I was asleep when Stan called me.

After smashing up the new house, I had gone out with Hallie and some friends to party at a nightclub. The exhaustion that followed was overwhelming.

Having been with Jayden for five years, weathering countless storms together, I wondered if I had misjudged him or if he was simply a master at disguising his true self. I spent my days at home, sleeping away the pain and avoiding the need to think.

So when Stan said he was quitting, I was groggy and didn’t fully grasp the situation. It was only when he mentioned that Jayden had fired several colleagues from the R&D...