Chapter 29 #2
I couldn’t imagine how much worse this had to be for Archie. This was his house. His mother. We were the interlopers. He slipped his hand into mine again — gentler now — but still firm.
“Come on,” he murmured.
Jeremy stayed between them, encouraging distance.
As Archie led me toward the stairs, Muriel’s voice floated behind us, icy again.“You think this ends differently for you, Archie?”
We stopped.
I felt him go still beside me.
Slowly, he turned.
Not defensive.
Not emotional.
Controlled.
“You don’t have to be here,” he said evenly.
Muriel blinked.
“This house,” he continued, voice calm and cutting, “this marriage, this family — none of it is something you’re forced to endure.”
A muscle ticked in her jaw.
“You chose this,” he went on. “You always have.”
Jeremy shifted slightly but didn’t interrupt.
Archie didn’t raise his voice.
“You chose to stay. You chose to leave. You chose to send me away to schools you didn’t want to attend events at.” His tone didn’t change, but something underneath it did — something old and bruised and finished. “You’ve always had the option to walk.”
Muriel’s composure flickered.
“And since you’ve most often spent your time choosing to be somewhere else,” Archie added coolly, “you’re welcome to revert to form.”
The words landed like a slap.
Even Maddy looked momentarily stunned.
Muriel went pale.
Then flushed.
“You ungrateful—” she began.
“No,” Archie cut in. “I’m informed.”
The silence in the room thickened.
I felt something twist painfully in my chest.
Because this wasn’t rage.
This was resignation.
Muriel’s eyes slid to me.
And there it was.
The blade.
“This is because of her,” she said softly. “You think this is some grand love story? She’ll do to you exactly what her mother did to your father.”
My stomach dropped.
“Mrs. Standish—” Jeremy warned.
“She’ll get bored,” Muriel continued, eyes locked on mine now. “Or she’ll get pregnant. Or she’ll decide someone else is shinier. That’s what they do.”
Heat flooded my face.
Archie moved instantly, placing himself fully in front of me this time. “Enough.”
But Muriel didn’t stop. “You think you’re different?” she pressed, voice sharpening. “You’re not. You’re just the next man in a very long line of bad decisions.”
Maddy made a strangled sound.
“Don’t you dare talk about her like that,” Archie said, and this time the steel in his voice was unmistakable.
“She’s trash,” Muriel snapped. “Just like—”
“Finish that sentence,” Archie said quietly.
The air crackled.
Maddy stepped forward again, fury blazing. “You don’t get to call my daughter—”
“Oh, I absolutely do,” Muriel shot back. “When all she has for an example is you.”
Jeremy physically stepped between them now, hands braced out. “Mrs. Standish. Ms. Curtis. This has escalated beyond reason.”
“Get out of my way,” Maddy hissed.
Muriel lunged again.
Jeremy caught her arm this time, firm but careful.
Another glass figurine went sailing — I didn’t even see which one of them threw it — and it smashed against the wall behind us.
I flinched.
Archie pulled me tighter against his side.
And then—
“What the hell is going on?”
Edward’s voice thundered through the foyer.
All motion stopped.
He stood in the doorway, suit jacket half unbuttoned, expression thunderous.
For a split second, no one spoke.
He took in the shattered glass. The overturned table. Muriel in Jeremy’s restrained grip. Maddy flushed and shaking.
Then his eyes landed on us.
On Archie.
On me.
Expression tightening, he glanced back at Muriel and Maddy. “What did you do?” he demanded, but it wasn’t clear who he was asking.
“Ask your whore.” Muriel laughed, all sharp and brittle.
Maddy pointed. “She attacked me.”
“Please.” Muriel scoffed.
Edward ran a hand through his hair, looking ten seconds away from exploding himself.
“This ends now,” he said, voice low and dangerous. It was like hearing Archie speak in that same voice twenty years from now. It scared the shit out of me.
“Does it?” Muriel replied coolly, utterly unmoved by the lethal tone.
He turned on her. “Yes.”
The authority in his voice wasn’t affectionate or kind. It was a threat.
Jeremy released Muriel slowly.
“Muriel,” Edward said, jaw tight. “Go upstairs to our wing. We will discuss this privately.”
Muriel’s gaze cut to me one last time. “Enjoy the fantasy while it lasts,” she said softly.
Then she turned and walked toward the staircase, spine rigid, dignity stitched back into place like nothing had happened.
Maddy looked ready to lunge again.
Edward shifted toward her instead. “And you,” he said, voice heavy with warning, “will not put your hands on my wife in my home.”
My mother recoiled like she’d been struck. The words hung in the air.
My wife.
Archie’s fingers tightened around mine. I didn’t know which of us hurt more.
“Eddie,” Maddy said, her voice turning cutting and cold. “Don’t you dare speak to me that way.”
The living room felt wrecked in more ways than one. Suddenly, the earlier heat between Archie and me felt very far away.
Edward’s jaw flexed. For a second, I didn’t see the man who’d been so happy to call me his daughter. Who’d wanted us to be a family. No—what I saw there was calculation.
“You,” he said to Maddy, pointing toward the hallway, “will go to my office.”
Her eyes flashed. “Excuse me?”
“You will go to my office,” he repeated, each word clipped and deliberate, “and you will stay there while I fix this.”
The word fix hung in the air like a lie.
Maddy actually laughed — a disbelieving, jagged sound. “Fix this? She put her hands on me.”
“And you put yours on her,” he shot back.
Jeremy didn’t move. Didn’t speak. But his posture had shifted subtly—alert, braced.
Maddy took a step closer to Edward. “You think you can sideline me in my own—”
“In my house,” Edward snapped.
The correction hit like a crack of thunder.
Maddy went very still.
Archie’s hand tightened around mine again.
Edward exhaled sharply, like he was physically forcing himself not to escalate further. “Go. To. My. Office.”
For a second, I thought she was going to refuse. Her chin lifted. Her eyes burned. But then — slow, deliberate — she turned on her heel.
The look she shot Muriel’s retreating back promised retribution. Somehow, I didn’t think Edward was walking out of this war unscarred either. She didn’t say another word as she disappeared down the hall.
The silence she left behind wasn’t relief.
Edward dragged a hand over his face again, then looked at us. His expression softened by a fraction.
“You two,” he said, tone lowering, trying for steady. “Go upstairs.”
Archie didn’t move.
“It will all be fine,” Edward added.
No one believed that.
Not Jeremy.
Not Archie.
Not me.
And judging by the way the office door slammed down the hall, not Maddy either.
Archie’s posture had gone rigid again, shoulders squared in that quiet, dangerous way I was starting to recognize too well. He and his father stared at each other and I swore the temperature plummeted even further than it had been when Maddy and Muriel went to war.
Edward’s gaze flicked to him. “I’ll handle it.”
“You sure about that?” Archie said before I could stop him.
Jeremy inhaled softly.
Edward’s eyes hardened. “This is not your responsibility.”
Archie stepped half an inch in front of me again. “It became my responsibility the second the debris threatened her.”
The room went silent. Edward looked at me then — really looked — and something unreadable flickered there.
Guilt? Annoyance? Exhaustion?
“It will not happen again,” he said.
Archie didn’t argue further. Didn’t nod either. He simply took my hand and turned toward the stairs.
As we passed Jeremy, he murmured quietly, “Mr. Archie.”
Archie paused just long enough to acknowledge him.
“I will ensure the situation remains contained,” Jeremy said calmly.
Contained. Like this was a spill. Like this wasn’t years of resentment detonating in the middle of the house.
“Thank you,” Archie replied.
We climbed the stairs without looking back.
But halfway up, I glanced down.
Edward stood alone in the wreckage — glass glittering at his feet, shoulders tense, staring at nothing.
The battlefield hadn’t cooled.
It had just moved.
And as Archie’s hand tightened around mine, I knew whatever cracked open downstairs wasn’t done breaking yet.