Chapter 5 He Knows How to Be Gentle

Elena's POV

Vanessa was still smiling, her voice mild, as though she were only confirming a casual detail.

Damian glanced at her. "Elena wasn't feeling well, so I took her to the clinic. We stopped here on the way back."

"You weren't feeling well?" Vanessa turned to Elena, her gaze settling on the fading rash along her neck. "Was it serious?"

"Just an allergic reaction. It's been treated."

"I'm glad." Vanessa held out her hand. "I'm sorry we haven't been properly introduced. I'm Vanessa Sinclair."

Elena shook her hand briefly. "Elena Hawthorne."

Their hands parted almost immediately, but Vanessa's gaze lingered on Elena's wedding ring.

"I know," she said.

A rush of cold air swept through the doorway as more customers entered. Vanessa instinctively pulled her thin coat tighter around herself.

Damian had already taken off his own and draped it over her shoulders.

"Didn't your doctor tell you to keep warm?"

The gesture came so naturally, as though he had done it countless times before.

Vanessa gave him a helpless smile. "You're still the same. The moment you get worried, you decide everyone has to do exactly what you say."

"How long did your leg hurt last night?" Damian asked.

"Less than half an hour. The doctor said walking a little would help with my recovery."

Damian looked at the rehabilitation aide beside her.

The woman nodded. "As long as she limits the time, it won't be a problem."

"Half an hour. No more." Damian finally relented.

Elena stood several feet away without saying a word.

Damian remembered Elena's follow-up appointments, dietary restrictions, and residency schedule too. But assistants, drivers, and doctors usually handled the details. With Vanessa, he asked, listened, and compromised himself.

So he did know how to be gentle. With Vanessa, that gentleness came from something more than duty.

The sales associate placed the gift Vanessa had reserved on the counter. Inside the box was an elegant silver barware set, finely crafted and expensive.

Vanessa looked at Damian. "Your grandfather used to love this brand. I've been gone so long, I wasn't sure whether his taste had changed."

"He gave up hard liquor last year."

"Then I suppose this isn't the right gift." Disappointment crossed Vanessa's face. "Would you help me choose another one? I don't want him to think I've been gone so long that I've forgotten everyone."

She made the request sound perfectly reasonable.

Damian barely hesitated. "All right."

Elena lowered her eyes to the medication bag still in his hand. Minutes ago, he had refused to let her manage a follow-up appointment alone. One request from Vanessa, and he was staying.

"I'd like some warm water," Vanessa said softly. "I was in such a hurry that I left my bottle in the car."

Her rehabilitation aide was about to respond when Damian glanced toward the café next door.

"I'll get it."

He handed Elena the medication bag.

"I can get home on my own," Elena said as she took it.

Damian frowned. "I didn't say you were leaving alone."

"But you agreed to help Vanessa choose a gift."

"It won't take long."

"Then I'll wait."

Elena's voice remained calm.

She wasn't going to argue with him in front of Vanessa. And she wasn't going to measure her place in his life by which woman he chose to stay with.

Damian studied her for two seconds before turning and leaving the shop.

Vanessa waited until he was out of sight. Then she closed the silver barware set and handed it to her aide.

"Maya, could you put this back in the car and bring me my medication?"

"Of course."

Maya took the box and left, leaving the two women alone in the antique shop.

Vanessa watched the doorway until Damian disappeared. Only then did she turn back to Elena.

"He's been good to you," she said.

Elena didn't answer.

"Where you'll live, your doctors, even your life after the divorce--he must have arranged all of it." Vanessa smoothed one hand over Damian's coat on her shoulders. "Damian has always taken his responsibilities seriously. He was the same with me."

"You seem to know a great deal about our agreement."

"He told me before the wedding that the marriage would last only three years."

Vanessa's voice remained gentle, but a subtle edge had entered it.

"At the time, his family and the board needed him in a stable marriage. You had no complicated family connections, and you wouldn't interfere in his private life. You were the most suitable choice."

Elena already knew why Damian had chosen her.

But hearing it from Vanessa still made the words sting.

"So?" she asked.

"I only want you to understand that I didn't come back to destroy your marriage." Vanessa held her gaze. "Your marriage had an expiration date from the beginning."

"If you're so certain of that, you don't need to explain it to me."

Vanessa's smile faded slightly.

Elena continued, "The divorce is between Damian and me. Your history with him has nothing to do with me. But until the divorce is final, I'm still his wife."

She wasn't boasting.

She wasn't backing down either.

Vanessa studied her in silence for several seconds.

"You're calmer than I expected."

"And you know more about my marriage than I expected."

This time, Vanessa didn't answer immediately.

She glanced down at Damian's coat around her shoulders, as though the weight of it restored her confidence.

"I've known Damian for fifteen years. We didn't separate because we stopped loving each other. We separated because neither of us was willing to walk away from our families for the other."

She slowly raised her eyes.

"I was in a car accident on your wedding day. He checked on every surgery and every stage of my recovery afterward."

Elena's fingers turned cold.

"My accident changed a lot of things," Vanessa continued. "It didn't change our past."

"I never misunderstood that."

"Are you sure?"

Vanessa stepped closer, the tip of her cane tapping softly against the floor.

Her gaze returned to the wedding ring on Elena's left hand.

"You don't really believe these two years changed anything, do you?"