What She Overheard in Her Own Marriage novel Chapter 102

"Leo, come here for a second."

Leo jogged over. "What is it, Mom?"

Jane pulled him aside into a quiet corner of the yard, standing beneath the bare branches of an oak tree.

"Kaia is off tonight. You're her older brother. Do you know something I don't?"

Leo's chest tightened. Of course he knew what was going on, but he didn't dare say a word.

"Mom, you're definitely overthinking it. Kaia is totally fine. If she seems off, she's probably just exhausted. She got transferred to the new company, she's up to her neck in projects, and she's juggling Brynlee on top of it all. She's not a superhero; she's just tired." Leo played dumb, hoping to brush it off.

A mother knows her son better than anyone. Jane had been reading Leo's micro-expressions since he was a toddler. Whenever he lied, he blinked too much. By the time he finished his little speech, his eyelids were practically fluttering.

"If you don't start telling me the truth right now, I am going to be very angry," Jane warned, her face hardening.

Leo froze, then let out an awkward laugh. "Mom, I swear I don't know anything. Why don't you just ask Kaia tomorrow?"

"If she wanted to tell me, I wouldn't be asking you!" Jane glared at him, thoroughly annoyed. "You are absolutely useless when it counts. Just go home."

Leo muttered a quick goodbye and practically sprinted to his car.

Jane pulled out her phone and fired off a text message.

Upstairs, Kaia finally got Brynlee to sleep. She went down to the kitchen, ate the soup her mother had left out, and asked, "Mom, do you remember where my box of old textbooks is?"

Jane blinked. "Your dad put them away."

Warren Chavez immediately headed to the storage closet in the hallway and lugged out a heavy cardboard box.

"Here it is. What's up? Looking for something to read?"

Kaia finished her soup, crouched down, and dug through the box until she pulled out a massive, heavy medical encyclopedia. She flipped it open.

The inscription on the title page was still there.

Kaia snapped the book shut and looked at her parents. "I'm heading up to bed."

Back in her room, Kaia opened the book again, staring at the small, elegant words written in fountain pen: "To Noelle. May your world always be bright and colorful, and may all your wishes come true."

"Do you know what the rumors out there are saying? If I hadn't asked around through my friends, were you just going to keep me in the dark forever?"

Kaia lowered her head, a bitter cocktail of emotions churning in her chest.

"Mom, some things... aren't up to me," she whispered, her voice laced with self-deprecation.

"Noelle is his sister-in-law! Given their relationship, doesn't Finnian have any sense of boundaries? Is he really trying to pull off some twisted affair with his brother's widow?" Jane was shaking with rage. In an instant, all the respect she had for her brilliant, successful son-in-law evaporated.

They had been thrilled when Kaia married him, believing him to be a man of high character. Now, it seemed his character was nothing but a facade.

"Mom, Noelle might be his sister-in-law, but she was also his first love. Before, Rafael was the barrier. Now that Rafael is gone, there's nothing stopping them but basic decency. And if they're willing to trample all over that, who's going to stand in their way?" Kaia's pent-up resentment from the last month finally spilled over. Her eyes were red, but she refused to look at her mother.

Seeing her mother's heartbreak and disappointment was what hurt the most.

Kaia had always been fiercely independent, always striving to be the perfect daughter who never caused her parents to worry. Yet here she was, completely powerless to stop her own marriage from imploding.

Listening to her daughter, Jane's eyes filled with angry tears. She wiped them away fiercely. "What does the Sanders family have to say about this? Are they just going to turn a blind eye?"