The Woman I Didn't Marry
security infrastructure for the federal courthouse, when the edges of my vision sta
was my junior colleague, Ste
mell of antiseptic was nauseatingly
back among the liv
lf-eaten bag of chips in her lap. She was bright, witty, and refr
tion and dehydration," she said, crunching on a c
smile. "Stoppin
l glands," she quipped. "
nsion in my chest eased for a momen
he door
world s
with her name embroidered on it. She looked older, more polished, bu
her face before she smoothed it into a professional mask. "I heard one
Anderson. This is my boss, Ethan Lester. Ethan, this is t
thick I could h
tell the boss you're officially on medical leave, so don't even think about checking y
nce was
n," she said, her voice soft. "You just disappeared
the distance, all the years I'd spent building a wall around myself, and he
asked, the questi
id, her voice brittle. "He cheated on me. With some old flame from high sch
angest dream a few months ago. It felt so real. It was a whole other life. We were married, we ha
my throat. A dream.
contents spilling onto the floor. Amidst the lipstick
gram p
ifying echo of the past. The confirmation of t
ck it up, but it was t
ant," she whispered, her voic
place. The final, brutal truth of my past l
I' d stayed home for, the one
he sonogram in her hand,
a strangled whisper. "She wa
sob was