“What do you mean?”
“You could have become bitter. You could have spent five years trying to make her regret what she said. You could have used your success to humiliate her.”
I glanced toward the house.
“Instead, you built something that mattered to me.”
He smiled faintly.
“I won’t pretend I never wanted to prove her wrong.”
“I understand.”
“But I don’t want our child growing up believing that the point of success is to make other people feel small.”
I rested my hand against my stomach.
“Neither do I.”
For a long time, we sat together beneath the oak tree.
Eventually, I asked the question that had been forming in my mind since we arrived.
“What if we lived here?”
Ethan turned toward me.
“What?”
“We’ve been talking about moving somewhere quieter. Somewhere with trees and a backyard.”
He glanced at the house.
“Liv, I didn’t buy it expecting you to move here.”
