The next morning, Kassie woke up with a clarity that surprised her. Emma was still sleeping, her soft breathing audible through the baby monitor, and instead of lying in bed replaying the previous night’s conversation with Marcus, Kassie found herself thinking about the woman she wanted to be.
She wanted to be someone who could hear about an ex-wife’s reconciliation attempt and trust her partner’s response without spiraling. She wanted to be someone who modeled healthy relationships for all her children, not someone who taught them that love was something to be guarded against.
Most importantly, she wanted to be whole on her own before she tried to build something with someone else.
By the time the morning chaos began—Lee rushing around looking for his history textbook, Aaron searching
