Chapter 1

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 I caught the glances they exchanged. Poor Rachel, always alone. Poor Rachel, with the husband who's never there.

At 2:30, we gathered around the kitchen table. Emma sat in her special chair, a paper crown perched on her dark curls. Three candles flickered on the strawberry cupcake in front of her. The other children pressed close, eager for their share of the treats.

"Make a wish, sweetheart," I said, my camera poised to capture the moment.

Emma's eyes darted to the front door before she squeezed them shut and blew with all her might. My heart cracked. Even at three, she knew to wish for her father's presence.

The door swung open just as I was cutting the cake. James sauntered in, surrounded by a cloud of expensive cologne that barely masked another scent beneath it. Behind him trailed his fraternity brothers—Chadwick, Tyler, and Mark—uninvited additions to a children's birthday party.

"Sorry I'm late," James announced to the room, not looking sorry at all. "Board meeting ran long."

He didn't look at me as he said it. He didn't even look at Emma, who had frozen mid-bite, her eyes wide with surprise at her father's sudden appearance.

"Daddy!" she finally called, but there was hesitation in her voice. She didn't run to him. She didn't abandon her cake to throw her arms around his legs like she once would have. She simply acknowledged his presence and returned to her cupcake.

The neighborhood mothers began gathering their children shortly after, throwing me sympathetic glances as they left. James and his friends commandeered the living room, cracking open beers that James had brought in a cooler—apparently, he'd had time to stop for alcohol but not to arrive on time for his daughter's party.

"So, Rach," Chadwick called out as I cleaned frosting from the table, "James tells us you've been threatening divorce again."

I froze, the wet cloth dripping onto the floor.

"What's the count now, James?" Tyler laughed. "Eight times? Nine?"

"Nine," James confirmed, taking a long pull from his beer. "But she'll never do it. All talk, no action—that's my Rachel."

Their laughter cut through me like glass. Emma was in her room, surrounded by new toys, oblivious to the humiliation burning through my cheeks.

"I want a divorce, James," I said, the words quiet but clear in the sudden silence. "I mean it this time."

James looked at me, really looked at me for the first time that day. Then he smiled, that charming, dismissive smile that had once made my heart race but now made my stomach turn.

"See what I mean, guys?" He turned back to his friends. "All talk."

Chadwick pulled out his wallet. "Twenty bucks says she's still here next month."

"I'll take that bet," Mark chimed in. "Thirty says she's still here next year."

As they laughed and placed their bets on the ruins of my marriage, something inside me shifted. A tiny spark ignited in the hollow space where my self-respect used to live.

They were right about one thing: I'd threatened to leave nine times. But they were wrong about another: This time would be different. It had to be. For Emma. For me.