Chapter 2: The Woman in the Lexus
I followed him to the door barefoot, my voice trapped somewhere between fear and disbelief.
“You’re leaving?”
Mark finally looked at me, but only for a second. There was no apology in his eyes. No tenderness. Just impatience, as if my pain were an inconvenience delaying his escape.
“I can’t do this anymore,” he said.
Behind me, Lily stirred in her sleep. She was four years old, curled around the stuffed rabbit Mark had bought her back when he still pretended fatherhood meant something.
I looked past him through the rain-streaked window.
Vanessa Cole sat in the passenger seat of her own Lexus, her manicured fingers resting on the steering wheel. She did not even hide. She watched our motel door like she had already won an auction.
Mark stepped outside with his suitcase.
He did not look back at Lily.
That was the moment something inside me stopped begging and went silent… Continue Reading ⬇️