His accidental text assumed I’d be under observation for another forty-eight hours.

He was laying low at his mother’s, ignoring my calls, confident in his plan.

That gave me two days to quietly take apart a five-year marriage, secure what was mine, and build something they could not break into.

Faye signed me up for a fight, and I signed everything she put in front of me, my fractured wrist screaming with every stroke of the pen.

I welcomed it.

The pain kept me sharp.