Chapter 9 - The Tragic Choice
The cabin was so quiet you could hear the fire crackling in the hearth.
Marcus looked back and forth between me and the woman he had married.
Chloe grabbed his arm, digging her manicured nails into his sleeve.
"Marcus, don't listen to her!" she hissed.
"She's trying to control you!"
"She's jealous of our love!"
I sat perfectly still, waiting for the boy I raised to make a man's decision.
For a moment, I saw the hesitation in his eyes.
I saw the exhaustion, the regret, and the desperate desire to be free of her constant demands.
But then, Chloe began to cry fake, crocodile tears.
"Please, Marcus, she hates me," Chloe sobbed, burying her face in his shoulder.
Marcus’s shoulders slumped in defeat.
He wrapped his arm around her, choosing his toxic wife over his own mother.
"I can't leave her, Mom," he whispered, refusing to meet my eyes.
"We're married."
I felt my heart break into a million tiny pieces, but my resolve hardened like steel.
"Then we have nothing left to discuss."
"Get out of my house."
Marcus tried to say something else, but I stood up and pointed toward the door.
May you like
"Leave."
They walked out into the cold afternoon, and I locked the heavy wooden door behind them.
