Joy yanked harder, dragging me bodily over to the mirror.
"Take a good look at what you've become. What man would ever want you?"
She twisted my hair in her fist and forced my face toward the glass.
The woman in the mirror had just come out of the hospital after a serious illness. Her face was bloodless, her hair loose and tangled where no one had bothered to fix it, dark shadows under her eyes, lips with no color left in them.
So that was what I looked like now.
A bitter ache rose in me, the unfairness of it.
Eight years as a full-time wife. It hadn't bought me my husband's love or my son's. It had only aged me ten years.
"See it now?" Joy let go of my hair and looked down at me, her eyes full of contempt. "Look like that, and what do you think you have to fight me with?"
I looked at her. The flawless makeup. The tall, elegant figure.
She was right. I couldn't compete.
In that moment something in me went cold and quiet.
"Leave. I'll divorce him. You can have the boy."
Joy let out a sneer. "You think I'd believe that?"
Then she grabbed my head and slammed it toward the mirror. I fought back, twisting away, and she shrieked and pitched into the glass herself.
Crash!
The mirror shattered across the floor.
"What happened in here?"
Justin and Marvin came running in.
I was down on the floor, a bruise spreading across my forehead.
Joy clamped a hand over her own hand, the one the glass had cut open, blood running steadily between her fingers, and smiled at Justin. "It's nothing. Just a little accident."
"Did you do this?" Justin pointed at me.
Joy pressed her lips together and said nothing.
That was all it took. Justin didn't ask another question—he decided it was me, crossed the room, and hauled me up off the floor by force. "What is wrong with you?" he roared. "Joy was only trying to talk some sense into you, and instead of being grateful you act like a lunatic and get her hurt!"
Then a sharp pain shot through my shin.
It was Marvin. He was kicking me.
"You hurt Aunt Joy—I'll kick you to death!"
Kick after kick. He wasn't landing them on my leg. He was landing them on my heart.
But the strange thing was, after the first wave the pain stopped. Because my heart was already dead.
"You stay home and think about what you've done," Justin said, his voice cold as he helped Joy to her feet. "When Joy and Marvin and I get back from the hospital, I want to hear you apologize to her."
Joy leaned her head on his shoulder and gave me a taunting little smile.
I watched the three of them leave, no expression on my face.
Yes. In that moment, the three of them were the family.
Slam!
The second I heard the door shut, I picked up the flyer on the nightstand and dialed the number on it.
"Hello—I'd like to ask about taking on a licensing and distribution line… Yes, that's right. See you shortly."
I hung up, forced my weak body upright, showered, did my makeup, and put on a women's suit I hadn't worn in a long time.
Looking at the woman in the mirror, at least five years younger than the one from before, I said it to myself.
From today, I live only for me.
Then I left, taking nothing with me. I pulled out my phone and posted in the family group chat.
*I am formally divorcing Justin Sutton. This is my announcement.*
Then I left the chat and blocked every one of them, all in one clean motion.
