"I just praised you for being sensible, and now you're being difficult again."
I opened my mouth. The bitterness in my throat, as I stood, twisted into a smile. Then I slipped a diamond bracelet off my wrist and clasped it around Lily's.
"Sorry. I was impulsive. Consider the tea served. This is a welcome gift—every sister who enters this house gets one. When you deliver the baby, I'll give you a red envelope too."
I looked calmly at Alex. "Honey, may I go upstairs to change?"
He froze. Seeing me so agreeable, he smiled in satisfaction, bent down, and pressed a hard kiss to my injured forehead.
"That's my good wife."
The pain made my fingers curl and my scalp go numb, but I didn't pull away. I looked at him with a happy face and smiled.
Mid-conversation, Sophie Turner called. He finally released me to answer. I turned to head upstairs—and Lily, ignored off to the side, dropped her fragile act and blocked my path. She deliberately thrust out her barely-there belly, staring at me like a predator sizing up prey.
"Mrs. Fleming, what's with the generous act in front of my man? You already saw what I left for you, didn't you?"
"Once I have this baby, your position as wife won't be so secure."