The carriage with my husband pulled up to the front steps. Twenty years of marriage—and still butterflies in my stomach like when I was a girl. We haven’t seen each other in a long time, and I knew: tonight would be special. I even secretly ordered new underwear in the capital.
He stepped out of the carriage—tall, confident, with a touch of gray at his temples. My husband. My dragon. And beside him— a young girl in an expensive dress.
Could she be my son’s friend?
“Harry!” I smile, take a step forward, and reach for him.
But my husband pushes me away.
“Lissy, this is Lady Crystal. My future wife,” his voice booms like thunder in clear skies. “You and I must get divorced. But let’s without hysteria. I got a position in the capital, and I don’t want to drag you into a new life. You have to know how to let go of the old if you want to move forward.”
I don’t understand what he’s saying right away.
“And the children?” I mumble.
“The children… are satisfied,” my husband nods.
And our son—our son!—steps out of his father’s carriage and looks at me with innocent eyes:
“This is a good chance, mother. Sorry.”
***
I put my life into this family. And now I’m just ballast. They threw me away like some used thing. But I won’t break. Instead of spending my life in a monastery, I’ll start over and build a new life with those who deserve it.
In the recording, fragments of a musical composition were used:
1 Undersea fantasy instrumental, P. Richmond from pixabay.com under Content License (for free commercial and non-commercial use)