CBH 72

“Let’s divorce.” Her husband’s declaration came without warning. When she demanded how he could make such a sudden decision, resentment lacing her voice, Calix, who had been silently listening, finally spoke. “How much longer do you expect me to live with the hollow shell that is Evelyn?” He had discovered her secret. *** “I’ll leave.” Yes, she had no right to stay. She wasn’t Evelyn. She was an imposter inhabiting Evelyn’s body. “But give me three months. Just until the divorce reflection period is over.” “Why? Why are you so desperate to stay?” She couldn’t leave—not yet. “Tell me, then. What reason do you have to stay by my side?” According to what she knew, Calix would die in three months. If she couldn’t stop her heart from falling for him, then at the very least, she wanted to save him before she left. And Calix was no different. “Three months? I won’t last that long.” She, so pure and kind it almost seemed naïve, so blindly devoted it bordered on foolishness, could never know the truth— not about what was to come, nor the feelings that had already begun to stir.