So her truth might hurt me?

I guess we’ll see about that.

“Try me,” I say.

“Try you? You want the truth?”

I nod. “Yes, I want the truth.”

“Okay.” She pushes her shoulders back, ready to unleash on me as she turns around and leans against the counter. “We started falling apart months ago, and you’ve been too blind to see it. You say I love you, and yes, Ryot, that much is true. Even though I want to deny it, I might never stop loving you. But I’ve just felt so . . . disappointed. In you. With you. And slowly but surely, that’s turned into resentment, and this might sting, but those feelings have turned into hate. I think I’ve hated you for a while now.” Shit. I was not expecting that. She’s right. It does sting. “You don’t care about my dreams or goals, Ryot, and you haven’t for a long time.”

“That’s not—”

“Do you want the truth, or do you want to argue?” she asks with a pointed look.

“The truth,” I answer, swallowing hard.

“Then don’t interrupt me and just listen.”

Listen. That’s what I’ve been waiting for, to listen to her talk. So even though this seems like it’s going to hurt, this is what I’ve been waiting to understand—this deep-rooted hurt she’s been carrying around. So I lean against the wall and do exactly what she wants, I listen.

“Many years ago, when we first started dating, you said something very validating to me. It was something like, ‘I’ll be honest with you, and when or if you ever decide to let me into your world, I won’t hurt you. I’ll only protect you. I will always listen to you, acknowledge you, and hopefully, make you feel as special as I know you are.’ And for the most part of our marriage, I’d say you were successful at that.

“When you retired early from baseball, it was as if this cloud cast over you, and you turned into a different man. You might not have seen it, but I did. I went through the emotions with you. The resentment, the anger, the bitterness. At first, that was directed at the sport you’d been expelled from. But slowly your motives changed. You’d always played with your heart and gave back to the fans who’d helped your career. Appreciated them and the others in your world who were a part of that success. Suddenly you needed to prove something, and I don’t even know to whom. Maybe yourself, maybe the fans, but you set yourself on a mission to prove to whoever was watching that you didn’t need baseball to be successful. You looked straight ahead, plowed forward, and you walked over everyone to prove yourself . . . including me.”

Her eyes well up with tears. She’s no longer pulsing with anger, but more dripping with anguish.

“You were hell-bent on creating The Jock Report, and I understand the importance of it, don’t get me wrong,” she says with sincerity. “I saw what happened to Penn. I even saw the reports and negative press about you. No one, no matter their status, should ever be treated so unfairly by the media. But you never even consulted me, Ryot, your wife. You never once sat me down and said, ‘hey, what if I work with Banner and Penn on starting this new app?’ At first, I thought it was something to help you and Penn heal, and that was okay, but then it grew and grew. Before I knew what was happening, we were moving and creating a new life I never wanted. And the worst part is, you never asked. You just assumed it’s what I wanted because it was with you.”