The Perfect Wife's Perfect Revenge

Chapter 557

Her phone was right beside her. For the first time, she dialed Victoria Turner's number herself.

Victoria stared at the screen, momentarily frozen when she saw "Gwyneth" flash across the caller ID.

Celia was playing violin in the living room, the lilting notes filling the space. Not wanting to disturb the music or the call, Victoria quietly slipped out into the garden.

She glanced at the phone again, almost unable to believe Gwyn would call her at this hour.

With trembling fingers, she unlocked the screen. "Mom, it's me-Gwyn-"

She barely got the words out before her voice wavered, thick with emotion.

Victoria, always sensitive to her daughter's moods, instantly sensed something was wrong. "What is it, Gwyn? Has something happened?"

Just hearing her name spoken so gently shattered Gwyneth's composure. She fought hard to swallow her sobs, biting her lip so her mother wouldn't hear her crying.

On the other end, Victoria heard only silence and wondered if the call had dropped.

I found a great job. You don't need

through the words and held the phone away from her face, terrified her

there for a long moment, gripping the phone so tightly her knuckles turned white. Finally, voice trembling, she said, "Gwyn, when you've had enough time away, come home,

daughter's thoughts and feelings were a mystery-she

and stubborn, fiercely opinionated, loving and hating with equal passion. Even when she was wrong, she stood firm. Now she was still stubborn, but instead of confronting things, she chose to run

Gwyneth gently, letting her

Gwyneth had been the least of Victoria's worries-she excelled at school and managed her life independently,

but worry, because since she was six, everything Gwyneth did seemed like she was trying to make up for something-as if she was forever atoning for a mistake no one blamed her for. It was far too cruel for a

of all, would never

accountable for an innocent

mistake.

mother, she felt powerless to free

"No one has ever

up her and McNeil's lives in a single

might only have a few more months left. Is

gently. "She is—she's practicing. I can