Just last weekend, he went out of town with friends to go fishing.

Or maybe he didn’t. Maybe he spent the weekend banging another woman while I was home with our son.

Did I miss the signs? How long has it been going on?

Things between us have been… well, if I’m honest, not great. But that happens, right? The ups and downs in relationships, the times where you feel completely disconnected from your spouse. I know I’ve been feeling like that for a long time—longer than I’d even like to admit. I just convinced myself that things would get better when Kingston got a little older and he didn’t need me so much.

“Mommy, can I go on the slide?” Kingston asks, dragging me from my thoughts, and I look around, realizing we’ve already made it the five blocks to the park.

“Yeah, just be careful on the way down.”

“I know,” he groans like he’s had sixteen years of me annoying him with my overprotectiveness and not just three.

I watch him run across the mulch that covers the ground to the jungle gym with a slide attached, then I take a seat on the bench. Taking my phone out of my pocket, I tap the screen and see a message from Bowie letting me know he’s going to be late tonight and not to wait up for him.

Numb, I message him back a quick Okay, when all I really want to do is rage, to tell him I know he’s a liar, to ask how he could do this to us. He knows that cheating is not something I would ever forgive, not after growing up the way I did. My childhood was filled with turmoil, heartache, and confusion, watching my mom being cheated on by my dad and her constantly taking him back, knowing he’d just do it again.

That is not the life I want for our son. I do not want him to think that kind of relationship is normal, because it’s not. And I deserve better than a man who would do that to me.

“Mommy, come push me!” Kingston shouts, and I tuck away the pain I’m feeling and head across the mulch, forcing a smile for my baby.

I have a lot of thinking to do. I’m not the only one in this situation, the only one who will be affected. And with me so dependent on Bowie, it’s going to take me some time to leave.

Chapter 2

Miranda

Sitting on my back deck with the baby monitor on the table so I’ll know if Kingston wakes up, I chew the inside of my cheek as my best friend Emma digests what I just showed her on Bowie’s computer.

Which is way more than I saw earlier today.