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Every sentence makes me hate him more.

"He'd apologize. He'd promise it would never happen again. Then he'd spend weeks being perfect." Her fingers tighten together. "After a while, I stopped paying attention to what he did. I paid attention to who he'd be afterward."

I swallow hard. "Mags..."

"He'd tell me nobody else would want me. That I was difficult. Too emotional. Too stubborn. Too much work." She finally lifts her head. Tears shine in her eyes. "And after enough years, I started believing him."

I lean forward, meeting her gaze. "None of that’s true."

"I believed him. For years."

The guilt in her expression hits harder than any part of the story so far.

She talks about it like she committed the crime instead of surviving it.

"He never hurt Lucy," she says, the words tumbling out. "I need you to know that. He never touched her."

I nod before she's even finished speaking. “Good to know."

"He loves her."

Pain flashes across her face.

It's the part people hate talking about. The part that makes everything messier.

Tom loves his daughter.

Tom also terrorized Maggie.

Both things can exist at the same time, and that reality makes me sick.

"He’s good with her," Maggie says softly.

I think about Lucy's dinosaur duvet and her obsession with mismatched socks. I think about picking her up from school and listening to stories that take twenty minutes to tell and can somehow involve dragons, a substitute teacher, and three entirely unrelated snacks.

Then I remember her asking if I'd come back too.

“Plus, he has his parents' support.” I wait while she searches for the right words. "They've spent years believing the best about their son," she says at last. "They knew I wasn't happy. They saw the arguments, the apologies, all the times I'd turn up exhausted and pretend I was fine, but Tom always had an explanation waiting before anyone could ask too many questions."

She lets out a weary breath and looks down at the cup in her hands.

"If I'd tried taking Lucy with me, Tom would've known before I made it out of town. He would've called the police, his parents, everyone he knew. I'd never have made it onto the highway."

My chest tightens.

"Leaving Lucy bought me time," she continues, her eyes filling with tears. "They'd keep her safe while everyone believed I was having another breakdown or running away from my problems. Tom would've focused on finding me because he knew exactly where Lucy was."

Her lips tremble as she forces herself to keep going.

"Walking away from my little girl broke me," she whispers. "I still wake up hating myself for it."

I reach across the table and take her hand.

She squeezes mine hard enough to hurt.

"It was the worst choice I've ever made," she says, her gaze dropping to our joined hands. "It was also the only one that gave either of us a chance."

The ache in my chest spreads. "Maggie..."