Page 45 of Brutal Husband

“Oh, hi, Mom. He only just got back,” my wife mutters, not meeting her eyes.

Giulia turns to me with what I’m sure she thinks is a dazzling smile. “Welcome home, Nero. Now you’re back, I know that you and Rieta will be able to get past your marital problems and return to trying to start a family.”

Return to trying to start a family. I want to take the mug Rieta is holding and smash it against the wall.

“What do you say we forget about all the things that were said in the heat of the moment between us?” Giulia continues, her eyes glinting like a viper’s. “Water under the bridge. A fresh start for you and my daughter, and a fresh start for this family.”

I fold my arms and glare at the woman who punished my wife God knows how many times by locking her in the dark and making her scream.

Rieta is nervously chewing on her nail, and out of nowhere, Giulia slaps it away from her face. “What’s wrong with you, Rieta? You should be smiling now that your husband is home.”

“Sorry, Mom,” she mutters automatically, and drops her eyes.

After all this time, nothing’s changed. Rieta is still afraid of her mother.

I smile at the hateful woman. “What have you been up to lately, Giulia? Read any good books? Locked any daughters in the basement and listened to them scream for hours on end?”

The fake, happy expression freezes and dies on Giulia’s lips. “You and I haven’t always seen eye to eye, but I thought you’d want an ally under the circumstances, Nero.”

So that’s why she was so excited to come running over here. Giulia wants to use this as an opportunity to get her claws into our relationship. Me and her, ganging up on Rieta.

“Go fuck yourself, Giulia.”

Giulia snatches her handbag from the marble counter and stalks back down the hall, swinging her hair like a whip over her shoulder.

I shout after her, “It was pathetic of you to send Isabel to spy on your daughters who can’t stand the sight of you.”

The front door slams, and I laugh to myself. Good riddance.

I turn back to Rieta, and her eyes have softened.

“Thank you, Nero. That was…”

I walk slowly around the kitchen island toward Rieta, and this time she doesn’t back away from me. I stand over her, her tawny eyes huge as she gazes up at me.

“Let me ask you a question,” I say. “Why did I leave you?”

Rieta’s expression fills with confusion. “That’s what I want to know.”

Good actor? Or liar? “Don’t you know?”

“No, I don’t know.”

The words burst out of me, and I slam my fist on the counter. “For fuck’s sake, Rieta. Just be honest with me about what you’ve done.”

Indignation fills her eyes, but something else as well. Fear. There’s something she’s not telling me. I advance on her, and she backs away from me.

“Stop accusing me of things, Nero. You’re the one who abandoned me. I don’t want you here. Please leave.”

“This is my house.” She can’t call the police on me when this is my property, and it’s not like her father can throw me out because he’s dead.

“Then stay away from me. You’re not welcome in my bedroom. Sooner or later you’ll decide to abandon me, just like you did before.”

“I’m not going anywhere, Rieta,” I shout after her as she heads for the stairs. “I’ll discover what you’re hiding from me, sooner or later.”

Three and a half weeks pass,and I follow Rieta everywhere she goes for every single one of those days. To the supermarket, running errands, visiting her sister, and to some sort of community support group. I keep out of sight, but she often glances over her shoulder with big, worried eyes, somehow sensing that I’m there. She knows I’m watching, so she doesn’t dare do anything incriminating.

But one day, the errand she runs makes me angrier than I’ve ever been in my life.

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