I just want her to leave me alone.”

My fingers went numb around the phone.

The woman murmured something I couldn’t make out, and Julian laughed, a warm, easy laugh, the kind he had not directed at me in months.

And then he said the thing that ended my marriage, though it would be another week before he knew it.

“Of course I hate her,” he said.

“I barely touch her anymore.

Just wait.