Hearing the deep, magnetic voice on the other end of the line, Evangeline felt herself drift for a moment.
She'd once given up a promising career for marriage, a choice her friend and former classmate, Glenn Carlisle, could never understand. Their argument about it had been fierce and unforgettable.
"Evangeline, are you really willing to throw away everything you've worked so hard for, just for the sake of some marriage you can't even see clearly? For a future that might not even exist?"
He pressed on, voice tight with frustration. "Have you thought about the possibility that Soren doesn't love you? What if one day you get divorced and you're left with nothing? What will you do then?"
He fell silent, jaw clenched, the disappointment in his eyes unmistakable.
At last, he hugged her, letting out a heavy, resigned sigh. "Fine. If you ever regret this, you can always come back."
Back then, she'd been so sure of herself—convinced that maybe, just maybe, she could win Soren's heart.
After all, theirs hadn't been a marriage entirely without feeling.
Not long after her mother died, on her eighteenth birthday, her father and stepmother had thrown her out of the house with nowhere to go. Soren was the one who found her trembling and lost, took her in, and when he realized it was her birthday, had a cake delivered in the middle of the night so she wouldn't have to spend it alone.
For a while after that, in a city aglow with a thousand windows, there was always one light burning just for her.
Beneath the splendor of fireworks, there had been a moment that belonged only to her.
She'd once dared to dream that this man might be the one she could trust her life to.
But now, looking back, she realized chasing love at the cost of her own future had been nothing short of foolish.
"Let's talk in detail."
Evangeline didn't ask how he'd found out she wanted a divorce. Clutching her phone until her fingertips blanched, she spoke, voice barely above a whisper, "I want to come home."

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