Not How can I fix this?
You’re destroying everything.
Because I had exposed it.
I looked at the man I had loved for more than a decade.
For the first time, I saw him without the memories attached.
Not the twenty-six-year-old who proposed to me beside a frozen lake.
Not the nervous father who cried when Tyler was born.
Not the husband who brought me soup when I had pneumonia.
Just a man standing in front of me, angry that his secret had become inconvenient.
“The party is over,” I said.
Mark stared at me.
“Rachel.”
I ignored him.
I looked at everyone else.
“Please take your children, your things, whatever you brought. I’m sorry the evening ended this way.”
Nobody argued.
People began moving.
Quickly.
Awkwardly.
Whispers spread across the yard.
Dana remained beside the table.
“What should I do?” she asked.
I looked at her.
It may have been the strangest question anyone had ever asked me.
“What should you do?”
She nodded helplessly.
“You should leave my house.”
Her face crumpled.
“Rachel—”
“And don’t ever call me again.”
She grabbed her purse and left through the side gate.
Mark started after her.
That hurt more than I expected.
Even then.
Even after everything.
His instinct was still to follow her.
“Mark.”
He stopped.
I pointed toward the house.
“Your overnight bag is in our bedroom closet.”
“You’re kicking me out?”
“Yes.”
