Chapter 8
The evidence was undeniable. For once, it wasn’t Hailey who shoved it in Valeska’s face and taunted her with the truth she had courted all along.
It was Marlene, and her countenance was grim.
“I only show this to you because it affects both of our families.” Marlene took her iPad back and flipped the leather case over the screen. Too late. Valeska had seen the truth that always knocked on the back of her mind.
Her husband. With another woman.
It had started with paparazzi photos the Reiters paid to keep out of the press. Those could have been explained either way: André often had dinner with female colleagues and kissed them on the cheek when parting, but the young blonde on his arm in Copenhagen practically whispered in his ear and stroked his cock through his pants. Valeska had coolly shoved those photos aside and thanked her mother for taking care of them on the Dubois family’s behalf. The last thing the company needed was an adultery scandal to muddle their ongoing contracts.
These? Taken by a private investigator Marlene personally hired to follow her son-in-law around? The breaking point Valeska had never seen coming.
That was most definitely Lena in the back of an unmarked car with André. She wasn’t minding the children. She wasn’t even supposed to be in Monaco, where these photos were taken. She had told Valeska she was traveling to Hamburg for her sister’s wedding. Not only did those Mediterranean waves not look a lick like the German scenery, but Valeska was fairly certain that the nanny was not supposed to be canoodling with Monsieur Dubois.
“There are two things you can do with this information,” Marlene said with finality. “You know which path I suggest you take. Ultimately, it’s up to you.”
You want me to stay married to him. Valeska got up from the settee in her mother’s parlor and pretended to be enthralled with the sights of her childhood home. This is where I lived when I became engaged to André. This is where I brought my first baby when I had no idea what to do and was too terrified to be alone with her.
This was where her childhood had ended and her innocence faded. Long before she entered an arranged marriage, but the two events now felt so connected that she could barely breathe.
“I know you genuinely love him.” Marlene hoisted herself up with the aid of a cane. “But you must think rationally. You can use this information to leverage your own advancement in life.”
A larger allowance. Access to her own extramarital lovers. A separation that allowed her to save face and acquire her own residence wherever she wanted in Europe. All three, if she really played her hand well.
Fuck you, André.
“It’s not like I haven’t suspected he’s been cavorting with other women since the day we got back from our honeymoon.” Valeska pulled herself away from the window. “This is insulting. The nanny… Mein Gott.”
“Wasn’t she a friend of yours?”
“I thought she was. The whole reason we hired her was so I had a German-speaker to talk to at home. Having nanny credentials was a bonus when André and I started having kids. Still, I never thought…”
“Unfortunately, husbands sleeping with the help is an old tradition. So convenient, and most of them are young and dumb.”
Valeska glanced through the photos again. “Maybe it’s not what it seems, though. I guess it’s not farfetched that she would be in Monaco with him.”
“Please, Leska. I raised you to be smarter than this.”
“Yet you want me to stay married to him?”
“Because it’s smart. Use these photos as leverage to get what you want. Tell him he can keep his whores as long as you can live the life you want as well. He’ll probably even let you have the children full time. It’s not like he ever sees them, anyway.”
Apparently, he sees the nanny more than he sees his own children. How could Lena betray her like this? Weren’t they friends? Or was the line between boss and friend really that distinct? Then again, Valeska was well aware how talented her husband was in the bedroom. One taste, and Lena was probably hooked.
Shit. She had probably heard the married couple often enough. Maybe had even seen them a time or two and decided she wanted in.
Still… her husband!
“I’ll have to think about it,” Valeska told her mother. “I don’t want to make any decisions while I’m incensed.”
“That’s good. Don’t be afraid to ask me for advice. This wouldn’t be my first time seeing this in my own family.”
A photograph of Valeska’s parents hung above the fireplace. Marlene was only a few years younger than she was now, and she didn’t need the cane. Beyond that, however, she had barely aged. Part of it was good genetics that Valeska had inherited. The other part? Excellent surgeons.
Surgeons Valeska’s father paid for. The dynamic between her parents was similar to that of her and André. Mr. Reiter was away for work eighty percent of the time. Valeska rarely saw him growing up, and she only saw him on special occasions as an adult. The man barely knew his grandchildren. He did, however, always pay extra special attention to Valeska’s nanny thirty years ago.
“It’s endemic, isn’t it?”
Marlene nodded. “So the world turns. Around a man’s cock.”
Valeska spent the rest of her visit home with the strangest sense of dread. Whenever she was with her son, whom she had brought with her because he was still so young, she felt oddly at peace with her situation. She didn’t even care if she had given up the past decade to be with a man who inevitably didn’t cherish her as much as he claimed. Somehow, she knew that going in. It didn’t matter how much she loved him or wished to stay true to André. The man would do as he pleased no matter what.
Yet when she was alone, whether sitting in her childhood room or visiting the old haunts of her city without her baby by her side, she fell into a darkness that both angered and humiliated her.
André had lied. For years. How hard would it have been to open up their marriage two years in? Before Valeska completely gave herself over to her love for him? Before they had children and built a false marriage around them? How hard would that have been? Why did he lie about only wanting to be with her? Was it an ego thing? Did he get off on treating her like that? Was her husband a monster?
There was only one explanation that didn’t completely make Valeska want to crawl into a closet and die. André had told the truth all those years ago. Back then, he had wanted to be with Valeska. The dalliances and growing careless was a more recent thing. Probably since their son’s birth, when Valeska exited the hospital no longer the same, no matter how many times André told her she was still beautiful.
Maybe he had fallen in love with Lena. Maybe the blond Dane was a red herring. Lena would make an excellent second wife or mistress. The kids already loved and trusted her. And, apparently, André had vetted how compatible they were. It was only a matter of time before Valeska was served divorce papers or told to suck up having the nanny elevated to the title of full-time mistress.
Like hell she would share the bastard!
“Thomas,” she told her son late one night in her old bedroom, where the young boy slept in his crib and the Austrian night chilled Valeska’s skin through the open window, “you must promise me to not turn out like your father.” She opened a small notebook she kept in her purse. A pen clicked against the desk she once wrote her innermost thoughts upon. Now wasn’t so different. “If you ever get married, don’t be a cheating bastard.”
She opened to a fresh page and began a list of her demands.
***
The Parisian townhouse reeked of deceit. It didn’t help that Lena had stayed there with Daniela while André checked in for a few days in between business trips. Valeska caught him when she returned from the airport, Thomas hanging onto her skirt as he made a grand attempt to step over the threshold on his own.
“Thought I heard you upstairs!” André was on the staircase before Valeska could assess the state of her house. He can have this place. I’ll take money to buy my own flat in Vienna. Or maybe she would move to Switzerland or Germany for a change of place. Either way, she would no longer struggle with a language she couldn’t speak. “How was the trip?”
André picked his son up and planted a kiss on Valeska’s cheek. She remained frozen in disparate feelings while the housekeeper brought in the luggage from the car. “It was lovely,” she said, colder than she anticipated. “My mother sends her regards.”
“How about mon petit chou?”
“He was a good boy. He walked for more than five minutes wherever we went.”
“Ah, so strong!” André hugged Thomas until the child turned red with anxiety. He’s a delicate boy. Come on, André. Thomas would one day become a mama’s boy, and Valeska didn’t care. André had his daughter to spoil. I’m taking her too, though. The children could visit their father when Valeska felt like having some time to herself. Full custody was on her list of demands burning a hole in her purse.
Valeska bypassed her husband in favor of heading upstairs to their room. She met Lena halfway up.
“Welcome back!” she greeted in German. “I was about to head out and pick up Daniela from her English lessons.”
What were you doing up there with my husband, if my daughter isn’t home yet? Valeska knew the answer to that question. She also did not wish to dwell on it. “You go ahead and do that. I need some time alone with André.”
Lena shared with her a knowing smile. “Of course. Take your time. Monsieur asked me to take Daniela for some treats if she behaved well in class, so we may be a little while. If that’s all right with you, of course.”
“Go ahead. Text me when you’re heading back.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
André patiently waited for the two women to stop speaking in a language he likewise did not know well. When Lena departed and Valeska was left to stare at her husband and son, she said, “We need to talk, André.”
“Oui, I agree.” He readjusted his hold on his son. “Let us go upstairs. I hope that you are not too tired to converse?”
“I’m fine, but Thomas should take a nap.”
“Oui, oui.”
André carried Thomas upstairs with Valeska trailing behind. She lingered in her son’s bedroom doorway while he was put down for a nap. The boy was already half-asleep when his head hit the mattress.
His father left a kiss on his forehead before he turned to Valeska. She gestured for him to follow her into the master bedroom.
Bastard probably thinks he’s getting laid. For all Valeska knew, that’s what her husband was doing before she returned home an hour earlier than scheduled.
“Mon cherie.” André closed the door behind him, face lit up with whatever he desired to share with Valeska. “You won’t believe what has happened…”
She couldn’t bite her tongue any longer. “How long have you and Lena been fucking?”
André’s face dropped. “Excusez-moi?”
“Do you think I’m an idiot?” Somehow, saying this in English was more satisfying than German. “I know that you two are cavorting like lovers. I want to know how long it’s been going on, and if there have been other women.” Valeska pulled her notebook out of her bag and opened it to her list of carefully curated demands. She thought five was a perfectly good number. She had started with ten, though. “Spare me anything that makes it sound like you think I’m dumb. I don’t have time for it.”
André remained too flummoxed to speak. The few words that did burst from his throat were so French that Valeska had to pretend she understood him.
“Eight years, André. It’s been over eight years of marriage, and this is what it has come to. You fucking the God damned nanny, even when I’m home.”
“Why do you say this?”
Valeska hadn’t wanted to do this, but she came prepared. As soon as her phone was out of her bag, she had the photos of André and Lena in Monaco out for him to see for himself. “Do you care to explain this?”
“How did you get a photo like this?” André scoffed at the pictures. “What do you think you see? Because it is nothing.”
“Nothing? I have other photos, André. Don’t you worry how I got them. All I know is what I see… and that you would never find pictures of me like this with another man, because I have been nothing but monogamous with you.”
“And I…”
“Don’t embarrass us both, André.” Valeska carefully placed her purse in a chair and glanced around the room they had called theirs since returning from their honeymoon eight years ago. Do you remember that honeymoon, André? We barely left the hotel rooms. You made me feel like the most spoiled bride in Europe. So much loving attention. Now what? Would he throw it away for another woman’s pussy? Maybe Marlene was right. The whole world truly did rotate around one man’s cock – and every man was convinced it was his.
André took a large step back. “I have nothing to say to such baseless accusations. I can see that you will believe whatever you wish. Did your mother tell you this? Or your sister?”
“You leave them out of this. Because this isn’t about them. It’s about us and our marriage. The way I see it, we have two options.” Valeska handed him her notebook. “We can either get a divorce, or we can amicably stay together for the sake of our children and our images. Either way, I have demands.”
This was a conversation they should have had six years ago. If only Valeska had not been blinded by her naïve love back then. Perhaps she could have saved herself a heaping of heartache.
***
Valeska had foolishly believed that André would fall in line and agree to placate her in return for her marital compliance, but the bastard adamantly maintained his innocence until she had no choice but to turn on Lena for proof.
“Are you kidding?” She was as pale as the lace doilies on the coffee table. “I would never do such a thing! Monsieur Dubois and I are simply friends! Like you and me!”
Unless the nanny confessed, Valeska didn’t have a chance at getting her husband to also confess. So much for diplomacy. This marriage was about to go nuclear. Because not only had they disrespected her by going behind her back, but they dared to deny any relationship at all. They truly thought she was a fool, didn’t they?
Fine. She would show them what a fool she was. She would start by filing for a divorce.
The day the papers were served to André in their own home was a bittersweet one.
The man had been sulking for days. He had even canceled one of his business trips. To think, I would have celebrated such an occasion not too long ago. Valeska used to dread her husband’s departures and having to sleep alone once more. Now she couldn’t wait to leave this house.
They were no longer sleeping together now. Lena was removed from the house, and André took up temporary residence in the spare bedroom next door. The only one who noticed that something was amiss Daniela, who cried when Lena left.
André took to coddling her. Valeska allowed it, but only because she didn’t know what to tell her daughter.
Now, with his demeanor decrepit and his posture positively destroyed, he sat on the window’s ledge in the spare bedroom while Valeska’s lawyer presented him with an announcement of an intent to divorce.
His scathing look when the lawyer left and he was alone with Valeska insinuated that it would be a long, grueling divorce.
“I don’t want the house,” Valeska announced from the doorway. “I’ve already told you that. I daresay that the only thing you might contest is the custody of the children.”
He said nothing.
“For what it’s worth, I don’t want to disturb their childhoods. I intend to take them back to Austria with me and attend school there. They can go to the same schools my sister and I attended. Of course, they can come visit you during holidays. Daniela loves it here, anyway, but she’s young enough to weather such a big change.”
André slammed the papers onto the floor.
“Fine.” Valeska didn’t let him see her tremble. “Be that way. Let me know when you’re capable of an adult discussion. It would be a nice change of pace.”
She went into their room but did not lock the door. She should have, for André soon followed and stood in the doorway, blocking the only real exit from their marital chambers. I’m not afraid of you, André. He might be a bastard, but he wasn’t an abusive one. Even then, when he looked angrier than Valeska had ever seen him, she didn’t fear him. The worst he might do was raise his voice, and she could handle that.
What she couldn’t handle, however, were the sour words dripping from his lips.
“You never read them.” André smacked his hand against the doorframe. “Never.”
Valeska narrowed her eyes. The rest of her remained perfectly still in front of her vanity. “What are you talking about?”
“The letters I’ve sent you since we married. You haven’t read any of them.”
Those things? Valeska received her last one when she was in Austria. She had burned it without bothering to open it. The rest of them, however, were stored away in boxes in the bottom of her closet. “How can I read those letters when you don’t write in a language I can understand?” Valeska could smack her hand in frustration as well. “I’ve been going crazy for almost ten years because I feel like I live in a stranger’s land! I wish I had known what I was signing up for when I married you, André Dubois. Between France and Monaco, I never had a fighting chance to keep my own identity. You once promised that we might at least live in Berlin for a while. Whatever happened to that?”
“It didn’t work out with my job.”
“Of course it didn’t! But that never concerned you, because no matter where we lived, you knew the local language and customs. Meanwhile, my own daughter can’t understand me. She’s a little French girl until my dying day!”
“So what will you do? Take our son to Vienna and make a good Austrian boy out of him?”
“Gott help me.”
André shook his head in defeat. “You never read them. I should have known.”
Valeska grunted as he left. “You bastard,” she whispered. “How am I supposed to read them if I cannot even fucking read French?”
“You should try again!” he called from the other end of the hallway. “You might be surprised!”
Valeska ignored him. Her mind was already robbed of the ability to think of anything but him. Why would she subject herself to those letters if it only meant thinking about him some more? She finally had more self-respect than that.