Chapter 4 - The First Night Alone
The silence that settled over the house that evening was entirely different from the silence before.
It was no longer heavy or suffocating.
It was light, peaceful, and beautifully quiet.
I ordered a massive pizza for myself, eating it directly out of the box while sitting on the living room rug.
There was no one to criticize my posture, my diet, or the fact that I was wearing sweatpants.
When Leo woke up crying for his midnight feeding, I did not feel a sudden surge of anxiety.
I didn't have to worry about Beatrice bursting into the nursery to tell me I was holding him wrong.
I sat in the rocking chair, humming a soft lullaby as my son looked up at me with big, sleepy eyes.
“It is just you and me now, little guy,” I whispered, kissing his soft, warm forehead.
“And I promise no one will ever make us feel small in our own home again.”
My phone buzzed relentlessly on the nightstand throughout the entire night.
I had forty-two missed calls and over fifty text messages from Liam.
His messages shifted wildly from angry demands to pathetic, whining apologies.
“You are destroying our family over a stupid picture,” one text read.
“Please just let me come home, Mom is driving me crazy at the hotel,” read another.
I turned the phone on silent and tossed it into the bedside drawer.
He had made his choice when he stared at his shoes instead of defending his wife.
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I fell asleep feeling completely exhausted but entirely victorious.
Tomorrow, the real war was going to begin, but tonight, I was going to rest.
