Page 211 of My Husband’s New Fiancée

Then panic sets in.

“This isn’t possible. You can’t have left me.”

A shattered breath.

“How am I supposed to live without you?”

I close my eyes.

His voice sounds younger. More exposed. Completely devastated.

“Come back to me, my love. Please.”

I can already feel tears rising, but the voicemail continues.

The weeks pass through those messages.

Then the months.

His pain never fades. It simply changes shape.

“I miss you. I thought it would get easier with time.”

A humorless laugh.

“It’s not easier.”

I clutch the phone against me as though it contains something alive.

And then come the messages that destroy me completely.

“It’s our wedding anniversary today.”

Silence.

“No one remembers it. I do. I’d give anything to hear your voice one more time.”

His breathing falters.

“You know what I do every day?”

Another silence.

“I call your number just to hear your voicemail… and pretend you’re still alive.”

The phone trembles in my hands.

The first sob tears out of me before I can stop it.

For this man who talked into the void.

For this man who still loved me while everyone else believed I was dead.

For all those years when I existed nowhere except inside him.

Dante says nothing.

His arms simply wrap around me—steady and trembling at the same time.