his hand.
He had heard everything.
His shoulders squared, but his voice remained even.
“She’ll get exactly what she deserves,” he said.
Marlene smiled as though he had handed her a victory.
I carried that sentence away like a bruise.
The months that followed were quieter than I had imagined.
Russell remembered peppermint tea after difficult nights. He left the curtains slightly open because I couldn’t sleep in complete darkness.
One morning, when I pushed my toast away, he looked at me with a tenderness I didn’t know how to
