Marian didn’t remember the walk back to her desk.
She remembered only fragments—the hum of fluorescent lights, the polite nods from coworkers who suddenly wouldn’t meet her eyes, the way her hands trembled just enough that she had to curl them into fists to keep steady. By the time she shut her office door behind her, the composure she had held together with sheer will finally cracked.
She sank into her chair and stared at nothing.
Elise’s words replayed in her mind like a bruise being pressed again and again.
I stayed when you didn’t.
I gave him a daughter.
You have to leave him. Just do it again.
Marian swallowed hard.
She had left because she thought she was doing the right thing. Because she believed stepping away was the only way to survive the betrayal without destroying hers
