SHE DIDN’T SCREAM
That almost made it worse.
Marissa stood in our kitchen crying quietly.
No accusations.
No broken dishes.
No threats.
She simply stared at me as though she no longer recognized the man she had married.
Finally, she said:
“I didn’t do this.”
I looked away.
“One day you are going to learn that.”
Her voice was barely above a whisper.
“And when you do…”
She wiped her cheek.
“…I hope you can live with what you did before you knew the truth.”
I let her leave.
I did not listen.
THE DIVORCE HAPPENED FAST
Marissa contested almost nothing.
No fight over the furniture.
No request for support.
No battle over the Bellmere house.
Thomas recommended an attorney.
The papers arrived.
Marissa signed them.
Within two months—
she was gone.
Thomas handled what came next too.
Word spread through local businesses that Marissa had been dismissed from Carter Development Group for financial irregularities.
In a community like Bellmere—
that was enough.
Nobody wanted a bookkeeper suspected of stealing from an employer.
Marissa had almost no family left.
Her mother had died when she was nineteen.
The aunt who helped raise her had passed before our wedding.
She disappeared from Bellmere.
And instead of asking where she went—
I told myself she deserved whatever happened next.
There was always a small part of me that recoiled whenever I thought that.
I ignored it too.
