shook his head and brushed it off. “Just didn’t sleep well,” he muttered.
Sophie Burnett let out a sigh and started nagging. “You’ve always been like this. You never cared about your health. You socialized too much and stayed out late. It wasn’t until Tania came along that she slowly got you into a healthier routine…
“It’s only been a few days since your divorce, and you’re already falling apart again.”
She paused, then added, “No offense, but none of those girls out there are as good as the one you had at home.”
She was clearly upset that he and Tania had ended things without telling anyone.
Even though she never really liked the Dawson family, she genuinely liked Tania.
To her, Tania was kind, polite, and well–educated. But her son–he was a wild and careless playboy.
Fred had heard enough. He cut her off, annoyed. “What’s so great about her? She fooled all of you into thinking she was innocent! If she hadn’t set things up to push Pamela away, I would’ve never ended up marrying her.”
His face turned cold just thinking about it.
***
Back in college, Tania had been a year behind him. She always acted sweet and quiet, and he looked after her like a little sister. After she graduated, he hired her as his assistant and kept her close.
One time, after a night of heavy drinking at a business party, he booked a room upstairs to rest. Tania stayed behind to make sure he was okay.
At the time, he had just started seeing Pamela Smith. He hadn’t done anything wrong, so he told her what happened right away.
But Pamela dumped him. She said Tania had sent her a blurry photo of the two of them in bed that night, claiming they’d slept together.
Fred drank himself into a blackout and couldn’t explain a thing afterward.
He hadn’t even cared that deeply for Pamela–it was more about not wanting to feel left out when his buddies teased
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Chapter 8
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him at parties. Still, being betrayed by someone he trusted stung.
Not long after, for reasons even he didn’t understand, he asked Tania to marry him.
On their wedding night, when he saw blood on the bedsheets, it only confirmed what he believed–that she’d manipu- lated everything.
Did he ever care about her?
Maybe a little, once.
But after all that happened?
It was like she–and everything they had–died a long time ago.
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