It had been three nights since I started sleeping in the same room as Adrian.
Three nights, and he hadn't touched me once.
Not even by accident.
We lay on opposite ends of the bed like strangers bound by a quiet war. Sometimes I wondered if he stayed awake, just like me — listening to the silence, trying to hear what the other was thinking.
But neither of us ever spoke.
Until tonight.
"You never ask me anything," Adrian said suddenly.
I looked at him in the dark. His silhouette was just a shadow, his voice low.
"You never give me answers," I whispered back.
A pause. Then he said, "Why did you really take her place at the altar?"
I sat up slowly. "Because she ran. And someone had to stand there for you."
"Don't lie to me."
"I'm not lying."
"You're hiding something."
Yes, I was. So many things. Like the truth about the letter Melissa wrote before she left. Or the fact that I knew about her affair — long before he ever did.
But if I told him that… would he believe me? Or would he hate me more?
"You think I'm the villain here," I said. "But I saved you from embarrassment, from heartbreak—"
"You trapped me," he interrupted.
"I stepped in when she abandoned you."
His eyes narrowed in the dim light. "You think that makes you a saint?"
"No," I said quietly. "It makes me your wife."
---
The next morning, I heard him on the phone.
"No, she's not Melissa," he said to someone. "Stop calling her that."
My chest tightened.
He defended me?
When he came down to breakfast, he didn't mention the call. Instead, he pulled out a chair for me. A small gesture, but one he had never done before.
Then he said, "We're going to my mother's house for dinner. Tonight."
I blinked. "You want me to come?"
"She wants to meet my wife. Not Melissa. You."
I hesitated. "Are you sure?"
He looked at me for a long moment. "No. But we're doing it anyway."
---
Adrian's mother lived in a luxurious estate, surrounded by rose gardens and sharp expectations. Her eyes were cold the moment I stepped into her home.
"You're not the girl I raised Adrian to love," she said the moment we were alone.
"No, ma'am," I replied calmly. "But I'm the woman who married him when that girl walked away."
She gave me a look of slow approval.
"Good. At least you have a spine."
Adrian raised an eyebrow at me when I returned to the living room. I didn't tell him what she said. And he didn't ask.
But that night, when we got home, he didn't sleep on the far side of the bed.
He didn't touch me.
But he didn't move away when I did.