The weeks that followed were difficult.
We told the children about the separation together.
We didn’t tell them every detail, and I refused to turn their father into a villain in their eyes. Whatever happened between Ryan and me, they still deserved to love both parents without feeling guilty.
Lia cried.
Declan became quiet.
Oliver asked whether his father would still come home for his birthday.
“Of course,” Ryan told him.
And I hoped he would keep that promise.
Because our marriage was ending, but our responsibilities as parents were not.
Ryan moved into an apartment nearby while we worked through the arrangements.
Dawson separated from Megan.
Neither of us wanted to discuss the details of our marriages with everyone we knew. We were both trying to make sense of what had happened without allowing other people’s curiosity to become another source of pain.
Dawson and I occasionally spoke.
Sometimes we talked about the betrayal.
