His hand slid automatically to my waist again, but this time it wasn’t heated. It was anchoring, grounding me to him as he pulled me to him and when he laid his head against my chest, I wrapped my arms around him.
The silence stretched.
The adrenaline hadn’t fully left my system. My hands were still trembling faintly.
“That was…” I started.
He huffed once. “Embarrassing?”
“Violent.”
His hands flexed against my hips, then he pulled back and tugged me to join him. I sat on the edge of the bed. The height made everything feel slightly removed from reality. Like we were looking down on the world instead of standing in it.
“I always thought they hated each other,” I said slowly. Maddy definitely didn’t like Muriel, it was more of a feeling than a certainty. She never talked about them—any of them. Not where I heard it, but she would have a look on her face when they came up. “They would have to… But that…”
That was so ugly, clearly filled with years of festering resentment exploding into fists. Maddy had slapped me before, more than once. But I’dneverseen her come so utterly unglued before.
Archie scrubbed both hands down his face and then leaned forward, elbows on his knees as he blew out a breath.
“I grew up with that,” he said. The delivery of those five words worried me more than their content. He wasn’t being dramatic or defensive, if anything, his tone was just flat. These were facts.
My head turned sharply. “Like that?” I could accuse Edward and Muriel of being neglectful, but I’d never seen them?—
“It wasn’t physical, at least not with them. That demands a great deal more passion than either ever invested in me.” His mouth twisted and my heart sank. “The cold war has been going on for a long time.”
That felt so much worse and I hated that for him. Maddy was a terrible mother and she blew hot and cold, but at least I knew when I pissed her off.
I wrapped an arm around him and leaned against his back, just wanting to hold him. “I don’t understand how they’ve all just been living like this,” I whispered. “What your mother said—about my mother—coming in and out of their relationship.” Until the past few weeks, I’d had no idea.
Archie let out a short laugh that wasn’t humor. “Because none of them think they’re wrong.”
I thought about my mother downstairs. The way she’d looked when Edward saidmy wife. The way she’d flinched — but not retreated.
I swallowed. “Maddy lied to him,” I said quietly.
Archie stilled.
“She lied to Eddie,” I repeated. “About me. About the timeline. About everything.”
Silence.
Then—
“I know,” he said on a long sigh. “But Muriel lied to him too. Clearly, Edward needs to work on his judgment.” It was the resignation that cut at me, all over again. I was furious with Maddy, but Archie couldn’t even seem to muster up that energy because this betrayal wasn’tnew.
That wasbeyondwrong.
I rubbed my cheek against his shoulder. “You knew?”
“I suspected,” he corrected.
His gaze shifted to the wall, not at me. “Edward normally doesn’t move without information. If he married Muriel thinking she was telling the whole truth… he’s either more reckless than I thought or he chose not to look.”
My stomach twisted.
“We need to tell him,” I said, about Maddy. About me.
That got his attention.
