I hated seeing him hurt.
That was another truth I had to hold at the same time.
I could hate his pain and still refuse to prevent its consequences.
“I don’t want anyone else,” he said.
“Maybe not now.”
“I never did.”
“Then why did you need me to know that you believed you could have someone better?”
He had no answer.
A doctor came in a few minutes later and reviewed what would happen next.
Evan would be monitored longer.
His injuries looked frightening but were not expected to leave lasting physical damage.
He needed rest, follow-up care, and someone available when he went home.
I listened carefully.
I asked practical questions.
Then I gave the staff the information they needed.
Being done with a marriage didn’t require me to become heartless.
When the doctor left, Evan reached for me again.
This time I let him touch my fingers for a moment.
“Please don’t leave tonight.”
I looked at him.
“I’ll stay until they know you’re stable.”
Hope flashed across his face.
I stopped it before it could become another assumption.
“That isn’t the same as staying married.”
His fingers loosened.
By morning, Nick had sobered enough to look ashamed instead of merely terrified.
He apologized to me without excuses.
I told him I appreciated the apology.
I didn’t tell him it made everything fine.
Some things aren’t repaired because someone finally finds the correct words after the damage is visible.
Evan was discharged later that day with instructions to rest.
Nick offered to help him get home.
Evan looked at me.
“You’re not coming?”
“I am.
I need to get some things.”
His face went pale.
The apartment looked exactly as we’d left it.
His beer bottle was gone from the kitchen island, but the faint ring it had left on the counter was still there.
I stared at that mark for a long moment.
Then I walked into the bedroom and pulled a suitcase from the closet.
Behind the old sweaters was the empty space where the watch box had been hidden.
Evan stood in the doorway, moving carefully.
It was almost the same place he’d stood before leaving for guys’ night.
Only now there was no smirk.
“Lauren, don’t do this today.”
I folded a sweater into the suitcase.
“I started doing this two weeks ago.
You just didn’t notice.”
He leaned against the doorframe.
“Where are you going?”
“For now, somewhere I can think without waiting for you to decide whether I’m enough.”
“I already told you I was wrong.”
“And I believe you.”
He looked confused.
“Then why isn’t that enough?”
