Chapter 3 - Preston Had Been Testing Her for Months
The golf club was not the beginning.
It was simply the first time Preston made the threat impossible to explain away.
Looking backward, Giulietta could see the earlier tests.
Small things.
He disliked when she disagreed with him in front of other people.
At first he called it manners.
“You don’t correct your partner publicly.”
Then he began choosing what she wore to Hale family dinners.
Nothing extreme.
Just:
“My father prefers conservative.”
“Mom hates red.”
“Could you wear the blue one instead?”
Giulietta sometimes complied because the request seemed harmless.
Then came finances.
Preston wanted a joint investment account before marriage.
Giulietta said no.
He sulked for two days.
He asked her to stop taking certain projects requiring travel.
She refused.
He accused her of “prioritizing work over building a family.”
The first truly disturbing moment happened six weeks before the wedding.
Giulietta disagreed with Warren during dinner over a proposed redevelopment project that would have displaced several small businesses.
Warren smiled coldly.
“You’ll learn not to challenge every decision once you’re family.”
Giulietta answered:
“I’m not joining a military unit.”
Everyone laughed except Preston.
Later, in the car, he gripped the steering wheel and said:
“You embarrassed my father.”
“I disagreed with him.”
“You embarrassed him.”
Those were different sentences.
Giulietta heard the difference.
She should have stopped the wedding then.
But Preston apologized the next morning.
Flowers arrived.
Then breakfast.
Then tears.
He told her Warren dominated him growing up.
That disagreement made him panic.
Giulietta felt sympathy.
She confused understanding the source of Preston’s behavior with believing the behavior would change.
May you like
That mistake brought her to the bridal bedroom.
---
