“If you’re looking for me to disagree with you, it’s not going to happen.” Nory leaned back on the sofa with her arms folded.

“I’m not. She’d be better off without me.”

“That’s just an excuse because you’re too lazy to make the effort to be a better man.”

“Maybe you’re right. I don’t have it in me to be good enough.”

Nory frowned. He seemed genuine but she couldn’t be sure.

“I’m a fuckup,” he went on, his voice cracking. “I love her so much. I spend every waking hour in terror of the moment Camille gives up on me.”

“But if you’re so afraid of that happening, then why do you keep pushing her toward that conclusion?”

Guy rubbed his eyes and then winced. Gray-blue bruises were beginning to bloom in the sockets. He looked worn down. Without his cocksure bravado, he was just a sad, tired man who drank too much.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” he said, staring at his wedding ring. “If she leaves me, then I can stop worrying about it, it’ll be done, and I can get on with my life.”

“Guy, that makes absolutely no sense. You are perpetuating a behavior that will bring about something that you don’t want to happen, just because you’re tired of worrying that it will happen. Do you see the madness in that?”

“I didn’t say it made sense. I’m explaining to you what is happening in my head. I have never been good enough. God knows my father’s taken every opportunity to remind me that I never reached my potential. And then this amazing woman falls in love with me. And it’s real. She really loves me—I couldn’t believe it. I tried so hard to ignore the voice in my head. I even thought maybe I could be the man Camille thought I was. Then the kids came along, and all I could think was, I’m so lucky, I don’t deserve to be this happy. But I knew I wasn’t good enough for them, I knew I would let them down.”

Nory didn’t know what to say.

Tears pooled in Guy’s eyes, and he blinked them away, rubbing at them roughly with his sleeve.

“It’s agony to know you don’t deserve the things that you love most in the world,” he said, looking at Nory helplessly. “I just want it to be over. Camille is suffering, and it’s all my fault.”

“Some of it is your fault, but I think she’s also going through some stuff that has nothing to do with you. I think you’re both having these huge life crises and suffering in silence.”

“Do you really think she’s in danger of having a breakdown?”