Chapter 7 - Bianca Had Been Preparing To Leave
Inside our bedroom closet, behind winter coats, I found a suitcase.
Already packed.
Clothes.
Jewelry.
Passport.
Cash.
Not mine.
Hers.
Then I found rental paperwork for an apartment two towns away.
Tenant:
Bianca Bennett.
Emergency contact:
Marcus Hale.
Move-in date:
Nine days after the living-room incident.
The plan became simple.
Drain enough money to create a cushion.
Leave.
Probably tell me the marriage was broken.
Maybe claim I had been controlling.
Maybe disappear before the business accounts were fully reconciled.
The only complication was Lucy.
She knew Marcus had been coming over.
She knew he was kissing Bianca.
She had heard enough strange conversations to keep mentioning them.
Bianca needed the child discredited.
Not injured.
Not removed permanently.
Just trained to believe no one would take her seriously.
That was what the dog bowl was for.
Humiliation as conditioning.
You are small.
You are ridiculous.
You are not worth listening to.
Once I understood that, the affair almost stopped mattering.
Cheating broke a marriage.
May you like
What Bianca did to Lucy broke something far more important.
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