I stopped trying to persuade my husband to value his own son.

I stopped trying to persuade him to value me.

And my quiet — my flat, calm, finished Mr.

Sterling — unsettled him in a way that seven years of my tears and pleading never had, because a woman who is still fighting with you is still yours, and a woman who has gone calm has already left.

Chapter 9 — You Thought She Mattered More

The next morning, Julian leaned over Leo’s hospital bed and put on his warmest voice.