What She Overheard in Her Own Marriage novel Chapter 365

Kaia's grip on her silverware tightened. She forced a casual tone. "What makes you say that?"

"Because Dad hurt his hand, and you didn't even ask if he was okay," Brynlee mumbled softly.

"What? What happened to his hand?" Kaia asked, genuinely surprised.

"I asked for an apple yesterday, and he cut his finger while peeling it. There was so much blood. I told him we should find you since you're a doctor, but he said no," Brynlee explained, her little brow furrowing.

Kaia frowned. Finnian had cut himself because he was distracted. He was a grown man; surely he could handle a minor scrape without her.

"And... and you were ignoring him," Brynlee added, nervously twisting the hem of her shirt, her voice dropping to a whisper. "You guys never used to act like this. You used to talk and laugh together."

Kaia's heart broke looking at her small, deeply distressed child.

"Brynlee," Kaia started, trying to keep her voice as gentle as possible. "Dad and I..."

Brynlee suddenly looked up, her eyes rimmed with red. "Mom, please don't fight. It scares me."

Sliding out of her chair, Brynlee threw herself into Kaia's arms, clinging tightly to her sleeve.

Kaia's lips parted, but no words came out. A suffocating pressure clamped down on her chest.

"Is it because I was bad? Or because I didn't eat my vegetables?" Brynlee asked into Kaia's shoulder.

The words twisted like a knife in Kaia's heart. "No, sweetheart, no. You're the best girl in the world. It has absolutely nothing to do with you."

"But Grandma said if I wasn't on my best behavior, you and Dad wouldn't want me anymore."

"What?" A chill ran down Kaia's spine. She stared at her daughter in horror, struggling to keep her voice steady. "Grandma said that to you?"

Brynlee nodded meekly.

White-hot rage boiled in Kaia's veins. To think that Elaine had been whispering such venomous things into her daughter's ear behind her back! Didn't that woman know how fragile Brynlee's confidence was? She needed more reassurance and love than anyone, not threats of abandonment.

The revelation only hardened Kaia's resolve. She was going through with this divorce, and she was absolutely taking Brynlee with her. There was no way in hell she'd let her daughter grow up in that toxic environment.

"Brynlee, Dad and I just had a little disagreement over work. That's all. It had nothing to do with you," Kaia murmured, lifting her daughter into her lap and resting the little girl's head on her shoulder.

She felt like a total failure of a mother, forcing her five-year-old to shoulder such an agonizing emotional burden.

Gathering herself, Kaia marched down the hall and knocked on Finnian's door.

The moment the door opened, whatever calm veneer she'd managed to scrape together shattered.

Finnian stood in the doorway, genuinely surprised to see her.

She'd been giving him the absolute cold shoulder just an hour ago. Why was she here?

But the expression on her face sent a warning flare through his chest.

She didn't look like she was here to chat; she looked like she was out for blood.

"What's wrong?" he asked cautiously.

"Do you have any idea what your mother said to Brynlee?" Kaia's eyes flooded with furious, unshed tears as she bit her trembling lip. "She told Brynlee that if she wasn't perfectly well-behaved, we were going to abandon her."