He looked directly at Vanessa.
“I’ve spent weeks trying to keep the peace. But I dread coming home. I check my bank balance before I open the refrigerator.”
She turned her face away.
“I don’t want to live like that anymore.”
Every protective instinct urged me to advise him. But this was his life, and he needed us to hear his choice rather than make it for him.
“I didn’t invite you here to decide whether I should leave,” he said. “I invited you because I’ve already decided.”
Vanessa blanched.
“What?”
“We’re done.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I am.”
Neither offered to change his mind.
“Fine. But don’t come crying when everyone at your office hears how you treated me.”
Ethan flinched. She had repeated the precise threat he’d admitted fearing, with both mothers present to witness it.
“If someone asks me, I’ll tell them the truth.”
