I didn’t disagree with the importance of compromise.
But genuine compromise meant two people deciding together.
It couldn’t begin with deception.
And it couldn’t require a woman to surrender her career, time, and right to make choices simply because she’d become someone’s wife.
After my shift, I drove home.
The apartment was quiet.
There were no children’s backpacks beside the entrance, no diaper bag on the counter, and no little voices calling for me.
I imagined how the morning might have unfolded if Seth’s plan had succeeded.
Maddie would have asked for crayons.
Ben would have wanted pancakes.
Owen would have lifted his arms, asking me to pick him up.
And I would have cared for them lovingly.
I’d have prepared breakfast, cleaned their faces, comforted them, and helped them through the day.
That was simply who I was.
Seth had known it.
