The Woman He Thought He Broke

nt

ay from Ethan, from our life, from t

an break from the suffocating

etching before me, the memory of

everything

end Etha

ick getaway to a small lakesi

o I

back B

in my chest

e in my

reactions to shellfish, so

aella, Ethan had been so

ked with the chef.

from his phone where Chloe Sanders, his intern, w

be off, we were s

always f

nd, trying t

t. Maybe I should get

ttention was already driftin

hloe' s really in a bind.

worsened. My b

just "a li

real thing.

rp, pierced through

my voice raspy. "

utes? Chloe says Mr. Harrison is about to call he

managed, each word a struggl

s manipulative voice was a constant

vinced she was indispensable, a distant relative of some mythic

w didn't exist in

typing furiously. "Chloe, tell Harrison I' ll call

I didn

s danced i

choked out. "E

s phone down, a flick

y. Your Ep

the keys, his m

lumped against the ta

r what felt li

ace pale, he wasn'

one, Chloe' s tearful

nderson said it' s my job! He' ll think I' m incompetent! You know how much this mean

formance of distres

en at the phone, his f

s are corrupted, and she needs my access codes for the

ed, my lips numb

t an exag

t... Chloe, I' m sending t

oritiz

nd, the other hoveri

e talked her through

her to s

was suff

hysical blow, harder

er, manipulated by a jun

e, the man I' d hidden my family' s w

alright. Genuine,

ant, Chloe' s tinny voice, Ethan' s reassuran

t me, but at his phone, a small, triumphant smile pla

blac

e hospital room, an o

cian at the inn had recognized the signs, ad

wasn'

later, looking ru

risis... it was more complicated than I thought. By the time I got

en he never retrieved. He

loe, about the Henderso

called it. Built

other guest hadn't acted.

ough his hair. "But everything' s okay now, right? Chloe even mana

ere wa

anym

sted like as

e emotion that had been screaming inside me.

u talking about? I love you. Thi

oe. It was the foundation of lies our marriage was appar

ay, looking at the

while I was dying was

, Ethan drove me back t

ed with architectural books and

felt con

thick with h

scent of his cologne, usually a

ve coffee machine she' d "recommended," a framed photo on

to my

e a few months prior, a trip to clear my head after anoth

ted pa

ked away the Ava who be

os of us, shovin

mises of forever, felt like a c

he phone with him, her laugh

, still high on

" he asked, seeing the su

? Tell her I got those fabric swatches she wanted for the g

was a gift from

Chloe, she' s here. She

still didn' t see the chas

loe, to the fabricated debt to her

Ethan," I said,

me, really looked a

ing about? Because of the i

ything. It's her." I gestured vaguely to

d the l

as d