And I’m not ready to find out if she’ll act on her threat.
I’ll just give her some time to cool down before following after.
She eyes me suspiciously, but she climbs into the car.
During the whole ride, she crosses her arms and stares through the window, refusing to say a word.
I don’t provoke her either, letting her have all the space she needs.
Once she’s done with her tantrum, she’ll pay back in full.
We wait an hour until the jet and the crew are ready. During the whole time, she puts earbuds in her ears and ignores my existence.
I come close to murder so many times in the span of one hour, which is more than at any other time in my life.
Glyndon doesn’t look at me as she ascends the plane, seeming to have forgotten about her fear of flights.
After I make sure the crew would protect her with their lives, I begrudgingly descend and watch as the plane takes her away.
I slam my fist against the side of the car.
That does nothing to expel the rage seeping through my veins.
Time to purge it using the fucker who sent her that video.
36
ASHER
Something’s not right.
I’m not sure what or why, but I’m certain of the red flags when my wife wraps her arm around me, her breathing erratic and her body tense.
Her fingers absentmindedly stroke my chest, but she’s not falling asleep. Or talking.
She’s just caught in a trance of her own making. A phase where I couldn’t find her even if I tried.
This brings back horrible memories from when she used to give me the cold shoulder, distance herself from me and leave me battling violent tendencies where all I wanted was to punch anything that moved in her vicinity.
But we’re over that phase. We’ve been over it for more than twenty-six years.
After we officially got together, there were times when Reina was upset with me about small details and chose to use her irritating habit of creating distance between us.
We talked about that in the first few months, and I taught her to never do that again. I told her how much it infuriated me when she didn’t consider me part of her life when she’s the center of mine.
Ever since then, she’s gotten better at communicating her feelings, her reservations about certain things, and everything in between.
We’ve gotten to a point in our marriage where we don’t have to speak to understand one another.
Tonight is different.
My wife hasn’t been the same ever since she slipped out of bed earlier. And while I want to shake the answers out of her, I force myself to wait.
And wait.
And fucking wait.
It’s impossible to go to sleep if she doesn’t tell me.