Who’s going to pay the bills? What do you think of the situation you’re putting me and our whole family in? You’re useless, Lena. Completely useless.
Sitting there at your company, shuffling papers around, and in the end, you can’t do a thing.
I felt a lump in my throat and tears welled up in my eyes. But they weren’t tears of resentment, but of revelation.
It was as if someone had suddenly stopped me from blindfolding myself, and I saw the true face of the man I had lived with for so many years. In that moment, I understood that I couldn’t tell the truth. I couldn’t admit that it was a test and that, suddenly, I had been promoted.
Something inside me resisted. My intuition whispered that it was better to call and wait to see what happened. And I listened to that whisper.
I simply got up and left the room in silence, leaving him screaming into the void. I locked myself in the bathroom and sat under the hot water like a giant mouse, trying to wash away the humiliation and bitterness. How strange, how far removed the man I once considered closest to me had become. We didn’t speak again that night.
Anton defiantly slept on the living room sofa, and I found myself alone in our bedroom, staring at the ceiling and wondering how it was possible that our seemingly solid marriage had become so fragile.
In the morning, I was woken by the noise at the door. Anton left for work without saying goodbye, without leaving a note, without ever waking me up, like a lonely day.
I lay in bed, feeling a strange emptiness inside. The anger, the resentment, the disappointment with Ayer… it all seemed to have evaporated, leaving only a cold mental clarity.
You have to go to work. After all, I had a new task, new responsibilities. But something was keeping me at home.
Continued on the next page
