I was sitting on the edge of our bed in the dark, my phone in hand. I had opened the banking app to check if we had enough savings left to buy a white noise machine for the twins.
But the account was nearly empty.
Scrolling through the transactions, I saw hotel bookings, restaurant charges, and jewelry store purchases—none of which I had made.
The bedroom door creaked open.
“Hey,” Mark said. “Why are the lights off?”
I turned slowly, holding up my phone.
“Who is she?”
Mark froze.
“You’ve been overwhelmed,” I said, trying to steady my voice. “We both have. The babies are a lot.
The sleep deprivation makes everything worse. People do stupid things when they’re drowning. I get it.
We can fix this. We can do counselling.”
His jaw tightened. “I’m not doing this.
I’m not going to stand here and act like this is some slip-up I need to beg forgiveness for.”
“I’m not asking you to beg,” I said. “I’m asking you to come back to your family.”
“That’s exactly what I mean,” he replied. “I don’t want to.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do.”
The baby monitor crackled.
One twin cried, then the other joined in. My body ached to go to them, but Mark sneered at the sound.
“Just listen to them, Valerie,” he said. “I didn’t sign up for this chaos, screaming, and constant mess.”
His words cut deep.
“Yes, you did,” I said.
“You held them in the hospital.”
He shrugged. “I said what I was supposed to say. Now everything’s out in the open, it’s time to get my life back.”
What happened next changed everything… FULL STORY on the next page.
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