Love Rising from Ruins

Synopsis

The pastel streamers hung in perfect loops across our Lincoln Park apartment. I stood back, squinting at the banner I'd just finished hanging. 'Happy 3rd Birthday Emma!' The letters were a little crooked, but Emma wouldn't care. She was only concerned with the mountain of presents I'd arranged on the coffee table and the strawberry cupcakes cooling on the kitchen counter. I checked my phone again. 12:30 PM. The party started at 1:00, and James had promised—actually promised this time—that he'd be home by noon to help set up. "Mommy, when are my friends coming?" Emma tugged at my jeans, her chubby fingers sticky with the frosting she'd sneaked from the bowl. I bent down, wiping a smudge of pink from her cheek. "Soon, baby. Very soon. And Daddy will be here any minute." The lie tasted bitter on my tongue. James wouldn't be here "any minute." He was probably still at the office, or worse, with a client—the kind that left traces of Chanel No. 5 on his collar. By 1:15, our apartment buzzed with the chaotic energy of toddlers and the forced small talk of neighborhood mothers. I moved through the crowd with a plastic smile, refilling juice boxes and answering the same question over and over. "Is James joining us?" "He's just running late from work," I'd say, the words so rehearsed they'd lost all meaning. "You know how it is with investment banking." They nodded sympathetically, but