“I can. I am. You don’t get to walk away clean.”
He took a step toward me. “Stop.”
“You don’t get the house.”
“Stop.”
“You don’t get to tell people this was a mutual split. The truth is going to be out there for everyone to see.”
“It voids in cases of infidelity.”
His face hardened. Panic gave way to anger. “You are overreacting.”
“No, I most certainly am not.” I stepped back and pointed toward the front door. “You wanted something else? Go have it. But you don’t get to stay here and act like it means nothing.”
No one moved.
That was the remarkable part. Twenty people in that room, and not one person rushed to rescue him.
Not one person said I should calm down.
Not one person told me to think this through.
I stepped back and pointed toward the front door.
He looked around the table, maybe waiting for someone to throw him a rope.
Dana stared at her hands.
His cousin looked away.
My brother glared at him like he was just waiting for me to ask for help to throw Mark out.
Beatrice met her son’s eyes and gave him nothing.
That was when he understood that he was alone.
He looked around the table, maybe waiting for someone to throw him a rope.
He grabbed his jacket off the chair in a jerky motion.
He looked at me, and for one second, I thought he might say sorry. I thought maybe 14 years of marriage had earned me that much.
But he didn’t.
“You’re going to regret this,” he said in a low voice. “I’m the best thing that ever happened to you.”
“If that were true, then you would never have betrayed me like this.”
He clenched his jaw, then spun on his heel and stormed out of the room.
For one second, I thought he might say sorry.
The front door opened. Closed.
And the whole house went still.
I was still standing there with photos in one hand, printed messages in the other, my Easter tulips bright and stupid in the center of the table.
For 14 years, I had kept everything together. That day was the first time I let it fall.
And for the first time in a very long time, I thought maybe losing him was not the same thing as losing my life.
Maybe it was how I got it back.
For 14 years, I had kept everything together.
