Whatever It Takes

Part 1

"Nine years," Mary mumbled through the expensive red that her mother in law had so graciously provided for her. "Nine years, and he does this?" she asked, wiping the tears from her flushed cheeks, rubbing her swollen eyes. She gulped loudly, pushing her hair behind her ears.

Catherine tutted as she filed the girls' glass again. The Valois-Angoulême-de Medici matriarch reached over to hold her daughter in law's free hand over the table, the palm facing down. They hadn't always been close, but it had been because of Mary that Catherine's third daughter had survived a suicide attempt, -the ravenette had had a rough childhood and young Claude was a horridly messed up child thanks to little paternal or maternal support- so that had pretty much wiped away and distrust that Catherine had felt for Mary not being good enough for Francis and whatnot. That action and James' birth had melted the ice and grown the two to have a civil relationship, but it had never been like this before.

"What did he tell you?" Catherine asked her softly.

Mary sniffled, shaking her head. Once her glass was full, Mary practically gulped it down, sighing loudly once she had finished the wine.

"He was acting differently, Catherine. I wanted him, but he kept rejecting my advances-" Mary wasn't ashamed of mentioning her sex life with Francis in front of his mother. After all, Mary had birthed Francis a son, whilst his mother had barged into their bedroom at the most inappropriate times at least several times in the past. "and he was telling me that he was sorry, that he'd messed up and that he regretted it as soon as it was over. I was confused, obviously. He kept trying to stall, trying not to tell me. But I got it out of him one way or another. I tried to hard to keep quiet for James' sake, you know how lightly he sleeps in storms. But my emotions ran wild and I kept seeing them in my minds' eye. Together, touching, kissing. I cried and I screamed at him, asking how could he be to stupid. He knew how I've felt about Olivia since the day we met. You know what she did, pulling him away from me so much that he didn't even notice I had left. Catherine, I get the fact that they're friends and sometimes Olivia works with him, whenever she's transferred with a case, but he never noticed that she's always had a thing for him and probably always will. I wouldn't ever ask him to not take a case or drop one just because she's there and I get threatened by her whenever she gets a little too close. But guess what he told me about what happened?"

"What?" Catherine frowned, raising a perfectly plucked eyebrow.

"He initiated it." she spat. "He made the first move." Mary drained her wine again and wiped her tears. Catherine poured more as she spoke, but snapped once she had finished.

"What?!" she snapped. "Why would he do something like that? I rid him of her when they were kids. Yeah, he was upset but he got over and and found you. It's been nearly a decade since and you've made a life together. You had James, built a beautiful life together. Hell, you even accepted him not wanting to have more kids because of how his surrogate fatherhood turned out, but he turns around and-" Catherine stopped, scoffing out the words. She threw her hands up in the air. Catherine Valois-Angoulême-de Medici may have disliked Mary when she had gotten together with Francis, but Olivia, she had had hated since the day Francis brought the blonde little bitch home to meet the family.

"I don't know what I did wrong." Mary suddenly sobbed, her head falling onto her arms that lay on the table. Catherine -who had stood up in her tirade- looked down at the woman who seemed so young all of a sudden. Even though the woman managed her families' company and had built her own, was married and a mother herself, she seemed like a lost little girl right now. Catherine wasn't sure if the tears were because of Francis or the bottle and a half of wine the girl had drank, but concurred that it was probably because of both. "I thought we were so happy, so devoted. This morning, he was so happy when he saw James and I dancing around the kitchen as we made breakfast. I thought I could play the perfect mother and housewife whenever I wasn't working. I thought we were good together, I don't understand what I did wrong to deserve this." she sniffled.