I should have set the phone back down.
Instead, I held it like evidence, like maybe staring at it long enough would somehow fix things.
Footsteps moved down the hallway. I stayed planted in the kitchen.
Cole walked in with damp hair, sweatpants, and a towel over his shoulder. He looked relaxed, completely comfortable, like nothing in the world was wrong.
He noticed the phone in my hand and frowned briefly but simply reached past me for a glass in the cupboard.
“Cole,” I said, watching him.
He didn’t respond. He filled the glass, took a drink, then glanced at me like I was standing in his way.
“Cole, what is this?” My voice cracked, and I hated that it did.
“My phone, Paige,” he sighed. “Sorry I left it on the counter.”
“I saw the message, Cole.”
He didn’t even hesitate. He grabbed the orange juice and poured some.
“Alyssa,” I said louder. “Your trainer.”
“Yeah, Paige,” he said, leaning against the counter. “I’ve been meaning to tell you.”
“Tell me what, Cole?” I demanded.
He took another sip of orange juice like he was casually watching a game.
“That I’m with Alyssa now. She makes me happy! You’ve let yourself go, and that’s on you.”
“You’re with her?” I asked.
“Yes.”
That second yes hurt the most, because it meant he’d practiced this moment, and I was the last person to learn my own life had already been replaced.
And that was it.
No apology. No shame. Just the truth delivered like it was a minor inconvenience I was expected to deal with.
“She makes me feel alive again,” he added, like he was performing a breakup speech.
Alive?
“We have six kids, Cole. What do you think this is, a coma?”
“You wouldn’t understand,” he said. “You don’t even see yourself anymore. You used to care about how you looked. How we looked.”
I stared at him.
He continued. “When’s the last time you wore real clothes? Or something that wasn’t stained?”
My breath caught. “So that’s it? You got bored? Found someone with tighter abs and nicer leggings, and suddenly the last sixteen years are what—a mistake?”
“You’ve let yourself go,” he said bluntly.
The words hit like a slap.
I blinked slowly, anger rising. “You know what I’ve let go of? Sleep. Privacy. Hot meals. Myself. I let myself go so you could chase promotions and sleep in on Saturdays while I kept this house and our kids from burning down.”
He rolled his eyes.
“You always do this.”
“Do what?” I shot back.
“Turn everything into a list of sacrifices. Like I’m supposed to thank you for being exhausted.”
“I didn’t choose to be exhausted, Cole. I chose you. And you turned me into a single parent without even bothering to shut the fridge.”
He opened his mouth like he wanted to argue.
Then he closed it again, picked up the bottle, and set it down.
“I’m leaving.”
“When?”
“Now.”
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