For the next week, they became polite strangers. They discussed schedules, groceries, and Lucy’s school, and avoided anything that mattered. The apartment’s silence changed.

Once it had felt peaceful; now it felt crowded with sentences neither of them would speak. Rain began on Tuesday night. Water slipped through the ceiling into a metal pan.

Drip. Drip. Drip. Like a clock counting down.

Three days before the end of the marriage term, Rebecca found Lucy behind the curtain with Toby pressed to her chest. “Daddy said you’re leaving Friday.”

Rebecca knelt. “He said that?”

“He was talking on the phone. He said the agreement ends.”