"Just emails regarding Lily's schedule," Audrey said. "He keeps it strictly about her. And he hasn't been to therapy."
Every Tuesday and Thursday at four o'clock, Audrey drove to Dr. Thorne’s office.
Simon did not show up for the second week, nor the third.
Audrey sat in the winged armchair, looking at the empty velvet sofa, and she talked. Without Simon there to trigger her anger or demand her forgiveness, she was finally able to unravel the complicated knot of her own heartbreak. She cried over the loss of her best friend. She raged over the profound disrespect of his lies. She voiced the deep, terrifying insecurities his affair had planted in her mind, and with Dr. Thorne’s gentle guidance, she began to pull them out by the roots.
She was learning how to forgive herself for not seeing the signs, and she was realizing, with a quiet, unshakeable certainty, that she was going to be completely fine without him.
∞∞∞
Then came the Thursday of the fourth week.
Audrey pulled her sedan into the clinic’s parking lot. The late afternoon sun cast long, golden shadows across the pavement. She turned off the engine, taking a deep breath of the crisp air, feeling grounded and centered in her own skin.
She grabbed her purse and stepped out of the car.
As she walked toward the glass entrance of the building, her eyes caught on a dark vehicle parked near the back of the lot.
It was Simon’s car.
Audrey’s footsteps slowed for a fraction of a second. Her heart gave a sudden, hard thump against her ribs, but the blinding, red-hot panic that used to accompany his presence didn't rise up to choke her. She didn't feel the urge to turn around and run.
She adjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder, lifted her chin, and pushed through the glass doors.
When she walked into the waiting room, Simon was sitting in one of the leather chairs. He was wearing a simple, dark sweater and jeans, stripped of his usual expensive corporate suits. He looked thinner, his face pale and deeply lined with exhaustion. The faint, yellowish fading of a bruise still shadowed his cheekbone from the fight in her driveway three weeks ago.
He looked up as she walked in. His dark eyes instantly locked onto hers, swimming with a heavy, profound sorrow that seemed to carry the weight of the entire world. He didn't stand up. He didn't try to close the distance or force a greeting. He simply watched her, looking entirely defeated.
"Audrey," Dr. Thorne’s voice called softly from the hallway.
Audrey broke eye contact with Simon. She walked past him without a word, stepping into the warm, quiet space of the therapist's office and taking her usual seat in the winged armchair.
A moment later, Simon walked through the door.
The three weeks of peace were over. The real work was about to begin.
Chapter 30
Simon
The soft, rhythmic hum of the white noise machine filled the heavy silence of Dr. Thorne’s office.
Audrey sat in her usual armchair, her hands folded loosely in her lap. For the first time since this process began, she wasn't bracing herself for an attack. The last three weeks of quiet routine with Lily and her own deep, uninterrupted reflection had given her a solid place to stand. She was hurting, but she was no longer fragile.
Across from her, Simon sat on the edge of the velvet sofa. He didn't have his usual commanding posture. His shoulders were slumped, his hands resting heavily on his knees.
Dr. Thorne clicked his pen, breaking the silence. "Welcome back, Simon. You missed the last six sessions."
Simon swallowed hard. He didn't look at the therapist; he looked directly at Audrey.
"I stayed away because I was making it worse," Simon said, his voice quiet and completely devoid of the defensive edge he had carried for months. "After that night in the driveway... Iwent to my mother’s house. And she forced me to look at what I was actually doing."
Audrey’s brow furrowed slightly. She had expected him to cite the humiliation of the fight, or the demands of his agency, as his excuse for missing therapy. She hadn't expected this raw, unvarnished admission.
"What were you doing, Simon?" Dr. Thorne asked gently.
"I was treating her like something I owned," Simon confessed, his dark eyes never leaving Audrey's face. The sorrow in his expression was profound and entirely genuine. "I was so consumed by my own panic over losing my life that I wasn't even looking at her pain. In the driveway, I yelled at her for finding comfort with someone else, when I was the one who destroyed our home by sleeping with Emily in the first place. I was a hypocrite. And I realized that if I came into this room just to argue and defend my ego, I was only going to hurt her more."
