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For God’s sake, she’d gone along with the fake pregnancy when Wendy was carrying Ryan.
But this was too much?
I hastily dialed Dr. Pelletier’s home number.
“Hello,” a woman’s voice said.
“Good evening. I’m calling for Dr. Pelletier.”
“Of course. Could I tell him who’s calling?”
“Brad Steel.”
“Just a minute, please.”
A few seconds later, “Mr. Steel.”
“Doctor, I’m sorry to bother you at home—”
“Then why are you?”
“I need your help. I mean, I need your help with Daphne.”
“I haven’t seen her in a while.”
“I know that. Can you see her tomorrow?”
“I won’t be at my Snow Creek office until next week.”
“All right. I want to get her on your schedule then.”
He sighed. “I’ll fit her in, but only because I’m fond of her and I want to help her.”
“Great. Thank you. In the meantime, I need to ask you something.”
“What’s that?”
“She broke a vase.”
“And…?”
“Sorry. I mean she got angry with me and broke a vase with water and flowers in it. She threw it down on the floor in my office.”
“What was her motivation?”
“I told her I wanted her to take the boys and… Let’s just say she was angry with me, and that’s what was odd. It was totally out of character for her.”
“To be angry with you?”
“Yes. I asked her to do something, and let’s just say I’ve asked her to do other things—more difficult things—that didn’t seem to bother her this much.”
“Sometimes people snap. It’s not uncommon.”
“That’s my point. It’s uncommon for Daphne. She’s never snapped. She’s always been a dutiful wife and mother.”
“Hmm…”
“What?”
“I won’t know until I speak to her, but if it’s truly out of character for her, she may be dissociating.”
“You told me over a decade ago that she was likely to dissociate, but it never happened.”
“It never happened during a session with me. It might have happened some other time.”
“But it didn’t. I would have noticed. Or my mother. Or one of the kids.”
“Don’t be so sure. She would have still been herself, just a little out of character, as you described today.”
No.
No, no, no.
“Are you saying someone other than Daphne threw that vase and broke it?”
“Not exactly. That wouldn’t hold up in a court of law. But I’m saying the person you know as Daphne may not have been the one who broke the vase.”
All this time…
All this time, I’d been protecting my wife and children as best I knew how, all while descending to a place that had become more and more comfortable over the years, only to find my wife was dealing with her own descent?
No.
No. Just no.
“You have to help her, Doc.”
“I’ll do what I can. This is all just theory until I can speak to her and examine her.”
“Right. Right. She’ll be there next week.” I hastily scribbled the appointment time on a piece of paper.
I ended the call and plunked down at my desk, my head in my hands.
What had I expected?
Daphne was already fragile. She always had been. I knew her history, knew what she’d been through in her young life.
Yet still I pushed her.
I hid things from her. I abandoned her and the kids to go off on “business” trips that more often had to do with Wendy and the Future Lawmakers.
And then the final straw.
I’d asked her to accept that I’d been unfaithful with Wendy. Right here on this very desk. I’d tied Wendy up and fucked her.
Sure, my motives might have been pure—
Bull.
My motives had not been pure.
Wendy had the ammunition to ruin me, to ruin my family. Most of it was fabricated, but I knew this woman. Anything she had would have been backed up to the hilt.
Damn, I’d gotten good at lying to everyone over the years. I even lied to myself.
No, my motives had not been pure.
Losing me would have hurt Daphne, Jonah, and Talon.
But they would have survived. They’d have had all the Steel money. They’d have had my mother.
Daphne found strength in her children, and she would have persevered.
No, I didn’t fuck Wendy to protect my wife and sons.
I fucked her to save my own sorry ass.
It was me. All me. I didn’t want my life upended, so I told myself I was protecting my family.
In truth, my family would have been just fine.
Fuck.
The truth fucking hurt. Hurt like someone slicing into my gut and pulling out my entrails.
Hurt like being drawn and quartered.
This was all on me.
And I hadn’t done it for anyone else but me.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Daphne
Four months later…
My baby girl kicked.
I smiled and touched my growing belly. She was strong, this one. Her kicks were just as powerful as her brothers’ had been.
The boys were due home from school soon, and Belinda was in the kitchen fixing their snack. Jonah was thirteen now, and boy, did he have an appetite. His little brothers nearly kept up with him as well.
The phone rang. “I’ll get it, Belinda!” I grabbed the extension in the family room.
