Page 140 of The Wrong Husband

I stiffen.

"She left?"Without telling me?"Did she mention where she’s headed?"

"There was an emergency at the hospital," her mother finally adds.

That should make me feel better but instead leaves me more confused. They know she's on her honeymoon. And why would she not tell me she had to leave?I’d have driven her there.

"She seemed upset—" Her mother hesitates.

"Upset?"

"I told her it was clear she loves you, which is why, I assumed, she couldn’t wait to marry you." She shakes her head. "But it seemed to disturb her."

That would do it.

"I hope I wasn’t overstepping. I didn’t think so, but my daughter…" She wrings her hands. "She hasn’t had it easy, because of me."

I tilt my head. I want to cut her short and run after my wife, but surely, whatever her mother tells me is going to help me understand my wife? I decide to stay silent and listen.

"I might have been overprotective about her in her teenage years. And demanding, at the same time. My Phe is very different from me. Far more creative and introspective, while I’m an extrovert. I couldn’t quite understand her and might have pushed her to do things she might not have liked. I couldn’t fathom why she wanted to spend her time reading or looking at things through her toy microscope. She was curious about the world and, while I encouraged it, I couldn’t understand it."

Her husband comes over and puts his arm about her. She looks at him gratefully. A look of understanding passes between them.

"When she told me she wanted to become a doctor…" She swallows. "I was both horrified, and also, so proud. Then she told me she wanted to leave home and put herself through university on her own merit. Needless to say, I was alarmed."

"She always was an independent person, our Phe," her father says fondly.

"I’m afraid I was angry with him for encouraging her." She casts a sideways glance at her husband. "And when she left home, and he let her and didn't try to help her financially through medical school, I was not happy." She leans into her husband. "It took me a few years to come to grips with how this was probably the best thing for her. By then, my relations with our daughter were strained."

She clenches and unclenches her fingers.

"The reason I’m telling you all this is to say, I hope I have a chance at repairing things with her. I thought, with her getting married, this could be the start of a new relationship between my daughter and me, but perhaps, I was too hasty. Perhaps, I should have called her first, met with her, and tried to smooth things over, instead of arriving unannounced."

She rubs at her temple.

"My excitement at seeing her again overshadowed everything else." She blows out a breath. Her color has faded, leaving her looking pale and much older than when she arrived. “I’m sorry if our conversation distressed her. That wasn’t my intention.”

But you did unsettle her. Whatever you said triggered something, and now she’s hurting.

Anger burns low in my gut. I wrestle it into submission. No use directing it here. What’s done is done.

Would I have chosen for her parents to show up like this? Hell no.

But maybe, Arthur had a point. Maybe, she needed this. Maybe, facing them is the first step toward healing.

Still—if I’d known what he had planned, I would’ve warned her.

I would’ve prepared her.

I’m glad I’m here for her. No matter what she’s facing, she’s not going through this alone.

My wife is the center of my world.

I nod at my mother-in-law, then turn to her husband. "I’m going after her, if you’ll excuse me."

I didn’t realize how strained her relationship is with her parents. And that’s on me. I shouldn't have assumed. I’ll make sure to find out everything there is about my wife, so I don’t commit such a mistake again.

Trust Arthur to invite them without a thought for how it might impact my wife. To him they’re valuable business and society contacts who’d help further the Davenport Group’s influence.