Chapter 2: Something Far More Dangerous Than Rage
Serena didn't answer.
That was answer enough.
Gabriel rose slowly from his knee.
The trembling in his hands was gone.
What replaced it was worse — that cold, absolute stillness I remembered from the nights he handled business I was never supposed to know about.
"Serena."
One word.
No raise in his voice.
No anger on his face.
She flinched like he'd shouted.
"I can explain—"
"How long."
She looked at me.
Then at the boys.
Then back at him.
"Gabriel, she left.
She signed the papers.
I thought—"
"How.
Long."
Her voice dropped to almost nothing.
"Since before the divorce was final."
The air went out of the room.
I felt my legs go unsteady.
She had known while I was still his wife.
While I was still sleeping in that house.
While I was already carrying three children who shared his blood.
My middle son tugged my hand.
"Mommy, why is that lady crying?"
Serena wasn't crying.
But her mascara had started to run, and she looked exactly like a woman watching everything she'd built begin to collapse.
Gabriel turned to me.
His voice was quiet enough that only I could hear it.
"Claire.
Don't leave this room."
Then he looked at Serena with an expression I had never seen on him before.
Not rage.
Something far more dangerous than rage.
May you like
What Serena confessed next — and what Gabriel did in the next sixty seconds — changed everything Claire thought she knew about her own marriage.
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