He dropped to his knees and slapped himself across the face, over and over, more than a dozen times. I didn't flinch. I didn't look away.
He snapped. He tore the chain free and slammed me to the ground, pinning me beneath him.
"Are you done?! It was one time! One emotional slip!"
"You're a housewife who lives off me. What right do you have to question where my money goes?"
"You want to talk about earning your own keep? You, the girl who got expelled for screwing her professor? What could you possibly do besides sell yourself?"
The dog chain split the skin on my face. Droplets of blood fell onto the carpet.
I watched the last trace of love vanish from Jesse Gilbert's eyes, and for the first time in five years, I smiled.
"Alright. Then let me go."
——
The impatience in his eyes collapsed into raw panic.
He crawled to me, locked his arms around my legs, his voice breaking apart.
"I was wrong, Lucretia Chavez. I lost my head just now."
"Don't leave. Please don't leave."
I lay still on the cold floor, staring up at the crystal chandelier we had picked out together.
My silence only made him more frantic. Words tumbled out of him, disjointed, desperate.