MYKEL

There was so much pain in her eyes. She had withdrawn to somewhere she didn’t want to be reached. It fucking hurt knowing I was the one who put it there that I made her that way. I wished I could take those pain away. I didn’t care how excruciating it was for me—I just wanted to see the sparks in her eyes and hear her rich laugh again.

For a second, I didn’t buy that tough girl bullshit. I’d known my wife for months, and she’d never turned her back on me. I knew she didn’t mean those words—those words were coming from a woman who was hurting...