“Yes leave,” he answered while pointing toward the front door. “Take your things and go somewhere else because I am done carrying this marriage alone.”
“You are throwing me out because of another woman,” I asked softly.
“No,” he replied coldly, “I am throwing you out because you have become a burden.”
His words fell into the room like heavy stones and the silence that followed felt suffocating. Then he walked to the closet, pulled out a suitcase, and dropped it on the floor with finality.
That was when I realized he meant every word. He wanted a fresh life without me in it.
I packed quickly while my hands trembled and within thirty minutes I stepped outside into the cold Colorado night. I sat in the driver’s seat of my father’s aging sedan and stared at the small black metal card inside my purse.
It had no bank name printed on it and only a small engraved emblem shaped like a shield surrounded by an eagle. I had never used it. I had never even asked questions about it.