I wanted so badly to believe we were past the hard part that I forced myself to believe him.
At graduation, I sat in the audience crying before the ceremony even ended.
I watched Marcus cross the stage and thought, There he is. There is the man I built my life around.
Afterward, I found him near the edge of the lawn, still in his gown, his family standing a few feet behind him.
His mother wouldn’t meet my eyes.
Not even when I smiled at her.
That should have warned me.
Marcus stepped toward me and handed me a large envelope.
I laughed through my tears.
“What is this?”
He didn’t answer.
I opened it.
Divorce papers.
For a second, the words made no sense. I kept looking at them, waiting for them to rearrange into something human.
“Marcus?”
His face had gone completely blank.
Not angry.
