I woke up seven hours later to a quiet house. It was too quiet as I walked down the stairs. There was a note on the kitchen table in Charlotte’s handwriting.
“Blake,
William and I have gone home. I can’t talk to you right now.”
I looked at it and threw it in the dustbin. I started laughing. The one time I had told her the truth, and she didn’t believe me. She had believed every lie I had fed her but it was the truth she was blind to. I couldn’t blame her for leaving, it all looked bad. The photo, the text from Nataly, it all pointed to me doing something that I hadn’t.
It hurt though, her leaving and taking the kid with her. It hurt. All the feelings hurt. I felt sad and angry at myself and the house was empty once again. The old Blake would have preferred this, but the real me, I was
