His Cold Heart Belonged to Another Woman

This was the only kind of thing that ever drew any feeling out of him.

I looked at him.

"I can't fit into the dress."

My belly had gotten bigger, and I couldn't squeeze into that kind of tightly fitted gown anymore.

But Silas hadn't thought of that.

Silas paused, and in the end said nothing.

I followed him in,

and watched my mother-in-law's smile fade from wide to thin,

before she tossed off a light, airy remark. "A perfectly nice family dinner, and now some outsider shows up."

My mother-in-law didn't like me.

The first few years of my marriage, I didn't realize it.

When there was a holiday gathering, she'd send someone to call for me, and I'd want to go,

but Silas would say the table was too loud, too crowded, nothing worth going for.

So most of the time he went alone with my gift in hand,

then left early to come home and spend the holiday with me.

Later I understood that she didn't like me.

She accepted every gift I sent without a single kind look or word of thanks.

And Silas had been using his own way to keep me from being humiliated at that table.

Once, that had moved me deeply.

But today I'd come because I wanted to.

For no other reason than the woman's voice I'd heard last night, right before Silas hung up the phone.

As I walked closer, I realized there was no seat for me.

At my mother-in-law's side sat Silas, and then a pretty, delicate girl.

My mother-in-law beckoned to him.

"Mia Winfield's finally back in the country. Hurry and sit over here, keep her good company."

Then she gave me a once-over,

and when she saw the bloodstains on my clothes, her brow furrowed deep.

"What is that you're wearing? Didn't the Ellisons teach you to come to the table in clean clothes?"

Silas, already seated, said nothing.

He didn't even glance over to see whether I stood there awkward or not,

only leaned in to murmur something to the girl beside him, drawing a laugh out of her.

Once she'd finished laughing, Mia slowly rose to her feet.

"Ma'am, Silas, I'm sure Marion didn't mean anything by it. Why don't we just eat? Oh... it looks like there aren't enough seats..."

She glanced left and right, as if only now noticing she'd taken the seat that belonged to the Sheridan daughter-in-law,

her face flushing at once, biting her lip, at a loss.

Mrs. Sheridan reached out and pressed her back down.

"No need. Mia, you sit right here beside me."

I stepped forward, one hand supporting my belly.

"Get up."

Mia didn't move.

There was a piece of fish in her bowl now. Silas had put it there.

I loved fish,

but looking at it now, the smell hit me raw and turned my stomach.

Silas stood.

"I remember telling you Mia isn't well. Don't speak to her in that tone. She owes you nothing."

Mia's eyes reddened.

She fumbled helplessly with the bracelet on her wrist.

"It's fine, Silas. I was the thoughtless one, sitting in the wrong seat. I'll just eat standing up."

I looked at that bracelet.

The jade was fine, an heirloom of the Sheridan family.

They said it was usually passed down to the Sheridan daughter-in-law, but on my wedding day, my mother-in-law never gave it to me.

She only told me the family had so many things, she couldn't find it just then.

My mother-in-law followed my gaze,

then told Mia to sit down again.

"The right person wears the right thing, sits in the right seat. Isn't that so, Silas?"

Silas didn't deny it. He had someone bring a new chair to the spot below him.

"Marion, sit. Aren't you feeling unwell?"

I didn't want to sit, but he pulled me down by the wrist.

Mia picked up a crystal shrimp and placed it in Silas's bowl.

"I remember we always used to fight over these when we were little. Do you still like them?"

Silas's lashes trembled faintly, and almost in the next second he put the shrimp in his mouth.

Then, as if offhand, he set a piece in front of me too.