You Took Life From Me

Daddy's lies

( continue)
As Henry leaned in to kiss Dahlia, covering her cheeks with affection, I couldn't take my eyes off the red smear on his collar. My heart pounded as anger bubbled up inside me, mixing with the frustration I already felt.

"Henry," I cut him off sharply, my voice trembling. "Why were you gone all night?"

He paused, mid-kiss, and looked at me with that same cold, dismissive gaze he'd perfected over the past year. "It was work. Problems I had to deal with," he replied, his tone flat and unconvincing.

But I wasn't buying it. My eyes locked onto that damned lipstick stain, glaring at it as if it could explain itself. "Work problems, huh?" I said, forcing the words through gritted teeth. "Then why is there red lipstick on your collar?"

His expression darkened, his eyes narrowing as he straightened up. For a moment, the room fell silent, only the sound of Dahlia's giggles filling the tense air.

Henry's face twisted into a scowl as he shrugged off my accusation. "It was nothing," he said, his voice cold and dismissive, as if that could erase the evidence right before my eyes.

My chest tightened, and the fury that had been simmering beneath the surface exploded. "Nothing?" I snapped, my voice rising as I struggled to keep my composure. "You're out all night, you come home with lipstick on your collar, and you expect me to believe it's nothing? If you're cheating on me, Henry, then why am I even here? Why are we doing this?"

I could feel the words pouring out of me, fueled by months of bottled-up resentment. "You leave me alone with our daughter, you don't even care enough to tell me where you've been, and now this? Do you even care about us, or is your whole life just one big lie?"

Henry stood there, unmoved, his eyes narrowing as I continued. "Dahlia needs you, Henry! I need you! But all you care about is yourself and whatever it is you're doing when you're not home. You think I'm blind? That I don't see what's going on?"

Dahlia's laughter faded as she sensed the tension, her innocent eyes flicking between us. My voice cracked with the weight of my frustration. "I'm tired of pretending everything's fine when it's not! I'm tired of being lied to! You're cheating on me, and for what? If that's what you want, then why am I still here? Why are we still pretending this is a marriage?"

Henry chuckled to himself, a low, mocking sound that sent a chill down my spine. He ignored me entirely, leaning down to kiss Dahlia again as she giggled, blissfully unaware of the storm brewing between us.

He straightened up, a cruel smirk playing on his lips. "You want the truth?" he said, his tone almost casual, as if he was commenting on the weather. "Fine. I was with another woman last night. And you know what? I enjoyed every moment of it."

His words sliced through me like a knife. I felt the blood drain from my face as the ground seemed to tilt beneath my feet. He wasn't even trying to deny it anymore. He was throwing it in my face, reveling in my pain.

"How could you?" I whispered, my voice barely audible, but he wasn't finished.

"Why shouldn't I?" he retorted, his voice dripping with venom. "You think you're so perfect, don't you, Thea? Playing the doting wife, the loving mother. But let's be real-this is what your mother paid for. And now, you're stuck with it. With me."

I stood there, stunned into silence, as he turned back to Dahlia, his expression softening as he looked at her. He kissed her again, his lips brushing her tiny forehead as he whispered, "Isn't that right, my baby girl? Your daddy loves you more than anything."

My heart twisted painfully as I watched the scene unfold. It was like he was taunting me, using our daughter as a weapon to twist the knife deeper. The rage inside me flared, but all I could do was stand there, paralyzed by the cruelty of it all. The man I married, the father of my child, was no longer someone I recognized. He was a stranger-cold, heartless, and utterly without remorse.
The words tumbled out of me before I could stop them, raw and filled with the pain I'd been holding in for so long. "I wish I'd run away the moment I met you," I spat, my voice trembling with emotion. "I thought I loved you, Henry. I really did. But now... you make me hate you and love you at the same time. And it's tearing me apart."