Chapter 4 - The Sling
Sienna had not told her mother about the sling.
That was what hurt most.
Not because Sienna hid it out of cruelty.
Because she had been trained to hide damage before asking for help.
Her mother could see the story written in every movement.
How carefully Sienna shifted her weight.
How she lowered her eyes before Garrick spoke.
How she swallowed pain instead of naming it.
How she watched Miriam for approval even while Miriam smiled at her suffering.
The sling was white and clean, too medical to deny, too visible to explain away with table manners.
Yet Garrick had tried.
She slipped.
Miriam had done worse.
My son finally taught her.
Sienna’s mother felt her own hand tighten over her daughter’s.
Sienna looked down.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
Her mother turned sharply toward her.
“No.”
The word was quiet but absolute.
Sienna’s eyes filled.
“You don’t apologize for being hurt.”
Garrick sneered from the head of the table.
“Now we’re making this theatrical.”
Sienna’s mother looked at him.
The expression on her face silenced him for half a second.
Miriam recovered for him.
“You are frightening her.”
“No,” Sienna’s mother said. “She was frightened when I arrived.”
One of the relatives coughed.
Nobody defended Garrick.
Nobody defended Sienna either.
That was the shape of the family: silence around cruelty, noise around exposure.
The doorbell rang again from the hallway.
This time not once.
Three rapid chimes.
Sienna’s body tensed.
Her mother immediately leaned closer.
“Breathe.”
Sienna tried.
Her good hand covered the curve of her pregnancy.
Garrick saw the movement.
For one second, something in his face twitched—not tenderness, but possessiveness.
Sienna’s mother saw that too.
Her gaze dropped to the phone.
Then to the doorway.
The visitors waited.
The dining room waited.
Garrick could not.
May you like
He shoved back his chair so hard the wine trembled.
Read Chapter 5 👉 Because every chime from the front door made Garrick less interested in controlling Sienna and more desperate to know who had come for him.
