Apparently, I had been protecting a marriage that Daniel no longer respected.
After a while, I washed my face.
I looked at myself in the mirror.
My eyes were red, and my hands were shaking, but I forced myself to breathe.
Then I heard the back door open.
“Margaret?” Daniel called. “Have you seen my phone?”
I stepped out of the bathroom.
“It’s on the kitchen table.”
He picked it up and glanced at the screen.
For one terrible second, I thought he could somehow see the truth in my face.
Instead, he smiled.
“Thank you, sweetheart.”
Sweetheart.
I wondered whether he had called Sofia the same thing that morning.
“You’re welcome,” I replied.
That night, I lay beside him while he fell asleep within minutes.
I stared at the ceiling for hours.
At some point, my sadness began to change into something colder and clearer.
I wasn’t going to beg him to love me.
