Daniel nods once. “Divorce is it.”
And when I look at Talia, pale and silent beside me, one thought keeps repeating like a bad chant.
Coach Petrov is going to find out.
10
TALIA
Drowning
The ride back from Daniel’s office is silent.
Not the kind of silence that feels peaceful. Not the kind where words aren’t needed.
This silence is heavy. Sharp. Full of everything Jake isn’t saying.
He grips the steering wheel like it personally offended him. His jaw is locked so tight I can see the muscle jumping beneath his skin. He doesn’t look at me once.
Not when we leave the building.
Not when we reach the car.
Not now, as the city blurs past the window and the word divorce echoes in my head like a threat.
Divorce.
I curl my fingers into my coat sleeve, watching his reflection in the glass instead of looking at him directly. He looks harder somehow. More distant.
Angrier.
I deserve that anger.
I missed the deadline. I turned a clean exit into a legal process that could drag out for months.
Maybe longer.
The thought makes my stomach twist.
Jake pulls into his driveway without a word. The engine cuts, but neither of us moves right away.
For a second, I think he might finally say something.
Instead, he just gets out of the car.
I follow quietly, my chest tight and uncertain.
He drops his keys on the counter with a sharp clatter and walks straight past me toward the stairs.
He doesn’t tell me to leave.
He doesn’t tell me to stay.
He doesn’t tell me anything.
His footsteps disappear upstairs, and a second later I hear a door close.
I stand there in the middle of the kitchen, suddenly alone.
