And love isn’t a contest where you win by making them suffer.”
She left without asking whether either of them was recovering.

PART 11
That evening Maya waited while I took off my coat.

She didn’t ask what Eleanor had said until I’d washed my hands and finished changing Liam.

“Did they apologize?” she asked.

“No.”
She nodded as though she had expected nothing else.

“Did they blame me?”
“Yes.”
I sat beside her.

“But I didn’t agree with them.

And I won’t ask you to sit through another conversation like that.”
Maya was quiet for a moment.