Chapter 2 It's Time She Learned to Behave

The moment he finished speaking, Lucas nodded hard, rushed over, and pressed something into Vivienne's hand.

"Yeah, Mom wouldn't dare! Godmother, this is the locket I always keep with me. I'm giving it to you."

"If you keep it on you, my mom can never hurt you again!"

His words went into Naomi's heart like a needle.

She knew that locket well. Lucas had been a fragile baby, and she had worried herself sick over his health. She had gone to a small chapel and prayed for him, then paid a specialist to prepare a sachet of medicinal herbs to sew inside that silver locket.

Now it had become a way for her son to please another woman.

She had meant to tell him that it contained medicine for his condition. Instead, Naomi took a deep breath and swallowed the words.

Let him be uncomfortable. He earned it.

Vivienne took the locket with a smile, pulled Lucas into her arms, and said loudly, "Sweetheart, you're giving me something this precious. Tell me, who's more important in your heart, me or your dad?"

Lucas rolled his eyes and answered in his most charming voice. "That's the wrong question! It should be that in my dad's heart and mine, you're the most important..."

Everyone around them gave Lucas a quick thumbs-up for his cleverness. Even Graham couldn't help smiling.

Naomi stood outside as if she had fallen into an ice cellar.

That classic question, Do you choose Dad or Mom?, was being tossed around as a joke by another woman. And what made it truly unbearable was how quickly her son had answered.

They looked like a real family of three.

"Okay, okay..."

"When your mother gets here and hears what you just said, she'll hate me even more. Ugh, women!"

Vivienne put on the face of someone with a toothache and slandered Naomi a few more times before Graham spoke.

Graham frowned slightly at the sound of his wife's name, and indifference and boredom crossed his face.

"Naomi has been gone for a year. It's time she learned to behave. If Mia hadn't insisted on going with her, she wouldn't have been allowed back so soon."

Lucas played the little man. "Godmother, I'll protect you. If they make trouble, we'll just throw them out!"

His words made Naomi grit her teeth until her jaw ached.

Back then, Vivienne had fallen off the stage during a rehearsal for the Winter Gala. She kept insisting it was her own clumsiness, but she dropped hints that it had been Naomi's doing. Her son and her husband had believed Vivienne without hesitation. They hadn't even given her a chance to defend herself before sending her away to "reflect."

Even Mia, who had spoken up for her, had been sent away with her.

Naomi held her daughter's hand tightly and looked at the three of them, her heart full of cold and hatred.

Learn to behave.

So that was what Graham had been waiting for all year. For her to behave.

Too bad he'd waited too long.

At the start, Graham had still refused to believe she hadn't hurt Vivienne. He had told her, coldly, "Go away for a while, or we divorce. Choose one."

For her children's sake, and because she still loved him deeply, Naomi had compromised and chosen to go.

But the "away" Graham spoke of turned out to be a remote, forgotten stretch of the Catskills. Once she went in, she was surrounded by black bears and coyotes, and nothing was within reach.

When they first arrived, she worked day and night just to eat. She chopped wood, hauled water, and went into the forest to forage for food and kindling. In winter she took in laundry from families in the nearest town and scrubbed it in ice-cold water to earn grocery money for Mia, until her hands were permanently damaged by frostbite.

In the hardest stretch she had almost believed she and her daughter were going to die there.

Her mind flashed back to the day Mia was bitten by a timber rattlesnake. She had taken off the gold bracelet her grandmother left her and knelt in front of their neighbor, begging him to let her use his phone to call Graham. She could still hear the cold voice of his assistant.

"Mrs. Pierce, Mr. Pierce is busy with Miss Sterling and doesn't have time to talk to you. He says you only need to learn your lesson so you won't do it again."

During that year she had gone from hope to despair, and she had long since stopped expecting anything from Graham.

This time she hadn't come back to bow her head and go on being Mrs. Pierce.

Beside her, Mia seemed to sense something. Her dark eyes were steady and comforting. "Mom, no matter what you do, I'll support you."

Her daughter had matured too early. The year in the mountains had made her sharper and more watchful. Naomi hadn't said a word, but it seemed Mia had known her plan for a long time.

Naomi held her daughter's hand, pushed open the door, and walked into the living room.

"Naomi?"

In the middle of all the laughter, someone finally noticed her.

The room went quiet.

Graham's eyes fell on her. He instinctively shifted to shield Vivienne, frowning, clearly displeased.

"Didn't I tell the driver to take you to the guest house? What are you doing here?"