His face is a mixture of sadness and pity. Poor Natalie, it seems to say, how could you not see this coming?
He scoops his car keys off the hall table and walks out the front door. He pulls it closed behind him so gently I barely hear the click of the latch.
So this is how it ends? Eighteen years of love, work, planning . . . over after a fifteen-minute confession.
The ding of the oven timer calls me to the kitchen. On my way there, I pass the dinner table, set so beautifully with our good china, a centerpiece of fresh flowers in the middle of a midnight blue tablecloth. And there, between Tony’s seat at the head of the table and my seat to his right, is the reason I was so ready to celebrate. The contract for the next three books in the Happily Married series.
I cannot get divorced.
I’m a romance novelist. And not just any romance novelist. One of the top-selling Christian romance novelists in the country. I also write nonfiction books about—get this—marriage. I’ve put my life under a microscope and written about it, bared my soul, and now I’m considered an expert in the field. I make a living from couples who live happily ever after, or are at least trying to.
A cold numbness spreads through my body as I walk into the kitchen. I turn off the timer. Turn off the oven. Pick up the oven mitts from the counter. Open the oven door. Pull out the roast.
It looks perfect, but I pinch my lips together as the aroma sets my stomach to rolling. I don’t even like roast. I only made this stupid thing because it’s Tony’s favorite.
So much boils up inside me—anger, grief, nausea—that I explode. I hurl the hunk of meat, roasting pan and all, against the wall and release a scream that comes from somewhere beyond my toes. Dropping to my knees on the floor, I weep as meat drippings and carrots and onions slide in slow motion down the wall and ooze across the floor.
My whole adult life has been about happily ever after. And now, it’s over.
I’m getting a divorce.
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Last Family Standing Page 26
