A Widow's Poison, A Wife's Rebellion novel Chapter 91

In Harriet’s hospital room, Brinley sat in her wheelchair, having insisted on being brought here the moment she heard her mother was injured. Seeing Harriet lying in bed, so hurt she couldn't even move, filled Brinley’s eyes with rage.

“Damn that Starla,” she hissed. “How dare she? And why would Herbert help her?”

Harriet watched her daughter’s tears fall and her own expression hardened. “Stop your crying,” she commanded sternly. The bandages on her face pulled at her wounds as she spoke, and she winced with a sharp intake of breath.

The harsh command startled Brinley, but seeing her mother in such pain only made the tears flow faster.

“Mom…”

“Save those tears,” Harriet cut in, her voice laced with steel and her eyes glinting with a murderous light. “Go cry to the one person whose sympathy you need most.”

Brinley tried to speak, but the cold fury in her mother’s gaze silenced her.

Today’s beating at Petal Villa was the greatest humiliation of Harriet’s life, and she wanted nothing more than to tear Starla limb from limb.

“Go find Fairfax,” Harriet said, turning her head painfully to look at Brinley. “I don’t need to tell you what to say, do I?” Before Brinley could nod, Harriet continued, “This time, he and Starla must get a divorce.”

After a scene this ugly, if Fairfax didn’t end things with Starla, then her suffering today would have been for nothing.

“But I heard from the doctors that Starla was admitted for severe hemorrhaging,” Brinley said, her voice laced with worry. “Do you think Fairfax will…”

“Don’t worry. I’ve had all her doctors on my payroll for a long time,” Harriet sneered. “Whether she had a miscarriage is whatever the doctors say it is, not what Starla claims.”

...

Fairfax couldn't remember how he'd managed to walk out of Starla's room. He'd instructed Molly to prepare some meals for her and made several calls confirming every detail of what Harriet had done at Petal Villa. Finally, radiating a chilling fury, he headed for Harriet’s room.

As he stepped out of the elevator, he ran right into Brinley. The moment she saw him, her eyes welled with tears.

“Fairfax, why?” she cried, her voice breaking. “Tell me why Starla would do this. Does she really want my mother dead? I’m already in so much pain. If she wants to kill me, let her, but please, leave my mother alone! She didn’t do anything! Now she’s so beaten she can’t even move… and she’s such a proud woman.”

By the end, Brinley was sobbing, a picture of such tragic, broken vulnerability that any man would have been moved.