Chapter 4The General's Abandoned Wife

So I didn’t plead with them to take the sachets, didn’t try to force my care on them as I had before.

I just spoke calmly. “I know you don’t want it. This is for Daisy.”

Ryan was clearly thrown. I could be strict with him, but I had always doted on him, always offered him the best of everything first.

He pouted. “Daisy’s not a good kid. She’s disrespectful to Miss Lydia! Why would you make something for her?”

Daisy was one of the few children in the village who wasn’t completely enchanted by Lydia. As a result, she was often an outcast at school. The truth was, she’d never done anything to disrespect Lydia.

She just liked me more.

She said I smelled nice. Like growing things.

Grant used to say that, too. He’d bury his face in my neck and murmur that I smelled like “life itself.”

But in the end, it was Lydia’s perfume he chose.

A few days ago, I’d seen the welts on Daisy’s pale little arms and promised her I’d make some sachets.

If my own family didn’t want what I had to offer, someone else would.

I continued my steady stitching. “I’ll make things for whomever I please.”

Ryan’s face clouded over. “You’re mean! I’m going to go find Aunt Lydia! She’s taking me into town to eat at a real restaurant. She’s going to teach me how to use all the different forks.”

His eyes darted toward me, a flash of childish malice in them. “You’ve never had a fancy dinner like that, have you, Mom?”

I didn’t look up from my work. “No, I haven’t. You go have fun.”

His jab had landed on empty air, and he didn’t know what to do. Before, I would have been consumed with jealousy. I would have insisted on tagging along, desperate not to be left out of my own son’s life.

I had nearly died giving birth to him. In the haze of pain, I’d gripped Grant’s hand and gasped, “Save… save the baby.” For all the years that followed, I truly believed my child was more important than my husband.

But in the end, it was Ryan who delivered the killing blow.