My Daughter Took My Hand After School and Said, “Mom, Divorce Dad — He Doesn’t Love Us.” That Night, Over One Chicken Leg, I Finally Listened

Not for one more night.

Not for anything.\n\nChapter 8 — The Morning I Didn’t Wake Them

My alarm went off at six the next morning, the way it had gone off at six every morning for five years — the signal to leap up and make breakfast, iron the school uniforms, wake Zachary and Tristan, check the boy’s backpack, and drive him in.

I turned off the alarm.

I turned off the phone.