“Fine.”
“You keep your Tuesday and Thursday bedtime shifts.”
“Non-negotiable.”
She almost laughed.
“And nobody gets to disappear when things get difficult.”
Mark’s expression became serious.
“No.”
Emily held out her ring.
“Would you put this back on my finger?”
His hand trembled.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
He slid the ring gently into place.
Emily stared at it.
It did not feel like the same ring.
Perhaps because she was not the same woman.
Mark lifted his eyes.
“Can I hug you?”
Emily nodded.
He held her carefully.
No desperate promises.
No claim that everything had been fixed.
Just two people standing in the room they had prepared for three children before understanding how completely those children would change them.
Emily and the girls moved back home three months later.
Not because the lease ended.
Because she chose to.
They changed the house before she returned.
The guest room became a small office for Emily.
