Page 71 of My Husband’s New Fiancée

She’s on the verge of a breakdown.

And I know I’m partly responsible for it.

“Dante... please come home. Whatever’s happening, we can talk about it. Don’t shut me out... I know everything feels confusing right now, but don’t forget: she left. She abandoned us.”

My jaw clenches.

My grip tightens around the steering wheel.

I want to defend Valeria. Tell Bianca what Stephen revealed to us...

But Valeria’s coldness toward Bianca flashes through my mind, and I stay silent.

I don’t understand what happened between them. And somehow, talking about what Valeria went through without her consent feels like betraying her all over again.

“I have to go, Bianca. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Wait, Dante—”

I end the call.

She calls back immediately.

I don’t answer.

Yeah.

I’m an asshole.

But I need silence.

There was a time when Bianca filled the emptiness. She kept my thoughts from swallowing me whole. She was comforting.

Now she suffocates me. She keeps me from thinking.

I leave Paris and drive toward Giverny.

*

The gates open almost immediately after I ring the bell.

I barely step out of the car before my mother appears on the front steps.

She opens her arms, and I go to her without an ounce of shame.

Her embrace is firm and gentle. She doesn’t ask a single question.

She’s simply there.

There has only ever been one woman I loved more than her, and she came back from the dead only to blow my life apart.

When my mother finally lets me go, she studies my face.

“How is she?”

I know she doesn’t mean Bianca.

“Not well.”