A Wife's Undeniable Scars

ration a third presence in the suffocating silence of th

for a pen on the hall table. He scribbled his name at the bottom of the las

list. That' s all my needs had become to h

to my forehead. "Buy whatever you

he wa

ched in my hand. He had just signed away our marriage as if it were a cre

ad against my chest, and the fragile dam holding back

it again. To burn the reality of his betrayal into my brain until

ana was waiting for him at the do

a physical blow. The same dark, intense

ed in his shoulder. "Cody missed you so much. He crie

s hand stroking her hair. It was

gentle, practiced. He held Cody with a tenderness I had only ever dreamed of receiving. The

ftly, murmuring nonsense until

aped my lips befor

k to my belly for hours, telling our unborn child stories about his day, promising to teach them how to sail, how to build thi

for his precious wife, while his

Kiana, I hated her more. She had orchestrated all o

ld as if he were the most p

myself to watch, to sear the image into my min

e my head said. "Look at what he is. Forge

he tears finally co

myself grieve for the man I lost. And then, to

going to start asking questions. Kids at the park are already teasing him for not having a daddy." She let out a

perfectly. The repentant

home. To your home. Just for a little while. I wa

de my space, to plant her flag in m

wouldn' t. He couldn' t. Our home was our sanctuary. He was pathological

own heart beating, a frantic drum against the sile

Drake.

d face to the sleeping child in his

he n

kay

was a gunshot in

t just break. I

love, my hope, my pain-it was all a

d lost e