After that, I started packing.

It was already night by the time Reuben got home.

He walked in and dropped onto the couch without so much as glancing back at me.

Not until I rolled my suitcase past him.

Only then did he frown and ask, irritated,

"It's this late. Where do you think you're going?"

I slapped the divorce papers down on the table and told him to sign.

He flipped through a few pages without much interest, then looked up.

"Could you at least make it more convincing? If you really wanted a divorce, would you ever give up this place?"

I froze.

I had poured so much of myself into this home.

The location, the floor, all of it chosen with care.

When we renovated, I went to every building-supply store in the city.

The color of the couch, the style of the curtains, I compared more than thirty places before deciding.

Even the spice rack in the kitchen, I picked each one out by hand, dragging Reuben along.

The day we moved in, we lay in bed and neither of us could sleep.

I held him from behind, my voice catching, and said,

"We have a home now."

But then Bonnie came by once, and a few throw pillows she liked appeared on the couch.

Then the curtains were swapped for that off-white lace cutout I never liked.

On the bathroom counter, her skincare slowly outnumbered mine.

Now even the slippers had little antlers on them.

I don't know when it happened, but this home was full of her everywhere I looked.

I looked for a long moment, then said quietly,

"It's tainted. I don't want it. Keep it, you and Bonnie."

The second I said Bonnie's name.

His face darkened, and his voice went cold.

"Marie, there's a limit to how much trouble you get to make."

"I've told you a thousand times. Bonnie and I are just friends. There is nothing between us, nothing at all."

"Keep your ugly little theories to yourself. She's done nothing wrong."

The same words, said a thousand times.

He was innocent.

Bonnie was innocent.

The only filthy mind here was mine.

I had no patience left for any of it.

"Sign."

We stood there facing each other for a long time.

He signed with a cold face, threw the pen down on the table, and looked up at me.

"Fine. It's signed."

"Let's see how long you last. Don't come crawling back to me."

My answer was the door slamming hard behind me.

Once I was out of the complex, I flagged down a car and gave the name of a hotel.

On my phone, I started looking into tour groups to Iceland.

I had waited seven years for Reuben. That was enough.

Some roads you have to walk on your own.

That night, I slept more soundly than I had in a long time.

The next morning, I went down for breakfast.

I'd just picked up a plate when someone behind me called out,

"Marie?"

It was Bonnie.

My stomach dropped, and sure enough, when I turned, Reuben was standing in the doorway.

Bonnie glanced at me and said to him,

"Reuben, you brought your wife along to a work conference? No wonder you were murmuring sweet nothings in your sleep last night."

Reuben's expression turned awkward.

"She came on her own."

Bonnie smiled at me, sweet as anything.

"So Marie came to keep tabs on you?"

She didn't wait for me to answer. She turned back to him.

"Then again, can't blame her. A man built like you… honestly, what woman could ever relax?"

She made it sound offhand, but every word was meant to remind me.

That she and Reuben shared an ease, a private joke, that I would never be part of.

I stood there and said nothing.

Reuben swept his eyes over me, a cold smile curling at his mouth.

"Marie, couldn't even hold out a single day before running here to beg? Hm?"

He thought I'd been following him.

I gave a small smile.

"We're already divorced. Do whatever you want, lock yourselves together forever, just stop ruining other people's lives."

The color drained from Bonnie's face.

Reuben frowned.

"Marie, can you stop making a scene? Bonnie and I have a conference here, we came to work. What are you so jealous about?"

"Apologize!"

I didn't want anything more to do with either of them. I turned and walked away.

I had just gotten back to my room when Reuben followed me in. He pulled two tickets to Iceland out of his pocket.

"Go apologize to Bonnie right now, and I'll take you to Iceland immediately."

I looked at those two tickets, and the irony of it hit me.

Seven years I'd waited for this, and he was finally willing to give it to me. Still, it was for Bonnie's sake.

"You're out of your mind."

"Marie!"

He lowered his voice, his face dark.

"I've already swallowed my pride here. What more do you want?"

"I don't want anything from you."

The next day, I boarded the plane to Iceland alone.

It was only after I landed that I learned Reuben had brought Bonnie too.

As if to spite me, he'd deliberately booked the same tour group.

The whole way, he kept his arm around Bonnie's shoulders, laughing with her, but his eyes went past her and stayed fixed on me.

When I gave him nothing back, his face darkened by degrees.

That evening we went to see the Northern Lights.

By the time we reached the viewing point on the ice field, the sky had already begun to glow green.

Then it grew brighter and brighter, the whole sky flowing, so quiet it made you want to cry.

It really was beautiful.

So beautiful that I felt these seven years hadn't been wasted after all.

When we first got together, Reuben had said he wanted to propose to me under the Northern Lights.

One thing after another always got in the way, and we never made it.

I turned around.

Not far off, Bonnie rose onto her toes and kissed Reuben.

I stood in the snow, my breath fogging white and blurring my sight.

Behind me, people were cheering, hugging.

My feet were nailed to the snow. I couldn't move.

Reuben must have sensed something, because he looked over at me.

His expression froze. He shoved Bonnie away and ran toward me.

"Marie! Let me explain—"

Right then, a dull crack came from the ice beneath my feet.

The whole ice field began to shake.

The guide was screaming for everyone to get back.

I wanted to run, but my boots were stuck in the ice and wouldn't come loose.

Reuben was the closest to me. On instinct, he reached out his hand.

"Reuben!"

Bonnie's voice came from the other side.

"Save me— it's cracking open over here!"

Reuben's hand froze in midair.

He looked at me, then at Bonnie.

"Marie, wait for me a second."

His voice was shaking.

"Bonnie's side is more dangerous. Let me pull her up first, I'll come right back for you."

He turned and ran toward Bonnie.

I stood where I was and watched him run farther and farther away.

The crack beneath my feet split wide open.

I didn't even have time to scream before the icy water surged in from every direction.