“I hit you.”
“Yes.”
“Thirty times.”
He flinched.
“You counted?”
“Yes.”
His eyes filled.
“I am sorry.”
“Why?”
He looked confused.
“For hitting you.”
“No.”
I leaned forward.
“Why did you hit me?”
His mouth opened.
Closed.
Finally:
“You embarrassed me.”
There.
The true answer.
“Because I reminded you the house wasn’t yours?”
“Yes.”
“Because your friends heard?”
“Yes.”
“Because Kristen was watching?”
His face tightened.
“Yes.”
“Because you thought if you made me afraid, I would stop challenging you?”
Tears filled his eyes.
“Yes.”
No explanation would make it acceptable.
But truth mattered.
Then I placed Kristen’s divorce-planning email on the table.
Trevor read.
His face went completely blank.
He read it again.
Then:
“No.”
I waited.
“She wouldn’t.”
I said nothing.
He read the line:
Trevor is useful until Gloria is removed.
His hands began shaking.
“She told me…”
He stopped.
“What?”
“That we were building our life.”
