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“I’ve let her off the hook because you asked me to, Mairi. But you see now, don’t you? Shewon’tstop until I take everything away.”
“She’s still your mother, Damen.”
“She is. And I am still her son, but it didn’t stop her from hurting you or me, did it?”
“Could you at least wait for me to join you before you do anything?” she asked finally. “You know I only have two days of work a week so tomorrow I’ll be free to join you. And I’ll bring Nala with me, too.”
“If that’s what you wish to do,” Damen said. “But I can do this on my own—-”
“No,” she said firmly. “We’re a family, Damen. Remember? I want to be there to protect you too, in case she says something hurtful.”
The words were unexpected, and his chest tightened as emotions still unfamiliar crowded his heart. Before Mairi had come into the picture, Damen had never known what love was. But now...
“Then I look forward to you two joining me.”
She sighed in relief.
“I’ll miss you tonight.”
“Me, too.” She inhaled and exhaled, willing herself to muster the courage to confess. She owed him the truth. “And Damen?”
“Mm?”
“The problem I have?” Another deep breath and she confessed in a rush, “You know those books I love to read?”
He deadpanned, “The ones about Greek billionaires falling for their secretaries or their children’s nannies or their—-”
She glared at her phone before answering, “Yes, that.”
“Obviously, I know about them.”
“Well, in those books, when the hero learns about the woman they love being, umm, kissed by another man, they react first and think later. They go into a rage and sometimes they even break up—-”
“Are you trying to tell me another man kissed my wife,” Damen asked in a dangerously soft voice.
She gulped. “Kinda?”
He swore.
“I didn’t mean for it to happen,” Mairi cried out. “One moment he was just holding my hand—-”
“He fucking held your hand?”
“And he even whispered to my ear—-” She froze. She didn’t have to say that, did she?
“He whispered to your fucking ear?” Damen roared.
She winced. She definitely shouldn’t have said it. Mairi started to blab. “It just happened, I never wanted it to happen, and I promise I’ll never let it happen again so please don’t divorce me, please, because I love you so much so it will be the death of me if you don’t understand that I didn’t mean it to happen. Please?”
Mairi ended the call before Damen could answer.
Damen was left staring at his phone, torn between amusement and anger. The amusement was purely because of Mairi; it was just like his wife to confess everything in one five-minute-long sentence. The anger, however, was entirely directed at someone else.
Fucking punk.
He sent Mairi a text message.
Mairi nearly dropped her phone when it vibrated in her hold.