The Price Of His Choice

ed, replaced by a profound emptiness. My feet moved mechanically, carrying me back to my own r

lier. I placed them squarely on the bedside table, right where he couldn't mi

that settled deep in my bones. I didn't sleep. I just

e doctor's protests. I signed the forms, my hand steady, my resol

ary, now felt like a gilded cage. I walked through the silent rooms, collecting my few person

s, echoing from Elliott's study. The place where he used to sketch his dre

. "Jalynn, are you feeling better? I was so worried. I heard you checked out

as ice. "Sign them," I said, po

e divorce documents. "Jalynn, what is this? We talk

sking. I'm telling you. Sign them. I want nothing from you. N

ral roar, ripped them in half. "No!" he screamed, his voice raw. "I won't let yo

d my arm, his grip bruising. "You can't l

, cold and sharp, pierced through my numbness. He

o voicemail, or I was politely told they couldn't help me. Elliott's r

gone. Coretta tried to visit, but she was turned away by new security guar

hand, at charity galas, at the park, at public events. He publicly declared Kenya and Leo the most important people in his life. The internet buzze

public humiliation and Elliott's cruelty. I heard it from a maid

e gifts-jewelry, designer clothes-laying them on my bed as if they could atone for his absence.

head away, my heart a frozen block in my chest. I c

heard him talking to his friend on the phone. His

dent. "She always does. She loves me. She needs me. Sh

" I thought, a quiet, bitter realizat

wrong.

one, activated with Coretta's help, to arrange my escape. My most precious belongings, sentimental pieces, had be

ed by every local news outlet. He was celebrating their reunion, their future, with the w

I wa

lt a calm I hadn't known in months. My heart di

ts. I stepped out, into the cool night air, leaving everything behind. I thought I heard a faint, desper

vast and terrifying and utterly, gloriously free. A taxi waited at the end of the long driveway, a symbol of my new beginning. I slid int