BENEATH THE BROKEN SURFACE SERIES
Chapter Four
The room felt like it was spinning, and Daniel didn’t know if it was the whiskey or the weight of the moment crashing down on him. He turned on Lily, jaw clenched. “You were gonna keep playing both sides, weren’t you?” he spat. “Smile at me, kiss me goodnight, and then what—run off and fuck him during your lunch break?” Lily flinched, but she didn’t look away.
“Don’t talk to me like that.”
“No? How the fuck should I talk to my wife after finding out she’s been lying to me for a goddamn year?”
David raised his hands. “Maybe I should go
“Shut the fuck up,” Daniel snapped without looking at him. “You’re the other man, not a fucking mediator.”
Lily stepped forward, eyes blazing now.
“This didn’t just happen out of nowhere, Daniel. Do you even hear yourself anymore? The way you’ve been treating me like I’m just part of the routine?”
Daniel laughed bitterly. “Jesus Christ, Lily. So that’s your excuse? I stopped kissing your ass, so you went and found someone
who would?”
“It wasn’t like that,” she shot back. “You checked out first. You buried yourself in work, in numbers, in anything that wasn’t me. I was alone in this house long before David ever came back.”
Daniel moved past her, pacing, breathing hard. “You don’t fix a broken marriage by sneaking around. You fucking talk to me.
You fight for it.” “I did talk to you!” she yelled. “You just never listened!”
The silence that followed was deafening. David stood awkwardly at the door, the outsider in the middle of a domestic explosion.
Daniel turned toward her again, this time quieter, colder. “So what now, Lily? You made your mess. Who do you run to now?” She swallowed hard, her voice barely a whisper. “I don’t know.”
Daniel let the words hang in the air before shaking his head. “Then get the fuck out until you do.” She didn’t argue.
She walked upstairs, and a minute later, they both heard the sound of a suitcase unzipping.