Chapter 12 - I ASK SARAH THE WRONG QUESTION
“Why didn’t you leave sooner?”
The second the words left my mouth, Sarah looked away.
I wanted to take them back.
She said:
“That took longer than I expected.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“You get one.”
“One what?”
“One stupid question.”
Despite everything, I smiled.
“Fair.”
Then she answered anyway.
“Because sometimes he was good.”
There it was.
Marcus brought soup when she was sick.
Stayed awake with Lily during ear infections.
Cried when the twins were born.
Built a crib by hand.
Did not drink for years after an early problem.
Worked.
Cooked.
Apologized.
Then controlled money.
Phones.
Friends.
Movement.
He isolated slowly.
And every time Sarah considered leaving, she remembered my ultimatum.
Not because I caused Marcus.
Because Marcus used what I gave him.
“You told me if I married him, I couldn’t come back.”
“I know.”
“He repeated it every time I packed.”
My eyes filled.
“I gave him the sentence.”
“You were trying to scare me away from him.”
“I was trying to win.”
Sarah nodded.
“Same problem we always had.”
“What?”
“You thought protecting me meant making the decision impossible to ignore.”
She smiled sadly.
“Turns out you and Marcus had one thing in common.”
I flinched.
She reached for my hand.
“You both thought fear would make me choose correctly.”
That hurt because it was true.
May you like
The difference was scale.
The similarity was still mine.
