Those words undid me more than anything else had.
I pressed a hand over my mouth.
“I’m sorry, too, sweetheart.”
“Do you want me to come home?”
“No, not tonight. I don’t want you making decisions while you’re upset. Finish what you need to do at school. We’ll talk properly when you’re ready.”
“But you shouldn’t be alone.”
“I’m not alone. Aunt Margaret is helping me.”
Olivia began to cry.
I let her.
I did not tell her that everything would be fine, because I could not promise that. I did not tell her that her father was a terrible person, because I would not erase eighteen years of family life in a single conversation.
I told her that I loved her.
I told her that she and Ethan had done nothing wrong.
And I promised that whatever happened between their father and me, we would never ask them to carry the responsibility for our marriage.
