“What?”
“Us. Us. Every time you say us, it’s you and the girls. You and your sisters. It’s never you and me. Not anymore.”
“That’s becauseyoupulled away.”
“I had to. You weren’t here for me. Not really.”
“I was raising our daughters!”
“The daughtersyouwanted.”
She gaped at him, struck dumb.
After a moment, she stood and went down the hall to make sure that both girls were asleep. She gingerly closed their bedroom door and then went back to the kitchen.
Trent was sitting right where she had left him.
“Are you saying that you don’t want our children?” she hissed in a low whisper.
“You’re the one who wanted to be a parent so bad,” he replied.
She just stared at him. It felt as though her whole world had tilted off its access. Then he gave her another one of those looks – those patronizing, don’t-be-stupid looks, and rage began to simmer beneath her shock.
“I love our daughters,” he said. “I just don’t love you anymore.”
Those words caused her physical pain. She grabbed a chair and sat down before she could fall to her knees.
Even in her grief, she hated that she was showing him any weakness. She hated that she cared so much about a man who no longer cared about her at all.
“Are you leaving?” she asked after a while.
His mouth pulled to one side, and he looked away.
“What?” she demanded.
“I thought… since you keep talking about moving down to Pualena anyway… I figured that I could stay in the house.”
“You’re kickingmeout?” she asked in disbelief. “Me and the girls?”
Trent rolled his eyes. “Don’t be dramatic. You’ve been begging to leave all summer. I just don’t want to go with you.”
“But the girls…”
“Homeschool them if you want. It’s fine. They can come here on the weekends.”
She stared at him, stunned that he would write his daughters off so easily after insisting all summer that they stay the course and stick to the plan.
Then it dawned on her.
“There’s someone else… isn’t there?”
His expression barely changed. Anyone else might have missed the faint look of guilt that flickered across his face. But Oakley had known this man for a long, long time.
“Who?” she asked.
He stared down at his hands. “Jennifer.”
It took a moment for the name to register. “The influencer behind that cutesy cartoon dieting app?ThatJennifer?”
