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again?
“Estella,” Bianca said, shaking her head.
“What?”
She shifted straight in her seat. “I hate this business.” She waved at the
roomful of samples. “Just despise it. It’s taken all the fun out of clothing for
me.”
“Really? Why are you here?”
“Because I met your father halfway. He needed me, and I was there.
Now, I admit when he passed, I could have sold it. I kept it up because
money, you know. And when I needed him… did you know he went quite
literally broke paying off my father’s gambling debts?”
I didn’t know a damn thing, except that this business meeting had taken
an off-ramp to deeply personal and set the road behind it on fire. “I didn’t
know that.”
“I thought I could take care of it, so I didn’t tell him until after we were
married. He was an absolute saint about it. Took you out of that school to
save money.”
“I thought you pulled me.” I was down to sniffling over Logan.
“We both knew it had to be done. There were men—bad men—who
were going to use my kneecaps to make a point.” She rubbed a wet trail
from my cheek with her thumb. “Can you imagine?”
“I can’t actually.”
“When people tell you marriage is about sacrifice and compromise…
well, you should believe them. I mean, you have to draw lines, of course.
Cheating’s right out. And I’m assuming he hasn’t raised a hand to you?”
I remembered his spankings and decided that wasn’t what she meant.
“He’d pull back a bloody stump.”
“Indeed. Does he make you feel good?”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Not like that. My God, Estella. Get your mind out of the gutter. This is
all quite simple. Do you like who you are around him? Are you happy with
yourself?”
I looked at my hands. I did, and I was. When I thought of living without
him, the way I felt around him was what I was going to miss the most.
“Does he say nice things or hurtful things?” Bianca added, brushing my
hair away from my face the way my real mother used to.
“He’s good to me.”