Jack and Lily, sensing the shift in the atmosphere, took it as their cue to retreat. They slipped away from the table like shadows, their laughter a faint echo down the hallway as they escaped to the sanctuary of their games. The back door creaked open and shut behind them, releasing the scent of dew-kissed grass into the tension-laden room. Charles retreated to his room leaving only elena and edith.
Elena and Edith remained in the kitchen, the air thick with unspoken confessions. The clinking of the plates in the sink grew louder in the absence of the children's chatter, a metronome ticking away the moments of their shared silence. Edith's eyes never left Elena's, a knowing smile playing on her lips. The lines on her face, once soft and welcoming, now held an air of mischief and satisfaction.
Finally, Elena spoke, her voice a gentle whisper that seemed to float on the warm breeze that wafted in through the open window. "I... I saw you yesterday," she said, her cheeks burning with a blush that could rival the ripest of the strawberries from the garden. She didn't need to elaborate; the words hung in the air like a confession at a midnight mass, weighty with meaning.
Edith's smile grew, a knowing glint in her piercing blue eyes. "Ah," she said, her voice as smooth as velvet, "and what, pray tell, did you see?" She folded her hands in her lap, the picture of innocence, yet her posture was one of a woman who knew she held the keys to a particularly intriguing secret.
Elena swallowed, the weight of her own curiosity and guilt pressing down on her like an invisible hand. "I saw you with Jack," she confessed, the words leaving her mouth like a soft exhale of breath. She kept her gaze focused on the sink, watching the soapy water swirl down the drain as if it could carry her confession with it, far away from the ears of her unsuspecting husband.
Edith leaned back in her chair, a knowing smile playing on her lips. "Ah, yes," she murmured, her voice a purr of satisfaction. "Jack is quite the young man, isn't he?" Her eyes gleamed with a mischievous spark that seemed to challenge Elena to deny the allure of the forbidden fruit she had tasted. "He has his father's strength," she added, "but something of his own, something... unique."
Elena's cheeks flamed an even deeper shade of crimson, her eyes unable to meet Edith's gaze. The thought of her son in such a way was like a dagger to her heart, yet she couldn't deny the truth that lurked in her own soul. The night had changed everything, and now she was forced to confront the desires that had been festering in the shadows of her mind. "I... I don't know what to say," she stuttered, the weight of her words as heavy as the cast-iron skillet on the stove.
Edith leaned forward, her eyes glinting with the thrill of the hunt. "Don't be coy with me, Elena," she purred, her voice as seductive as the rustle of silk sheets on a moonlit night. "You watched us, didn't you? Tell me, did you like what you saw?" The question hung in the air, a lewd invitation to confess to the darkest of sins.
Elena's grip on the plate tightened until her knuckles turned white, the porcelain threatening to shatter beneath her trembling hands. She could feel Edith's gaze on her, a physical touch that seemed to strip away her very soul. The memory of her son's passionate embrace with his grandmother played in her mind like a siren's song, a tantalizing glimpse into a world she had never dared to explore. "I..." she began, the words sticking in her throat like a mouthful of dry bread.
Her mind raced, a tornado of emotions whirling through her like the wind through the willow's branches. She didn't know if she was more upset by what she had seen or by the disturbing attraction it had stirred within her. The line between love and lust had blurred, the very foundation of her reality crumbling beneath the weight of her desires. She had always loved Jack as a mother should, but now that love felt tainted, twisted by the incestuous affair that had unfolded before her very eyes.
Edith leaned closer, her warm breath tickling the shell of Elena's ear, her voice a seductive whisper. "Did you like watching him claim me, Elena?" Her words were a dark confession, a shared secret that bound them in a way that transcended the ties of family.