Which was a good question. How weren’t they off track would be better, but she didn’t know to ask that. Cora watched Alec again. In all honesty, Cora wanted to hear what he had to say. To hear if he changed his answer from the things he hissed at her in anger or typed passive aggressively in messages.

“We can’t seem to have a conversation without being angry at each other anymore. If we do manage to start one without yelling, Cora always walks away instead of finishing.”

Heat flushed her face. She looked down at the floor before taking a deep breath and looking up to see Doctor Massey now staring at her. That bothered her so much, because often it was Alec who would just walk away if what Cora said hit too close to home.

“Okay.” Doctor Massey looked from one to the other. “Let’s start here: where did you meet?”

“At university.” Alec answered.

“Great. And Cora, how old were you?”

“Eighteen.” Cora tried to sound confident.

“And what did you first notice about Alec?”

Alec turned to stare at her.

“His hair.”

With a chuckle, Doctor Massey turned to Alec. “And you, Alec?”

“Her eyes.”

“And what brought you two together?”

Memory lane was going to be exhausting.

They talked about things that Cora found almost painful. Doctor Massey explained that in the first session, she needed to get to know them, and that they would mostly speak with her. However, in the next sessions, she’d be facilitating discussions between the two of them. So they talked to her about the start of their relationship, about why they got married. It left Cora with a hollow feeling. The answer “because I was pregnant,” considered so far after the fact, felt hollow, immature. How was that a reason to get married? Or better yet, to stay married?

“Was that the only reason?” Doctor Massey asked them, her expression impassive.

“We would have eventually anyway,” Alec said.

Nodding her agreement, Cora wondered if she meant it.

“When did you first think about separating?”

The questions got harder, more direct. The answers sparked between them, setting fire to the shaky bridge they’d built with memories of times when they were happy together. They bit at each other, bit at each other’s answers. Alec tore at things she said, and then Cora stopped answering entirely, just as she did at home. It was easier, less exhausting, than saying something that would just get twisted around.

But then, when he interrupted her, Doctor Massey held up a gentle hand, one that cut him off. “Cora was speaking.”

Such a simple thing to say.

“Why do you walk away, Cora?”

Now she could feel the heat of Alec’s gaze on her. The relaxed, open look of Doctor Massey was easier to look at. “I don’t know.”

“Yes, you do,” she countered.