ng a doormat! She said nothing, choosing to turn and walk away instead. He watched her go, she could feel his gaze burning into her slender back but he did not call her back. She did not return

wspaper and coffee and largely ignore her. That morning was no different. It was as if their early morning argument hadn't happened at all. They usually ate their casual weekend meals in the kitche

efused to meet her eyes, the way he could make love to her without kissing her on the mouth, the way he could talk past her when he had something to tell her... while eternally optimistic, stupid Tessy, had never been good at hiding her feelings from him. Not

he carefully perused the business section. She barely ate and hated him for being so unaffected b

pectedly. "You're getting much too thin." The fact that he had noticed what she

he responded softly and pl

for a few seconds before diverting his gaze back to the mug of coffee on the table in f

goad him into meeting her eyes again. No such luck, he merely shrugged, neatly folded his newspaper and dropped i

hey had met. But after nearly a year she had been forced to face reality, he truly hated her. He hated her so much so that he couldn't bring himself to speak to her, kiss her, touch her outside of bed or even look at her. Tessy had finally realised that there would be no thaw; their marriage was a perpetual winter wasteland and if she ever wanted to feel the warmth of the sun on her face again, she had to get out of it. Unfortunately, she now knew that escaping would be trickier than she had thought. She would have to find

ng staff, as was practical since they lived in a ten bedroom, five bathroom monster of a house but on Saturdays the staff had the day off and Tessy liked pick up after herself and Alex instead of letting the staff get to it when they returned. Alex didn't pretend to understand her need to have a hand in the every day running of t

hair into a ponytail and tugging on a denim jacket to ward off the early autumn chill. She passed by the

the open door and his head jerked up while

..." h

eventually made it down to the front door. With a cheery little wave that she knew had to grate, she reversed out of the driveway and headed out. She had no clue where she was going and knew that there would be hell t