My Husband and Son Begged Me Back, Too Late

The day Naomi Calloway Pierce came back to New York with her daughter was the same day Vivienne Sterling was discharged from the hospital.

When she hurried up the drive of Harbor House, the Pierce estate in Bridgehampton, holding Mia's hand, her husband and son were gathered around Vivienne in the living room.

"Congratulations on getting out of the hospital, Godmother! Too bad my mom's coming back soon. You won't be able to stay with me all the time..."

Her son Lucas frowned, as if her return were a huge inconvenience.

"I wonder if a year upstate made her reflect on anything. I wonder if those ugly scars on her body are gone."

Naomi lowered her eyes. Her gaze fell on the wound on her wrist.

She had gotten it saving her son when he was kidnapped. A year later it had healed over with a thin, mottled callus that looked even uglier than before. She had never told him, afraid of scaring him. Now it had become one more reason for him to dislike her.

Vivienne pinched Lucas's cheek and swallowed the satisfaction in her eyes.

"Isn't it a good thing your mother's coming home? Someone will cook for you, do your laundry, and nag you about your homework. Doesn't that leave you more time to play with me?"

She sounded relaxed, but every word made it clear that Naomi was the help who did the laundry and cooking, while she herself was the one who would show Lucas the world. The real mother, in every way that counted.

Lucas's eyes lit up, then dimmed. "But she got you hurt. Even after being sent away for a year, she's probably even more of a hick now."

"Grandma says women from tiny towns have no manners. No wonder Dad doesn't like Mom. He likes you better!"

Standing outside the door, Naomi felt something in her chest ache without a sound, yet her face stayed perfectly composed.

When she gave birth to Lucas, she had hemorrhaged so badly that she nearly died. Afterward her health was fragile. She was often sick with allergic reactions, and she never trusted anyone else with her child, so she did everything herself. And her mother-in-law, Margaret, had still said she was "a girl with no pedigree who had never seen the world."

Now her own son, whom she had raised with her own hands, was saying the same thing.

Vivienne burst out laughing. "Can your mother compare with me? Friends are for life, and wives are just accessories. Your mother is an accessory, sweetheart. I've been your father's best friend for years. Technically, you should be calling me your godfather!"

"And your dad is hopeless. Does he even know what it means to like somebody? Please."

She talked so freely, so carelessly, that it only made Naomi's heart colder.

Everyone glanced at Graham with a hint of amusement.

"Hey, Graham, what did Viv do to piss you off this time?"

"Better hurry up, or you'll be locked out tonight!"

"Go to hell, you lot!"

The group of friends laughed and traded insults, and the woman's playful tutting sounded especially sweet.

"Cut it out," Graham said, raising an eyebrow, his voice calm. "Viv is just being Viv. What's gotten into you?"

Being Viv.

Naomi watched the scene and felt the blood in her veins go cold.

From the day she first met Graham Pierce, Vivienne had been a one-of-a-kind presence in their circle. She raced cars, closed down bars, was fearless, brilliant, and dazzling, and everyone adored her. Rumors that she and Graham were a perfect match had spread across the whole campus, until Naomi, the little-known stepdaughter of the Calloway family, became Graham's wife after seven years of loving him in secret.

After the wedding she poured everything she had into being Mrs. Pierce. Graham had a sensitive stomach, so she learned to make broths, awkwardly at first, just to look after him properly. After she joined the family, he did not want their relationship exposed, so she kept carefully inside her boundaries.

But in the eyes of Graham and everyone around him, from beginning to end, only Vivienne was worthy of him.

Wake up, Naomi. It's time you woke up too.

"By the way, Naomi isn't going to act like a lunatic again this time, is she? If something happens again..."

Inside, someone finally remembered that Mrs. Pierce existed.

Naomi's hand rested on the door for a moment, and then she heard her husban

d's cold voice.

"She won't. For Mia's sake, she wouldn't dare."