For a split second, Elissa was caught off guard. Instinctively, she blurted, “It wasn’t me.”


    “I don’t care if it was or wasn’t–you’re going to apologize to Marcia!” Frank’s tone left no room for argument.


    ??


    Ignoring the pain searing through her elbow where he gripped her, Elissal dug her heels in and refused to budge, no matter how much he tried to drag her away. “I told you, I didn’t do it. Why should I apologize?”


    Frank paused, looking down at her from above. “Elissa, if this were before, I would have trusted you without a second thought. But now–1 can’t read you at all.”


    He had noticed the changes in her, day after day. When she’d struck Marcia so hard she’d needed stitches, he’d told himself Elissa had just lost her temper–anyone could be impulsive in the heat of the moment. Lately, she’d been gone from dawn till dusk, always at the clinic, never home, never caring about family matters. Even when Edna had asked her for a recipe for the kids, she’d t–out refused. Frank had tried to reason–she was still young, she needed time to grow up.


    Then there was that scene at thé restaurant just days ago, where she’d put both him and Marcia in an impossible position, and then turned around and mocked them, sharp–tongued as ever. He’d let it slide.


    But all these things added up. She was nothing like the sweet, thoughtful girl he remembered.


    How was he supposed to trust her now?


    Elissa’s lips twitched in a half–smile. When she looked up, her eyes were perfectly calm. “Then believe what you want.”


    As if his trust were some precious thing she was supposed to care about. It wasn’t <i>up </i>to Frank to


    judge her innocence–wasn’t that what the police.


    were for?


    <b>09.50 </b>


    “What did you say?” Frank stared at her, disbelief and disappointment. settling over his handsome features.


    He couldn’t understand how she’d changed so much.


    He’d thought this all through before confronting her–he’d expected her to feel wronged, maybe even cry. Anything but this cold indifference.


    Did she not care about his words–or about him at all?


    Elissa blinked. “I said, believe what you want.”


    “Frank.” She met his gaze head–on, her voice steady and cool as ice. “Don’t look at me with that disappointed expression, as if I’ve done you some terrible wrong.”


    Frank’s brow knit together, his face a mask of disbelief. Slowly, his grip on her arm loosened, and in that moment, it seemed as if every shred of


    feeling between them simply vanished.


    His voice sounded strange, almost unfamiliar. “Elissa, when did you be like this?”


    “I’ve always been this way.” Mindless obedience and meekness had never


    been her true nature.


    She’d reached her limit. If it meantying everything bare, so be it. “Frank, I’m grateful to you. These past three years, you gave me the freedom to focus on my work, and you kept the Murphy family from meddling in my life. But that doesn’t mean I have to ept every usation you throw at


    me<b>.</b><b>” </b>


    Frank’s eyes sharpened, piercing her like knives as the truth clicked into ce. “So you’ve been using me all along? Using the Atwater family?”


    The thought that every smile, every moment of tenderness had been calcted–that even their marriage was part of her n–made his insides twist.


    If it was all an act, then every emotion, every joy and sorrow she’d shown him… had that all been fake too?


    09:50


    Rage and something else–something tight and suffocating–welled up int


    his chest. He couldn’t even name what he was feeling anymore. All he knew was that nothing between them was real.