Adultery Dad's Enemy Made My Mom Heartless (COMPLETED!!)

[thoristhanos]

“Meeting ran over,” she said, the words practiced, almost automatic. “Then the traffic on the bridge was terrible. I should have called.” She didn’t offer more, and the silence that followed felt heavier than any explanation.


I stood, the textbook sliding to the floor with a soft thud. The cologne was stronger now that she was closer, and beneath it I could smell her own skin—warm, slightly salty, carrying the unmistakable scent of exertion. Her hair was still slightly damp at the roots, as though she had tried to smooth it down with water in a hurried attempt to look presentable before coming home.

She moved past me toward the kitchen, and I saw the way the saree clung to her hips, the fabric creased in places that suggested it had been bunched and then hastily smoothed. There was a faint handprint—almost invisible unless the light hit it right—on the small of her back where the blouse ended and the saree began. It looked like someone had gripped her there, hard enough to leave a temporary mark on the silk.

I followed her into the kitchen, watching as she opened the fridge and stared inside without really seeing anything. Her fingers kept drifting to the mark on her neck, touching it lightly as though checking whether it was still there. When she caught me watching, she dropped her hand and reached for a bottle of water instead.

“Rohan’s asleep,” I said, because it was something safe to say, something that didn’t require me to voice the thoughts crowding my head.

She nodded, twisting the cap off the bottle with more force than necessary. “Good. He needs his rest.” She took a long drink, throat working visibly, and I noticed another small detail: a faint smudge of what looked like foundation or concealer near her collarbone, as though she had tried to cover something and then given up halfway.