“And yet you still had the nerve to drag that relationship out for months,” Maeve reproaches.
Nerissa presses her lips together. Because yes, that’s exactly what she did. During those months of silence with Seraphina, she desperately tried to convince herself she could move on. Daphne appeared at exactly the right moment: confident, attractive, and emotionally available. A London auditor who never understood why the famous orthopedic surgeon at Hale Medical seemed so distant, even when she was lying naked beside her.
At first, it was easy. Fancy dinners, sex, distraction. Then came the emptiness. The inevitable comparisons, the constant frustration, and the feeling of playing a flawed version of herself. Until she made the ultimate mistake: one night, after drinking too much, she slept with a stranger during a conference in Leeds. She didn’t even remember the woman’s name clearly when she woke up. All that remained was the miserable feeling of trying to tear Seraphina out from under her skin with the wrong body.
Daphne eventually found out, and the argument that followed did nothing to improve matters.
“The worst part isn’t that you cheated on me,” Daphne had told her through tears of rage. “The worst part is that you were never really with me.”
Nerissa never knew how to respond to that, because it was the absolute truth.
Maeve takes a slow sip of her coffee before looking at her again.
“Do you know what the saddest part of all this is?”
“Surprise me,” Nerissa replies.
“That you keep acting as if the problem is Seraphina. But it isn’t. The problem is that for years you’ve accepted a second-rate role in the life of someone who never fully chooses you.”
The comment hits Nerissa like a punch to the ribs.
“She’ll kill me if she finds out.”
She remains silent, fiddling with her fork without touching her food.
Because the worst part is that Maeve still doesn’t know anything about the gala, or about how Seraphina trembled in her arms. Nor does she know the details of what happened in the woman’s office, when for the first time in years Nerissa saw genuine fear in her eyes. A fear dangerously close to surrender.
Maeve watches her for a few more seconds and sighs.
“God, you’re worse off than I thought.”
“Thanks for the emotional support,” Nerissa says sarcastically.
“You’re welcome. That’s what friends are for,” Maeve replies, reaching across the table to gently squeeze her forearm.“Look, sweetie… I know you love her. I’ve been hearing the name Seraphina Chapman ever since you started working at that clinic and convinced yourself that what you felt was just sexual tension. But we’re way past that now.”
Nerissa lowers her gaze to her coffee.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t,” Maeve insists. “Because if you did, you would’ve stopped letting her do this to you a long time ago.”
The comment irritates her.
“She doesn’t force me to do anything,” Nerissa protests.
Maeve raises an eyebrow skeptically.
“Really? Because from the outside, it looks like that woman snaps her fingers and you come running back, even if you end up completely wrecked afterward.”
Nerissa’s jaw tightens. She wants to argue, to defend Seraphina, to defend herself. But she’s too tired to keep lying to herself.
“It’s just that you don’t understand,” she dares to murmur.
Maeve lets out an incredulous laugh.
“Excuse me? I’m a photographer. I make a living reading what people try to hide. I’ve run into your wonderful CFO enough times to know where she’s coming from and how she looks at you.”
That makes Nerissa look up sharply.
