After His Mistress Murdered Our Daughter, My Husband Begged Me Back
Chapter 5
The security footage was four years old. Grainy. Time-stamped in the corner. Grayson watched it on his laptop in the dark.
The military gala. Spring fundraiser. He remembered the night. Champagne and speeches. Dress uniforms. Elena in a simple black gown she'd owned since before their marriage. Renata in something red and expensive that he'd paid for.
On the screen, Renata moved through the crowd. She stopped at the bar. Picked up two glasses. Turned slightly away from the camera. Her hand moved over one of the glasses. Quick. Casual. Then she walked across the room and handed it to Elena.
Elena took it. Said something. Smiled a little. Drank.
Grayson's stomach turned.
Twenty minutes later in the footage, Elena swayed. She reached for a table to steady herself. Renata appeared at her side immediately. Concerned. Helpful. Her hand on Elena's arm. Her face turned toward the crowd, already drawing attention.
Elena's knees buckled. Renata caught her. Called for help. People turned to stare.
Grayson remembered what happened next. He'd crossed the room and grabbed Elena's other arm. Pulled her toward the exit while people whispered. Elena tried to speak but her words came out slurred and wrong. He'd been furious. Embarrassed. He drove her home in silence and left her on the couch.
Renata had called him an hour later. Her voice soft and worried. "Is she okay? I think she might need help, Grayson. Professional help."
He'd believed her.
Grayson closed the laptop. He sat in the dark and pressed his palms against his eyes until he saw spots.
---
The photograph was in a file marked "Public Relations—Archive." He almost missed it.
Renata at a military function six months ago. Smiling. Polished. The camera had caught her in profile. Around her neck, the diamond pendant caught the light.
His mother's pendant.
Patricia Walker had given it to him two weeks before she died. Her hands shaking with the palsy that had taken her piece by piece. "For your wife," she'd said. "When you marry. Not before."
He'd given it to Renata three years into his marriage.
He told himself Elena wouldn't appreciate it. That she wasn't sentimental. That she'd probably just put it in a drawer somewhere and forget about it.
He remembered the night Elena saw Renata wearing it. They were at another gala. Elena had gone still. Just for a moment. Her face blank and careful. Then she'd excused herself to the bathroom and didn't come back for twenty minutes.
She never said a word about it.
Grayson set the photograph down. His hands were shaking.
---
Elena started chemotherapy on a Thursday.
Diane told him about it when he asked. She didn't offer details. Just said, "She's in treatment," and walked away.
He sat in the waiting room and imagined it. The IV line. The poison drip. Elena's face turned toward the window, enduring it the way she endured everything now. Alone. Silent.
He wanted to go to her. He wanted to sit beside her and hold her hand and tell her he was sorry. That he understood now. That he would fix it.
But the door to her room stayed closed.
---
Inside, Elena lay on the bed and watched the IV bag slowly empty.
The chemicals made her mouth taste like metal. Made her bones ache. Made her tired in a way that sleep didn't fix.
Diane brought her ice chips in a paper cup. Set them on the tray without speaking. Elena sucked on one and let the cold numb her tongue.
She didn't think about Grayson.
She thought about Laylah.
The weight of her in the rain. Small and hot with fever. Her arms around Elena's neck. Her voice saying, Mama, are we almost there.
The blue walls of the hospital room. The machines that beeped and blinked. The chair Elena slept in for eleven nights because she couldn't leave. Wouldn't leave.
The moment Laylah's fingers went slack.
Elena closed her eyes. The ice chip melted on her tongue.
---
The urn appeared outside her door on Friday morning.
Crystal. Expensive. Elaborate. Engraved with Laylah's full name and dates in a script that tried too hard to be elegant.
Elena opened the door and looked down at it.
No note. No explanation. Just the urn sitting on the linoleum under the fluorescent lights.
She bent slowly. Picked it up. It was heavier than the one Grayson had destroyed. Cold and smooth in her hands.
She carried it inside and set it on the windowsill.
Then she climbed back into bed and turned toward the wall.
The urn caught the morning light and threw small rainbows across the ceiling. Elena watched them move and didn't feel anything at all.
---
Grayson waited in the hallway for an hour.
When Diane came out, he stood.
"Did she—" he started.
Diane looked at him. Her face was tired and kind and completely unsympathetic.
"She kept it," Diane said. "That's all you get to know."
She walked past him toward the nurses' station.
Grayson stood alone in the empty hallway.
He looked at Elena's closed door for a long time.
Then he turned and walked away.
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