The insecurity

Tears brimmed over in Daphne's eyes, tracing a glistening path down her cheeks. The fragile hope she had harbored, the belief that Julian's feelings had shifted and that he had started liking her, shattered into a million glittering shards.

Her feelings, her pain, seemed to matter little in the face of his concern for the other woman. Julian hadn't hesitated to rip into her, to humiliate her for Esme's sake.

"I know I messed up," she rasped, her voice trembling with a maelstrom of emotions. "But why are you acting like I did it on purpose? Can't you see how much you're hurting me, Julian? Your words make me feel like I'm nothing to you. Do you even care about me at all?"

Julian, however, was spent. The fight had drained him. If her insecurities remained entrenched despite his reassurances, what more could he say? What else could he do to make her believe that he had accepted her as his wife?