Chapter 4
By the fourth night, I had everything organized.
Over three hundred screenshots. Timeline complete.
But there was one message I didn’t see until 2 AM.
From early 2023. Less than two years ago.
Marcus posted something long. Unusual-he never typed more than a sentence in that chat.
I read it. Word by word. Each one a knife.
“Mom, I’m being real with you. Three more years on the mortgage, then I’m ending things with Mia. Lily can’t keep waiting. I know it’s been rough on her.”
Patricia: “Okay sweetie. Just handle it cleanly.”
Vanessa started typing “Sis-” then backspaced. “Bro, whatever you think is right.”
Lily didn’t respond immediately. Thirty minutes later; a hugging emoji.
I set the phone down.
2:17 AM.
Silent. Dark. Empty.
Marcus sleeping next to me like he didn’t have a care in the world.
Three more years.
Three more years of mortgage payments. Then he’d “come clean.
I’d been paying $4,800 a month for six years. Three years left,
He was waiting for me to finish naving off L
Chapter 4
With “his real family.”
I wasn’t his wife.
I was a fucking ATM with a wedding ring.
I didn’t touch his phone again that night.
Just lay there staring at the ceiling.
That crack in the plaster-the one that connected to the wall, the one we never fixed.
I used to hate looking at it.
Now I appreciated it.
At least it was honest. Cracked meant cracked. It didn’t pretend to be whole.
Morning. Marcus woke up and found me dressed, sitting at the table.
“You’re up early.”
“Couldn’t sleep.”
He looked at me for half a second. Didn’t ask why.
Poured himself water. Left.
The door clicked shut.
I picked up his glass.
Lukewarm. He always drank room temperature water.
Eight years married. He never once asked how I liked mine.
I dumped it in the sink.
Opened my laptop.
New Excel file.
File name: Asset Division.
Chapter # berit
WH
wasn’t waiting three years.
I wasn’t waiting another goddamn day.
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