I freeze, her words hitting me like a physical blow.
"What are you talking about, Ceci? We are not getting divorced, and I am not leaving our home!" I shout, exasperated.
She can't mean this.She can't.
"You heard me. If you're still here when we come back tomorrow, you'll have to be the one to tell the kids why I'm asking you to leave. Ethan already knows something's wrong; Alicia doesn't, not yet."
“W-what does Ethan know?” I ask, terrified of the answer.
"He overheard you on the phone Tuesday morning, just before you left the house. Ordering expensive flowers and chocolates with a birthday card for your mistress."
"Ceci, that was nothing. It didn't mean anything," I say, deliberately ignoring the wordmistress.
She lets out a harsh, humorless scoff.
"All the years Margaret worked for you, how many times did you send her flowers and chocolates for her birthday? For Christmas? Or even recently, when she was in the hospital?"
I say nothing.
"Please, don't be here tomorrow. I really don't want to have this conversation with them right now. If it were up to me, I'd be the one leaving this house… these walls feel like they echo every single one of your lies. But I won't tear my children's lives apart any more than their father's choices have already fractured them."
Herchildren. Notours.
When she's done, she snatches the purse from the armchair. I catch her arm before she can take another step.
"Don't go.Please don't go. Let's talk—let me explain it properly. We can fix this. It was just a mistake, a mistake I'll never make again. I loveyoumore than anything—that's all that should matter."
Ceci wrenches her arm free, her eyes locking onto mine with a force that pins me in place.
"I don'twantyour love. Not when all it's brought me in the end is pain. A mistake would be leaving the door unlocked when you left, or forgetting to pay a bill before it's due. You madechoices, Colin. And I wasn't one of them."
Her voice breaks as she says it. “I’m choosingmyselfnow.”
She looks at me, anguished eyes searching my face one last time.
“Goodbye, Colin.”
I stand frozen, my tongue heavy, unable to form a single word.
I can only watch as she turns, as the door closes behind her… and the world around me caves in.
Cecily
I force myself to keep walking without looking back. One step at a time, even as my legs weaken, trembling, ready to give out at any moment. Afraid that if I fall now, I'll never rise again.
When I reach the other side of the street, I can't resist. I turn, glancing back at the house.
The thought of returning tomorrow brings no comfort. I don't think I can ever be happy within those walls again.
It was never the house I would have chosen for us. Too big, too showy.
And yet, somehow, I made it a home.Ourhome.
But bad memories have a way of eclipsing the good.
I want only to remember the first time Colin brought us here after buying the house. The way Ethan tore through the living room, shouting just to hear his own echo.
The first swim in the pool, the three of us together, Colin holding Ethan in his arms. Alicia's first steps. Every birthday party... so many moments.
