I sat by the window watching Ava and Mia sleep.
And thought.
For the first time, I stopped asking myself how I could save my marriage.
I started asking how I could get out.
When we reached the house, Ryan dropped his bag beside the door.
He looked around.
Then at me.
“So.”
I waited.
“What’s for dinner?”
I stared at him.
“Seriously?”
He rolled his eyes.
“Claire, come on.”
“No.”
“We’ve been happy.”
“Have we?”
“It’s not like you havesomewhere else to go.”
My whole body went cold.
Ryan shrugged.
“So get over it already.”
That sentence did something the cheating hadn’t managed to do.
It removed the last bit of uncertainty.
He knew I was financially trapped.
And he believed that meant he could treat me however he wanted.
I smiled faintly.
He mistook it for surrender.
He shouldn’t have.
The next morning, I called my best friend, Dana, from the nursery.
