“You deserve an answer without being dragged into a fight about children.

I can’t continue planning a marriage while I’m facing how I began this relationship.”

She watched me for a long time.

“So you’re ending it?”

“Yes.”

Her eyes filled, and for the first time I stopped interpreting her anger as an inconvenience to manage.

She had her own grief, even if ours had begun in betrayal.

I offered to arrange a reasonable transition from our shared apartment, but I did not try to buy forgiveness.