My mother-in-law Grace looked so powerfuldressed in her tight shorts and a tight blouse tied up around her waist. My mother-in-law Grace looked so bea...tiful. Neither of us said a word. Mymother-in-law then made solid eye contact with me. The look on her facescared me. My mother-in-law Grace was not smiling or laughing. I saw hertake several deep breaths. What had I done? How angry was mymother-in-law? Was she going to scream? Was she going to scold me? Wasshe going to slap my face? . How deeply rooted in her mind it really was. How every time anyone got just a little glimpse of it, they would tell her that she scared them. She couldn’t do that to him…. But she already had…. And she hated herself for that. She had scared him once already, let him see the one mark she had made, the first mark she had made in months. A mark she made because those feelings she tries to hide so deep came clawing back to the surface. Feelings she thought she had locked away for good. But feelings. It must have made a pretty picture to have me in my bathrobe and coffee sitting in front of the computer this morning.I had a sudden shiver down my spine.What if she’d left a chat open on her computer? I could be sitting in someone’s private office right now. At least I’d disconnected the network from the modem first thing. I crawled under the desk and unplugged the webcam from the video input port on the tower. But the feeling wouldn’t leave me alone. I went into the kitchen and saw the laptop. ’ ‘I already have, and she ripped my heart away.’ Her brown eyes were turning raw and out ran large frightened tears as she tried to hold her pride together. I hesitated, my mind twisted with anger against a woman who could be so cruel to such a delicate rose, then reached for her holding her against me. She held enough anger. I needed to provide her with compassion. ‘She is a fool, Sweeting,’ I whispered in her ear. I held her against me for the rest of the evening while the club churned out.