All the air rushed out of Frazer’s chest. That was never a question she’d let herself think about. One that she wouldn’t let whisper at her in the back of her mind. And one she’d found herself shying away from more and more.

Suddenly, it felt like she couldn’t breathe. Her brain made a humming noise. Useful. “No,” she said.

Tia just gave her a doubtful look. “Right.”

Frazer squeezed her eyes shut. Opened them again. Stared at Tia, who just shook her head, threw up her arms, and walked out.

Which was infuriating, because Frazer actually meant it.

No good relationship could be built on the foundation they’d set up. It was a mess. Cora was a mess, and barely separated, if the rumours were true.

Today sucked.

* * *

“Alec, I need my things.”

He stared at her from across his desk. Blinked. Tapped his pen against the papers in front of him. Blinked again.

Once more, she’d had to approach him at work because he avoided any of her attempts to organise a better place.

“Your things?” He asked.

Cora sighed internally. “Yeah, my things. I need to come around and collect some stuff.”

Alec dropped the pen and sat back in his chair, holding his hands up in supplication. “Cora, it’s our house. You can come home whenever you want.”

The chair she was in was one she’d sat in many times over the last couple of years. They used to have lunch across from each other, sometimes in silence, sometimes fluffed up with idle chatter. Now the chair felt foreign beneath her, as did the man across from her; he had for a long time. Maybe, really, he always had.

“I don’t want to come home, Alec. I just want to get some of my things.”

He puffed air out of his nose. “Why? Why are you doing this, Cora? Come home. We can sort this out—we can go back to Doctor Massey. Why throw away everything we have?”

Cora was already back with Doctor Massey, focussing on her own needs.

Her throat was tight, the pleading note in his voice threading around her heart and constricting. “It’s too late for that, Alec.”

“It’s never too late.”

But it was. He wasn’t going to change, Cora could see that now, so clearly it was almost blinding. He’d been this way, this controlling, from the beginning, but then, it had been layered in charm, in softness, in the security of feeling like he wanted her around so much for her sake. Not because he needed to know where she was all the time. Not because he needed to feel like he owned her. Not because he felt like she was his.

“Alec, I’m sorry. It is.” They stared at each other, before Cora pushed on. “I’ll come around this evening when you’re still at work.”