A Widow's Poison, A Wife's Rebellion novel Chapter 60

Her icy fingers brushed against Fairfax’s swollen temple. He hissed in pain, recoiling so sharply that he stumbled and fell to the floor. He looked up at her, infuriated, only to see a triumphant smile on her face.

"But now," she continued sweetly, "you don't get off so easy. Especially today. Look at that, it's already swelling up…"

Fairfax glared at her. That one headbutt felt like she was genuinely trying to kill him. Furious, he grabbed her wrist again, his movements rough as he applied the ointment. Starla cried out in pain, snatching her wrist back and, in the same motion, striking him across the face with the back of her hand.

The sharp slap echoed in the quiet office, and Fairfax's control finally snapped. The sense of superiority he'd carried since childhood, the feeling that he had already humbled himself more than enough for her, had reached its limit. In the past, a few placating words were all it took for her to back down. Now, his patience was gone.

He stood up, looming over her, his voice low and menacing. "Starla. Don't…"

"Don't push my luck? Is that what you were going to say?" Starla cut him off. She had heard that phrase countless times from the Yelchin family over the years. Even Fairfax had said it to her once before. She could see the words forming on his lips for a second time.

She looked up at him, her eyes filled with mockery. "My 'luck,' Fairfax, is not for you to give. And when have you ever given it?"

For the last six months, her dignity had been trampled into the dirt by him and Brinley, leaving her powerless. And now he was accusing her of pushing her luck? The irony was laughable.

Fairfax's breath came in ragged bursts as they locked eyes. But faced with the cold, dead ash of mockery in her gaze, he forced his anger back down. He knelt beside her again, took a fresh cotton swab, and this time, his movements were gentle as he applied the medicine.

But his voice was tight with restrained fury when he finally asked, "You and Herbert… you've known each other for a long time, haven't you?"

He couldn't hold it in any longer. The thought of them had been tormenting him since the previous night, a chaotic spiral of suspicion that had led him to the conclusion that Herbert had returned to the country for her. Although their own marriage had only become fraught with conflict in the last six months because of Brinley, he realized, looking back, that a subtle shift had occurred two years ago, after she lost their child.

His opening salvo cut off whatever Darleen was about to say. He had sent nearly twenty bodyguards to the hospital last night, posting them both inside and outside the room to put a decisive end to Brinley's theatrics.

On the other end of the line, Darleen was stunned into silence. "Are… are you really going to be so cruel to your sister-in-law? Fairfax, do you have a heart? She just went through hell because of your brother's death!"

"I hired a team of people to wait on her. Isn't that what a person with a heart does?" he retorted coolly. "If you still think I'm being cruel, then perhaps you're just too ungrateful."

His tone was mocking and detached.

'Ungrateful' was a word Darleen had often used against Starla, telling her that as an orphan, she should be grateful for any small kindness Fairfax showed her. Now, hearing Fairfax turn that same word on Brinley and her, Darleen was so enraged she couldn't speak.