Her lips part slightly.
“You can live your life however you want,” I continue. “Work where you want. Build what you want. I won’t interfere.”
“There are certain events we’ll attend together. Obligations. Appearances. Outside these walls, we’re married and happy. That doesn’t change.” I gesture vaguely around us.
I tap the table once. “But inside this house, we’re honest. Open. Which means no more pretending you’re in this with me when you’re not.”
She’s staring at me now like the ground just shifted.
“I’m sorry about Elliott,” she says quickly. “You have to understand—I never chose him.”
She reaches across the table, placing her hand over mine.
Warm. Familiar. Too much.
“I never picked Elliott,” she says softly.
My chest tightens painfully.
Slowly, deliberately, I pull my hand away.
I stand before I lose my nerve, turning my back to her because if I look at her right now, I won’t walk away.
Not if I seehope in her eyes.
“But Sweetheart,” I say quietly, my voice rough despite my effort to keep it steady, “you didn’t pick me either.”
I leave the kitchen without waiting for her answer.
And it’s the hardest thing I’ve done yet.
Choice and Consequence
Sabrina
The silence he leaves behind is louder than anything we said.
I sit there for a moment after he walks away, staring at the place where his back disappeared, my chest tight like I forgot how to breathe properly. I’m not angry. Not really.
I’m hollow.
I was the one who said one year.
I was the one who drew the line in the sand like it was armor—like if I limited the time, I couldn’t get hurt.
But hearing him agree to it?
Hearing him say it out loud, calmly, decisively—like it was already settled?
It slices deeper than I expected.
I push back from the table and make my way upstairs slowly, each step heavier than the last. The house feels different now. Too big. Too quiet. Like something warm just slipped through my fingers and I didn’t realize I was holding it so tightly until it was gone.
When I reach the bedroom, another wave crashes over me.
He isn’t here.
The bed is untouched. His side is empty. Cold.
