She stared at me.
“What?”
“Leave.”
“Grant…”
“I said leave.”
She looked at me for several seconds.
Then something changed in her face.
Something closed.
She packed one duffel bag.
I froze the joint accounts before she reached the front gate.
I had security deactivate her access code.
By midnight, Laura Whitmore—my wife of seven years—was locked out of her own home.
Three months later, our divorce was final.
Serena became the person who helped me “recover.”
Six months after that, we were engaged.
And for almost a year, I told myself the same story.
Laura stole from me.
Laura cheated.
Laura betrayed me.
Laura disappeared because guilty people run.
That story made everything simple.
Then I saw two babies beside a highway.
And nothing was simple anymore.
I dropped Serena at a designer boutique twenty minutes later.
She leaned through the open passenger door before closing it.
“You’re being weird.”
“I’m tired.”