Meanwhile, Daniel reached out, attempting to assert control once more. “You’ll come back eventually,” he wrote in a text message one night. Sophie read it, took a deep breath, and deleted it without replying. She no longer felt the need to justify her choices or explain herself to a man who had dismissed her so easily.

One day, while sorting through old papers, Sophie found a forgotten journal. Flipping through its pages, she read entries from the early days of her marriage: hopes, dreams, and plans she once had. She realized that she was now living the life she had always envisioned—just without the man she thought she needed to share it with.