Beard in Waiting

A Long scene/short story featuring two unlikely characters from the Winston Brothers series.
"My ex may not have been good for much, but once my business started turning a good profit, he’d been free with his hugs. He’d been stingy with everything else, though. I’d recently tried to remember the last time we’d kissed and I couldn’t. In retrospect, given all the facts, I should have realized his abhorrence for good food was the first sign that his soul was black as midnight. I could have blamed my blindness on being so young when we got married, but I wouldn’t. I didn’t shirk my responsibility. I accepted and I learned from it and I moved on. Granted, I’d been seventeen and he’d been twenty seven. For so many years, where he led I followed. Eventually, I found my footing with business, came into my own with the hotel and the bakery. I’d been running all over hell's half acre trying to be successful, to please him, to make him proud. I’d succeeded making money, but in every other way that mattered, he’d been in control. The second sign of his dark heart was his antipathy about my satisfaction in the bedroom. He didn’t care whether or not I orgasmed during sex, he never had. As far as I was concerned, that fact alone officially made him evil incarnate. And the third sign was how he treated our children.
Actually, that hadn’t been a sign. How he treated my sweet children was a neon billboard, but I’d been too stupid and stubborn and— “Momma. Please. I have to go.” Sighing, I released my daughter, a twinge of guilt making it difficult to breathe, and nodded. “Alright. But be safe.” Jennifer gave me one more smile and I admired my beautiful daughter beautiful inside and out—and couldn’t help but feel sad that she’d been forced to be strong in spite of her father, not because of him."