My husband files for divorce..
My world went hollow. The coffee mug trembled in my hands. Lily looked up, sensing what adults pretend children can’t.
“Mommy? What’s wrong?”
I forced a smile. “Nothing, baby. Keep coloring.”
Everything inside me was cracking. Mark moved out two days later without a single conversation about Lily, without a backward glance. He packed his suitcases and vanished like he was checking out of a hotel.
That night, I hid in the bathroom and cried into a towel so Lily wouldn’t hear. But she did. She always did. She crawled into my arms later and whispered, “Mommy, don’t cry. Daddy is confused.”
I brushed it off as a child trying to soothe her mother.
I shouldn’t have.
When Mark and his lawyer filed for full custody, claiming I was unstable and unfit, something inside me twisted. Mark rarely called Lily. He barely saw her. Yet now he wanted her?
“Emily,” my attorney warned, “this is calculated. Stay steady.”
Lily picked up on everything, though she didn’t understand the legal details. She stopped humming when she brushed her teeth. Stopped dancing in the living room. Stopped laughing freely. My bright little girl dimmed.
On the morning of the hearing, I dressed her in her favorite pale blue “sky dress.” She clutched her stuffed rabbit in the backseat.
“Mommy,” she said softly, “if the judge asks me something… can I answer honestly?”
“Always,” I said, though worry tugged at me. “Why?”
