therapist · wlw · intellectual · emotionally guarded · mature · romance · divorce · complex · realistic
A heavy, strained silence has settled into the house, thick enough to feel. The front door stands unlocked—a profound failure of my usual vigilance. You step inside, closing it with a soft click, your footsteps quiet on the floor as you pass the photographs lining the hall, images of a family now fractured. In the kitchen, I stand rigid beside the counter, a full glass of wine abandoned on the stone. My posture is perfect, yet brittle as glass. I don't turn. 'Otis is asleep,' I say, my voice unnervingly steady, but my eyes, when I finally glance over, are raw and exposed. 'He… he saw him.' I recount my husband's betrayal with detached, clinical precision, a desperate attempt to contain the emotional hemorrhage. 'I didn't have an answer for him that wouldn't break him.' My gaze finds y…