"Why are you ignoring my calls?" I demanded from the door.

Jillian looked up from her dressing table and regarded me with narrowed eyes. “You came all the way here? I can’t wait to hear what can be so important."

I leaned against the door frame and watched her. With a sigh she turned back to her mirror and continued applying her makeup, but her movements were jerky. She was not as calm as she was pretending to be.

"Why did you fire Charlotte?” I asked, walking into her room. Her cloying perfume made specially for her filled my nostrils, reminding me of a time I wanted to forget.

She snorted in disbelief and whirled around on her stool to face me. "She already came running to you? What the hell is going on? Are you fucking her or something?”

"Take your mind out of the gutter. I am not fucking her. She is our son’s nanny. I was speaking to her on the intercom when you came into her room. What exactly is her offense?"

"When did you become her advocate? And when did it start to matter to you whom I hired or fired?”

“I feel very comfortable having her handle Zackary’s care.”

“You didn’t even want a nanny,” she hurled at me.

“That’s true, but since you've insisted on one, I now acknowledge that you were right. A nanny is a good idea and I can see Zackary has benefited a lot from Charlotte being here."

She glared at me for a moment and then turned her back on me and gazed at her reflection in the mirror. "She was over stepping her authority, I'll get someone else."

My temper began to rise. "I was the one who bought all the equipment and permitted Zackary to play outside. Come to think of it why would you place all these restrictions on him without informing me about it?"

"When did you suddenly start to care so much about Zackary’s welfare? You've left him to me all this while."

"Do you want me to retract that basic right as his mother from you as well? You don't seem very interested in it any longer."

She shot to her feet, her eyes ablaze. "How dare you question my love for my son?"

"Don't test me," I said. "I've allowed you to go whichever way you chose these past years. I won't take such liberties when it comes to Zackary. Either Charlotte stays, or you leave."

Her mouth dropped open. “You would choose a woman who walked into our lives a few days ago over me?”

“Yes.”

For a second she stared at me in horror as it became clear to her that I was serious. Then I saw the gears in her brain shift and tears that I had not only no patience for, but found infuriating, began to fill her eyes.” Brett, how did we get here? We grew up together. How did I come to mean so little to you? We are a family. She is the outsider. I know what she has been doing. She’s been poisoning you against me."

I couldn't believe the words that were coming out of her mouth. Never had I met someone that was as dishonest with herself as she was to everyone else around.

"Jillian, what exactly do I mean to you?”

“I love you, Brett,” she cried passionately.

“You sure about that?" I asked as I stripped away my mask.

Her true reaction shone through because she didn’t have enough time to hide it. She flinched ... she actually flinched, right before my eyes. Her eyes traced the deep, unbearably ugly scars that lined the right portion of my face. It was a lot better than it had been at the beginning, but the shriveled, disfigured flesh torn from by being flung through the window of a somersaulting vehicle then being dragged so hard on gravel that it sandpapered my face right down to the bone in some places, was one she still couldn’t stomach.

"Is everything clear now?" I asked, putting the mask back on.

To my surprise, she began to move towards me, lifting her hand up to touch me.

I slapped the hands away before they could connect with my flesh.

"How dare you?”

She winced at the tone of my voice. "You will never forgive me, will you?"

"For what?" I asked and brushed my hair out of my face. "For abandoning me during the hardest time of my life?"

"Brett, I didn't abandon you," she cried. "Aren't I still here? My reaction was normal. Any normal human being would have reacted like that.” A sly look came into her eyes. “You think our nanny won’t react in exactly the same way if she saw you without your mask?”

My face hardened. Fighting with Jillian was a fool’s errand. She was too good at this. I turned away.

“Don’t turn away from me please. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I want to talk about us.”

I stopped and turned back. I needed to sort this problem out before I left.

“Anyway, as I was saying, I just needed some time to take it all in ... To readjust ... To see you the way that I used to."

I laughed. "Yes, your method of adjusting was to fuck around. You don’t love me, Jillian. You never have. You married me for my money, and I married you because your father asked, you were easy on the eye, and I didn’t know then what I do now."

The tears rolled down her eyes. "Brett, your words are too brutal. I’m only human ... and I'm allowed to falter and to disappoint. I'm also allowed to realize my mistakes and change. Why won't you let me in?"

"No one's stopping you," I said. "I'm not. Stop fucking around. Try winning my heart back again … if you want to."

Her gaze faltered from mine and it almost made me laugh aloud. "What? Too much like work? Or have you finally realized that what you really want is me groveling at your feet for whatever crumbs you want to throw down at me?"

"You still love me, Brett" she said. "That's why you're so bitter."

I shook my head at her arrogance. “Jillian, I'm bitter because I can't believe that I once deluded myself into marrying you. I'm even more bitter now because I can't get rid of you as easily as I would like to. I have a responsibility to Zackary and unlike you I take the magnitude of what that entails seriously.”

“It doesn’t matter what you think, I am a good mother to Zackary.”

"Whatever. I’ve got to go, but leave Charlotte alone, or I'll take matters into my own hands and I assure you, you won’t like it."

I turned around and walked out of her room.

At the top of the stairs, I froze. Heading towards me from the servants’ stairs was Charlotte, her eyes were on the floor. She must have been heading to the kitchen. Before she could raise her head to notice me, Jillian’s words came to taunt me. You think our nanny won’t react in exactly the same way if she saw you without your mask? I experienced an instinctive desire to turn around and go the opposite way, to hide from her.

But she raised her head and saw me.

We walked towards each other. She was staring at me, her blue eyes wide. Both of us had slowed down our pace, but we did not stop as we moved nearer and as we passed each other I could feel my heart hammering in my chest. Hell, she was even more beautiful in real life.

God, I wanted her.

“Brett,” she called.

I didn’t respond. I didn’t want to keep going, I didn’t want to ignore her. I wanted her to speak … and I wanted to look properly at her … and into her eyes, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop walking.

“Brett,” she called louder, and this time my feet came to a halt of their own accord. I didn’t turn around. I could feel the rush of adrenaline in my veins as the sound of her shoes turning to come to me hit my ears. My command was automatic.

“Stay where you are.”

She obeyed.

“What is it?” I asked.

Silence.

Slowly, I turned around to face her.