Rosalind closed her eyes.

    “This thing… It festered inside me for years. I knew if I brought it up, your pride would make you leave. But Ross, no man can stomach knowing his girlfriend slept with an older man for favors. I just… I needed to soothe that bitterness. I never touched her.”

    Both were utterly drained, both physically and emotionally.

    Rosalind, physically weaker, felt her heart chill by degrees. “I never slept with Prof. Glenn. That’s the truth, whether you believe it or not.”

    “Alone in a hotel room all night? Leaving together the next morning? Nothing happened? Rosa, even lies need a shred of credibility.”

    “You don’t believe me?”

    “My Rosa is breathtaking. I believe you could resist. I don’t believe he could.”

    “Then tell me, what did you do in that hotel room all night? Watch TV? y cards? tonic chat under the covers

    Rosalind had been about to speak, but those final words silenced her.

    Countless doctors and experts had long exined that the membrane could rupture during physical activity or even everyday life, especially now, when women marriedter.

    Their bodies were fully mature, not as young teens as in the past.

    Rosalind knew Christopher understood this.

    The thorn had simply been embedded too long.

    Nothing she said now would dislodge it.

    “Christopher, you still don’t trust me.”

    He only kissed her cheek. “My love is enough.”

    That night, Christopher didn’t force himself on her further.

    “Rosa, we have a lifetime. Tonight isn’t urgent.”

    “We don’t have a lifetime,” Rosalind thought silently.

    The chasm between them wasn’t about infidelity or Vernon Glenn and Latoya.

    It was that Christopher fundamentally believed her capable of trading her body for a graduate spot.

    He didn’t know her. And he didn’t trust her.”

    This might be papered over now, but it would remain an unbreakable knot between them forever.

    After that night’s confrontation, Christopher seemed lighter, as if a weight had been lifted. He became even mo

    attentive.

    Liza’s tonic soups became a daily rotation. When Rosalind refused to drink them, Liza cooked vegetables in the

    19:53

     Chapter 20.

    broth. Christopher’s orders were clear: nourish her body, prepare for pregnancy.

    Every time Rosalind left the house, she sensed eyes on her.

    She tested it one day, ducking into a department store restroom. She waited. Soon, two men appeared, lingering

    near the entrance.

    Two women entered, taking the stalls immediately to her left and right.

    Rosalind deliberately flushed. Flushes echoed from both sides. The women emerged.

    As Rosalind stepped out, she asked tly, “Christopher sent you?”

    The women exchanged a nce.“Mrs. Foret, Mr. Foret only worries about your safety.” Rosalindughed.

    ‘Safety? In broad daylight, surrounded by people? What threat?” she thought bitterly.

    Suddenly, Eloise texted her, “Rosa! Back from the film site! Free for lunch?”

    Rosalind sent her the mall’s location.

    ‘Need to disguise first. Grab a private room? Be there soon!” Eloise texted again.

    The two women hovered, trying to glimpse her screen without being obvious.

    “It’s Eloise,” Rosalind stated, remembering she’d used her friend as an bexcuse /bbefore.

    “You can verify when she arrives. But you wait outside the private room. No entering. No listening.”