“Of course. You’re wasting your talents playing it safe.”
Those words stayed with me.
Soon, I began finding reasons to spend more time with her.
Coffee turned into dinner.
Dinner turned into long conversations.
Eventually, our relationship crossed a line I knew I should never have approached.
I told myself I had fallen in love.
But what I truly loved was how Whitney made me feel.
Around her, there were no overflowing laundry baskets.
No school meetings.
No discussions about bills.
No children interrupting conversations.
Only excitement.
Attention.
And the illusion that life could remain carefree forever.
Eventually, I decided to leave Helena.
I remember the night I told her.
The children were asleep.
She was folding clothes on our bed when I entered the room.
“Helena, we need to talk.”
She immediately stopped what she was doing.
“What’s wrong?”
I sat on the edge of the mattress.
