**Chapter 71**
ELLIE'S POV
I became two people in the same body.
In the mornings I still woke at 5:45. I still made Richard’s eggs the way he liked them — whites firm, yolks soft, never too much salt. I still packed Nathan’s lunch with the same careful attention I had given it for years: sandwich cut diagonally, fruit washed, napkin folded. I still wiped the counters until they shone and checked the dishwasher to make sure it was running on the quiet cycle. I still kissed my husband’s cheek when he left and pretended the guest-room arrangement was temporary, a small inconvenience that would correct itself if we both stayed polite enough. From the outside nothing had changed. The house still looked like the house of a woman who had everything under control.
Inside, I was ruined.
Cole
