Maryse took out her stele and traced an invisibility rune on her forearm. Slowly she pushed the door open just enough for her slim body to fit through. The sight that met her was not a pleasant one. She saw thin, beautiful Annamarie with Robert, kissing him fiercely. Maryse stared. Thank the Angel for her silencing rune, for she had let out an audible gasp.
She drew a line with her stele over the invisibility rune, maiming it enough to ruin its effect. Robert pushed Annamarie away as Maryse flickered into view. "Maryse" he said. His tone was not regretful, only slightly surprised. Annamarie, on the other hand, was gaping, mouth working like that of a fish. Maryse gazed upon her stunned face with contempt.
"Hello, Anna, dear. How are you this fine evening?" Annamarie Highbury, respected and honored by so many Nephilim, looked as though she had been slapped in the face by a Ravener demon wearing a wig and doing ballet. It was, in Maryse's opinion, really quite entertaining. "Mary..." Annamarie looked upon her old friend sadly. "Do not call me that," said Maryse sharply. "Only my friends call me Mary."
Anna regretted what she had done, Maryse knew, and she couldn't blame this other woman for her husband's being unfaithful. But her anger came from somewhere she couldn't control; somewhere her Shadowhunter training to use logic couldn't reach. She wrenched her eyes from Annamarie's stricken face, and trained them instead on Robert.
He gazed at her calmly. "Maryse. Perhaps we should talk elsewhere." As he spoke, Maryse felt the familiar constriction in her throat, as if she had stepped into a Portal. It was the same way she felt every time Robert looked at her, the tightness she had felt since they had first met in Idris. She still loved him, she realized with a jolt. No matter what Robert Lightwood did, she would always love him. She realized this as she stood in the room with her husband and his mistress, and wished she had never felt such thing as love.
"Very well," Maryse fought to keep her voice steady. She drew a Portal and stepped through it. Moments later her and Robert were standing in their cramped kitchen. She glared at him. "Explain yourself." Robert regarded her with an expression as docile as that of a sleeping kitten. "Maryse. I have been seeing Annamarie for a year now, and I have been with her every night this week. All that you could have figured out yourself. What more is there to explain?" There was no regret in his tone, only a bitter emptiness. Maryse was shocked. "A year," she gasped. "For an entire year you went around with Anna behind my back. An entire year, in which your second child was born, and your mistress attended the baby shower!' Her voice rose to a shout. "You were unfaithful and are not ashamed of it! What about the children?" She sobbed into her hands.
Robert's expression was unchanged. "What about the children, Maryse?" Maryse managed to straighten herself up enough to reply. "They can't have a father who cheats! They can't know of this!" Robert nodded. "Then I will never tell them." This was not the answer Maryse had expected. "And what of Annamarie?" She asked. "I will not see Anna again, because it is only appropriate, but I want you to know this, Maryse: I love her. I will always love her. And always, I will love her more than I ever loved you."
And with that, he walked out of the room.
