The Housewife’s Counterstrike Chapter 02
Clara hadn’t expected me to be so blunt. Her face darkened at once.
She unclasped the necklace and threw it onto the coffee table.
“If you want it, take it.”
“You think seizing a set of jewelry will change anything? When he’s out at sea, I’m the one he thinks about.”
That kind of cheap provocation couldn’t touch me.
If anything, the necklace only sickened me now.
I rose slowly. “Keep the pieces here for the time being.”
She frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means someone will be by to settle the account.”
I turned toward the door as my phone shrilled to life.
Herman.
The moment I answered, his voice came through the line, tight with barely-contained fury.
“Selena, what are you doing at Downton Manor?”
I glanced back at Clara.
She was clutching her phone, tears at the corners of her eyes.
I let out a soft laugh. “How did you know I was at Downton Manor?”
Herman paused for two seconds, then his tone eased.
“Clara said some woman came making trouble. I knew it had to be you. Selena, stop this.”
“She’s a business associate of yours, is that it?”
“Yes. She helps us negotiate at the port. That jewelry set was purely a business gift.”
“A business gift, sent to a private apartment in your name, with a specific note saying ‘not to be transferred to family members’?”
I sharpened my tone. “Don Herman?”
The breathing on the other end grew heavy at once.
A long silence.
“Selena, since there’s no point hiding it from you”—Herman’s voice took on a faint edge of threat—”don’t make me distract myself with your petty moods while I’m handling business at sea.”
“For a man of my position to bow to you at all is more than enough consideration for your dignity.”
I didn’t give him another chance to speak. I ended the call.
That night, Herman’s mother, Maria, arrived at my apartment.
She didn’t even change out of her shoes. She marched into the kitchen, saw me at the stove making soup, and slammed her hand down on the lid of the pot.
“You went to see Clara?!”
I stated calmly, “Did Herman send you here to warn me?”
“For the sake of this arms deal, he’s kept his identity hidden aboard that ship. And now, for you, he’s had to use a line that could be tapped!”
“Selena, Herman is out there risking his life on business the likes of which you can’t imagine. How many gangs would love to throw him into the sea? And you have to make trouble now, at the worst possible moment?!”
I turned and looked the old woman straight in the eye.
“His business—does that have anything to do with him hiding his identity to marry me? Does it have anything to do with millions of dollars in diamonds sent to another woman?”
Maria gave a cold laugh, her face full of righteous certainty.
“So you know now. Herman is Don. Master of the entire Vance family.”
“Yes, he hid his identity. But he had his reasons.”
“A man in his position has business obligations. Certain entertainments come with the territory—it’s all pretense, none of it real. You sit in this apartment enjoying the comfortable life he’s given you. You should be more understanding!”
I slapped the manifest down on the dining table.
“Buying her a mansion is ‘pretense’? Rerouting the family’s dedicated allowance into her account is ‘pretense’?!”
Maria’s eyes flickered as she scanned the list.
“It’s just one apartment! Do you lack for anything? Behave yourself, and when Herman gets home this time, I’ll have him buy you a bigger one!”
“I don’t need those things,” I said, each word distinct. “What I need is a husband who hasn’t lied to me.”
Maria slammed her hand down on the table.
“Lied about what?! Everything you have—which of it wasn’t paid for with Herman’s blood?!”
I looked at her calmly.
This house was the inheritance my father had left me on his deathbed.
Every antique in it, I had chosen and purchased with my own hands.
And Herman—Herman was gone ten months of the year. He couldn’t even remember the color of the bedroom curtains.
Seeing my silence, Maria softened her tone.
“Apologize to Clara tomorrow, and we’ll drop the whole thing. Herman’s goal is to lock down the shipping rights. Don’t damage his reputation at a time like this.”
I ladled the soup into a bowl. My voice was completely flat.
“I will not apologize.”
Maria’s face turned ugly.
“You really think you’re something, don’t you?! You know how much prestige a Donna carries. Away from him, what are you?”
I stirred the soup with the spoon.
“I’ll be myself again.”