Natalie's POV
Daniel fell asleep within minutes.
That was the part I couldn't stop turning over. After the candles, after the threat, after I had said I needed time, he had come to bed, turned onto his side, and gone to sleep like a man whose evening had ended exactly as planned.
At 3 a.m. I was still awake, lying very still so I wouldn't wake him, listening to him breathe.
I picked up my phone and opened the notes app. I didn't know what I was going to write. My thumbs moved on their own, and when I stopped, the screen said:
What would it actually take to leave?
I looked at the sentence for a long time. It was the first honest thing I had written all week. I didn't delete it, and I didn't add anything under it. I locked the screen and lay in the dark with my heart pounding as if I h
