“Is this why you suddenly decided to throw away twenty-two years of marriage? So you could play at being young again?”
Karen went completely still.
For a moment, I wished I had arrived five minutes earlier. I was outside carrying a box of supplies from my car, and I could see them through the window.
But I didn’t intervene.
Karen didn’t need me to fight her battles.
She took a breath.
“You know what the difference is between you and Alex?”
Michael laughed dismissively.
“I can’t imagine.”
“Alex never made me feel small for having dreams.”
Michael’s expression hardened.
“He’s using you.”
“No.”
“You’re vulnerable. You’re confused. You’ve spent your entire life taking care of everyone else, and now some younger man tells you what you want to hear.”
Karen stepped around the display table.
“Michael, you lied to me for four years. You looked me in the eye while I was grieving my mother and told me you were working. You let me celebrate anniversaries with a man who had already decided our marriage was over.”
