Shea rolled over onto her side and lay facing the window. Anyone who happened upon her then would be surprised to see the twin trails of moisture streaking across her face, glistening in the moonlight, but she didn't care. It was the middle of the night and the only person who would have the best chance of seeing her in this condition was due home hours ago. In fact, it was for him that her tears fell.
She brushed her free hand over her face and tried to wipe the tears away, but the simple motion only made her cry even more. She buried her face into her pillow, in an effort to muffle the sound. How had it come to this?
They had argued earlier in the afternoon. Not that they had never argued before. Every marriage had its little squabbles, but the couple usually reconciled and all was as it had been before. Not this time. It was only an issue of the most minor concern, something Shea would have been happy to drop the subject of when it started spiraling out of control, but Richard refused. He blew the entire thing out of proportion, and, for the first time ever, raised his voice to a veritable shout. Shea had been stunned into silence. She immediately had tried to apologize for whatever she had said that had set him off, even though she had no idea what it was, but he had stormed out of the house and off to the office. Shea had offered a silent prayer of gratitude that Madison had not been there to witness that, before turning her thoughts back to the issue. It should not have happened like that. If Shea had anticipated for one moment that bringing up the subject of Trish and Henry's wedding gift would have elicited a response like that, she would have kept her mouth shut.
Madison had come home from school a couple of hours after the confrontation. By that time, Shea had passed off the afternoon's explosion as a side-effect of a big project that Richard was working on for her father. Shea had considered asking her father to assign someone from the office to help Richard with the project, so that he wouldn't be under so much stress, but she had quickly pushed the thought from her mind. Richard would definitely have a reason to be angry with her then. She didn't understand why he wanted to look perfect in the eyes of her father, lacking the weakness that would cripple lesser men, but so he did. Shea had also dismissed the thought on the basis that they were leaving for the Dunn/Wellington island wedding in two days and Richard would have an entire week to relax and spend time with the family.
By the time Madison came home, Shea had placed the incident in the back of her mind and devoted herself to mothering her daughter. It wasn't until after Madison had gone to bed and Shea was laying in the darkness of her own room that the argument had come to the forefront of her mind again. Something felt really off about what had happened and Shea tried hard to place her finger on it. The more she thought about it though, the more the whole thing depressed her spirits, until she finally broke down and started crying.
She wouldn't confront him. Not until after the wedding. He was working far too many hours at the office and his relationship with both her and Madison had started suffering severely. Shea hadn't realized how much until today. A week wasn't going to be enough, but it would be a good start. The laid-back week in front of them would work its magic on him and when he was more himself, Shea would talk with him. She would try to make him see what his recently adopted workaholic manner was doing to his family. Shea knew that Richard loved her and Madison, and she believed with all of her heart that he would change his ways once he saw the damage he was causing. These new habits are quite recent, only a matter of months old, so it shouldn't be a problem to change them before he is set in them.
Shea finally drifted off to sleep with this plan worked out in her mind. In just two weeks, everything would be as it was before.