He Thought I Would Silently Endure

Mort

a Lowe, in a quiet café downtown. The steam rising from my coffee

her tailored blazer, stirred her latte, her gaze fixed

heart

ched you love that man like he hung the moon. You planned your entire career around his, moved into his firm to support

he words feeling thin and inadequa

er the rest.

uliana's eyes hardened instantly

my marriage. Blake was obsessed with privacy, a fortress of passwords and locked files on his computer, his pho

ords to, were a public gallery of his time with her. Photos of them kissing, captioned with

It's the best you'll ever have," he'd promised. It was only later, when I saw a photo of him and Isabelle in that same booth, an e

partner; I was a stand-in, a ghost actress in the revival of his own past. He hadn't just neglected

ice firm, pulling me from the spiral of painful memories. "Are you sure, Kace

as a challenge to his authority

st acquired," she' d said after our wedding. "Not like the woman he can't live without." I hadn't listened.

rken, "it's like everyone tells you the stove is hot. But you don

e windows, blurring the world outside. A few minutes later, Juliana

, handing it to her before kissing her

softening as she looked at hi

ated transactions of my own marriage. Blake and I didn't have that. We had schedules and obligat

orcing a smile. "I'll wai

tnership. The question echoed in my mind, one I had been pushing away for years. Why was i

old face. And then, the answer hit me with the forc

ave been the most perfect woman in t

ove me enough. An