One Hundred Reasons To Walk Away
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ed "The Song of a Hundred Reasons." Each forgotten anniversary and dismissive glanc
ot as a quiet slight, b
ton didn't hesitate. He shoved his "best friend" Bailey to saf
th broken ribs and a severe
y Bailey to a luxury retreat for her "panic attack." H
ned the divorce papers from my h
hit album "Song of a Hundred Reasons,"
pte
Lynn
the back of Ashton' s massive, chaotic desk drawer, under a stack of old project blueprints and a half-ea
like a diary. It felt heavy in my hands, a silent
s snake, had already coiled a
of a Hundre
on the first page, just like me. My stomach clenche
f rules. My rules. Rules I
logs an instan
tance deduc
l point
ints reach zer
Song of a Hundred Reasons' ? How melodramatic. How perfectly me at som
on' s phone, vibrating silently on the corner of t
ject compromised. You
paper cut, small but sharp. I opened the book again, this time with a different intention. My eyes scanned the pages, skipping through the early, hesitant entries. They were n
k, but added up, they f
a 'crisis meeting' with Bailey, the
ond the first chorus, then spent an hour on the phone w
ducing me as 'Ashton's wife' while gushing about
miliar twisting in my gut. This wasn't par
ataloged these slights, believing that if I could just show him
iar sound that used to bring a flutter of anticipation, now just a dull thud
his phone. He didn' t even see me stand
id, my voice b
ed to find me in his house. "Elise. Y
id, the words tastin
ded, already turning back to his phone. "I have to head out agai
unch to the gut. Not because of the server, but beca
my brain. My hand instinctively went to the desk drawer, pulling out the ledger again
l ache in my chest. The words
A catastrophic server failu
y stomach loosened, replaced by a cold resolve. This wasn'