Three Chances, Then Gone

I hung up with the divorce lawyer and checked my phone.

2 a.m.

Eight hours since Stanley ditched Luca's birthday.

Five since Hallie posted that photo—Stanley tucking her kid in like he belonged there.

Luca was asleep.

The birthday cake had melted, frosting sliding off the edge and oozing onto the floor. Sticky. Gross—just like Stanley's promises.

He still hadn't come home.

I sighed. Luca had asked for his dad even as he drifted off.

I closed the lawyer's chat and headed to wash up.

A car pulled up outside.

Footsteps. Fast.

Then a knock on Luca's bedroom door.

"Luca, you asleep? I'm back. Let's finish your birthday, okay?"

Stanley was finally home, knocking soft like that made up for everything.

Before, this would've been just another sweet family moment.

Now all I could see was Hallie's post:

[The kid cried for his dad, and this AMAZING man rushed over. So touching.]

Was he this tender with her son too?

I didn't know. I just didn't want Luca waking up to another fight.

After a brief silence, I stepped out of the study.

"Stop knocking. He's asleep."

Stanley blinked.

"He's asleep? Didn't he say he wouldn't go to bed without me?"

Then, smiling like it was a joke, "What—are you teaching him to be jealous now?"

He even gave me that fake-soft look.

"Babe, you're overthinking. There's nothing between me and Hallie. I'm just helping the kid. Growing up without a dad is tough—"

"But Luca's only five."

I cut him off. My voice was flat as ice. I stared at him like I was seeing a stranger.

Eight years married, and I was just now getting it—Stanley had a serious problem. With his eyes and his brain.

Hallie's kid was little, so he got to cry and call for his dad.

But today was Luca's fifth birthday. He's actually younger than Archie.

So when Stanley shoved back his chair and bolted, did he even remember whose birthday it was?

When he was lying in Hallie's bed, telling her kid bedtime stories in that soft voice—did he care at all about the family he walked out on?