Too busy.
Too consumed by work.
He told me he was sacrificing for our future.
In reality?
He was spending my trust like a credit line.
I didn’t destroy him.
I simply stopped protecting him.
In the end:
I kept the house.
The lake house equity shifted in my favor.
The court saw through his deception.
Ethan moved into the life he had built.
Only now…
he had to fund it himself.
And Lauren?
Last I heard…
she learned something quickly.
A man who can live two lives at once…
usually ends up losing both.
As for me?
I stayed.
In Chicago.
I planted herbs on the back steps.
Took my first real vacation in six years.
