While My Husband Cheated I Married His Powerful Brother novel Chapter 2
Chapter 2 Face to Face
“I am going to advise you, very firmly, to keep your distance from Ms. Vell for the remainder of the flight.”
Veyra said no.
A flight attendant appeared at Xiomara’s seat. She was holding a velvet box. She handed it to Xiomara with a small bow. Xiomara opened it without looking away from Veyra. Inside was a necklace. Prada. Gold and mother of pearl. It caught the cabin light and threw it back in soft pieces.
Inside was a diamond.
Xiomara pulled a note from the box. She read it aloud, maybe without realizing she was doing it. Her voice was light.
Her hand came fast and hard across Veyra’s face. Veyra’s head snapped to the side. Her cheek burned. Flight attendants converged again, three of them this time, their voices overlapping. Xiomara was already turning away, her hand reaching for the diamond.
She typed: Where are you right now?
She did not think about it. She just did it. Her hand connected with the same cheek as before. The sound was clean and sharp. Xiomara’s head turned the other way. Her hair swung forward. She did not shriek this time. She just sat there, very still, her face red on both sides.
Veyra stepped forward.
“Mr. Thorne sent this,” the chief purser said. His voice was carefully neutral. “With a request.”
She understood now that it was not a season.
He said she should not let anyone upset her. He said whoever it was did not matter. He said he was transferring five hundred thousand to her account right now, just to make up for the turbulence she had endured. Turbulence. His word. He said it without irony. He promised her a villa. An evening that would make everything better.
He said he would take her to her favorite restaurant to make up for working through the holiday. The one with the noodles she liked. He said he was sorry he had been so busy. He added a small heart.
Veyra looked at the diamond. She looked at it for a long time. The light moved inside it. She thought about three years of a cramped apartment. Skipped meals. Cheap face cream. Double shifts. She thought about her mother’s surgery. The money that was there and then was not. She thought about a Chanel clutch the color of dried blood.
She stared at the word. Wife. He had written it like it meant something.
Xiomara had run to Caspian. Her face was arranged into something small and wounded. Her hand was pressed to her cheek. She was leaning into him like she needed him to hold her up. Caspian’s arms went around her with a speed and tenderness that Veyra recognized. She had not seen it directed at her in a very long time.
“You bitter old thing,” she said. Her voice carried. People were watching now. Heads turned in every row. “I understand now. Your husband has someone on the side, doesn’t he? That’s what this is about.”
Veyra gripped the armrest. Her knuckles went white.
A flight attendant appeared between them before Veyra could lower her hand. The woman’s face was all professional calm, but her eyes were sharp. She placed herself squarely in front of Xiomara, blocking Veyra from view, and spoke in a low, urgent voice that Veyra could not quite hear.
She looked at Veyra when she finished. Her smile was back. It was the smile of someone who had already won.
Veyra did not argue. She sat back down.
“He asks that you apologize to Ms. Vell.”
The response came fast. A photo. His office desk. Half eaten takeaway box. His monitor on, showing a spreadsheet. The caption: Making money for my wife.
She smiled when she said it. The smile was small and mean and perfectly shaped.
The rest of the flight passed in a blur. Veyra did not remember the landing. She remembered the wheels hitting the tarmac. She remembered standing in the aisle with her bag, her body moving while her mind stayed somewhere else. She was still processing the specific texture of humiliation. The way it sat under your skin. The way it made you feel like you were wearing someone else’s body.
She agreed to apologize.
It was round and brilliant and it sat on a bed of black silk like a drop of frozen light. Veyra did not know diamonds, but she knew what six figures looked like. She had worked for money like that. She had saved it. She had given it to Caspian.
Veyra poured her drink on her.
Veyra slapped her back.
She waited.
1
VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELNew Chapters
Reading History
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: While My Husband Cheated I Married His Powerful Brother
Story doesnt even make sense...