The Price of a Perfect Marriage and the Silent Rebuild of My Worth
Ethan thought he had won because he had found a way to hurt me through my father.
But he had underestimated how desperate Lila was becoming.
I had seen the way she looked at him in the office corridor last week.
It was not the look of a woman who felt secure.
It was the look of someone who was beginning to realize she had been used.
My phone buzzed on the counter.
I reached for it, expecting a text from my lawyer.
Instead, a notification popped up on the screen.
It was an email from an anonymous address.
The subject line was blank.
I opened it.
There was an attachment labeled *Drafts_Dec_12*.
My finger hovered over the screen.
I tapped the file to download it.
As the progress bar crept slowly toward the right, I heard the sound of a car engine in the driveway.
Headlights swept across the kitchen window, casting bright, moving squares of light against the white cabinets.
Ethan was back.
I quickly locked the phone and slid it into my pocket.
The garage door began to rumble open, vibrating through the kitchen floor.