I had waited.
But that evening, for the first time, I had heard how he truly saw me.
“You were right about one thing,” I said.
He looked at me hopefully.
“What?”
“You should finally live for yourself.”
He
let out a relieved breath.
Then I continued.
“But no longer beside me.”
His face changed.
The following week, I accepted the new position.
Mike’s future at the company was decided after the internal investigation, and the “new life” he had been so confident about fell apart very quickly.
Kate walked away from him too when she realized that the position, influence, and opportunities he had promised her were not real.
Months later, Mike tried to come back.
He said:
“I understand now what I lost.”
I answered:
“So do
I.”
He had lost the woman who had stood beside him for twenty-three years.
I had lost an illusion.
That day, I finally understood that cooking, cleaning, raising children, and caring for a family do not make a woman “just a housewife” or “just a housekeeper.”
