The Scarf That Broke Us
a divorce,
ife. It was our fifth wedding anniversary, and the sterile, w
thumb flicking casually through real estate analytics. Her vo
y, Alex. I
nt away. For five years, I had been the talented but suppressed architect, a quiet fixture in the grand life of Victori
I said, my voice barely a wh
ction of an inch. She looked at me, but her eyes were dismissive, like she w
atic, Alex. It'
ine that would shatter t
eave you right now. I
nfused. "What are
ct. "I was hit with a 'love charm.' It' s a very potent local thi
ruel smirk play
sistant, Ryan. He' s the o
le justification for her infidelity, a way to frame her affair as an illness and my
down her silk dress, "I need to be with him to get bette
coffee table and picked
annive
Inside was a luxury watch, absurdl
or me. Ryan is moving in for a while, for my treatment. It would be best if you moved out tempora
s gone, replaced by this cold, manipulative stranger. My love had be
ured my soul into. She' d glanced at it for a second before tossing it aside. "It's cute, Alex. But it lacks ambition. You desi
my hand. Her emotional abuse, her blatant infidelit
y,"
pliant husband, agreeing to be discarded. But inside, a switch had flipped. Th
ntion back on her phone. She was already messaging
ng. She answered it wit
t is
d of Ryan' s voice on the oth
simple instruction?" She paced the room, her voice rising. "This is exactly the kind of incompetence I
me, as if the downtown tra
? You upset the b
nted toward
offee. The special beans, the one
re a welcome for the man who was replacing me in my own home, with coffee I had boug
ment. When Ryan finally arrived, I was forced to watch as Victoria greeted him with a possessive kiss,
ot looking at me. She was already str
my phone buzzed in my pocket. It was an email
olleague from university. I h
line read: A
ened
ou about at my firm in Northwood? It just opened up. I thought of you im
ood was a thousand miles away. A
sign. A
leave, with the sound of my wife and her lover laughing in the ot