Ethan learned about Vanessa's conversation with her father the same way he'd learned nearly everything important this year — after the fact, from someone who wasn't her. Marcus, of all people, still cordial enough despite the resignation to send a brief, unprompted text: Heard Vanessa killed her father's story on Sophia. Thought you'd want to know it wasn't you who did the right thing this time. Ethan read it twice, feeling something complicated settle into his chest — gratitude toward a woman he was about to lose, and a fresh, specific shame at realizing she'd managed, in one conversation, an act of integrity he hadn't found the courage for in three years of marriage.
He found her packing, two days later, in the apartment they'd shared for eight months, boxes half-filled with the particu
