What the Light Forgets

At a dinner party, my genius painter of a husband, Henry Shepherd, used his hands, hands insured for millions, to shell crabs for his young assistant, Tamara Lee.

This was all to coax her into eating a few bites when she claimed she had no appetite.

Meanwhile, I drank myself into a bloody mess, trying to secure investments for him.

When I asked him to hand me some antacids, he refused without even looking up.

“These hands are for painting. Use your own.”

For ten years, he couldn’t even be bothered to change the way he treated me.

That night, as I sobered up in the cold wind, I asked my lawyer to draft a divorce agreement.

"Henry, in this vast, chaotic world, our paths end here," I said inwardly

When Henry Shepherd peeled crab for his young assistant, Tamara Lee, who’d "lost her appetite", everyone at the table glanced awkwardly at me.

Just a minute earlier, I’d proudly told the investors, "His hands are insured for millions. He won’t even hold a dinner knife to protect them."

To salvage the situation, I downed three shots of whisky in one go. The metallic tang of blood rose in my throat, but I forced it down.

Before tensions could ease, Henry announced that he was leaving early to take Tamara to eat what she wanted.

He even fought an investor over it.

I took the slap meant for him.

I paid the compensation.

Later, when I reached out to check if his hands were injured, he said coldly, "If you weren’t so money-hungry, fawning over those nouveau riche pigs, she wouldn’t have gone hungry.

"Stay here. If you come along, you’ll ruin our appetites."

Tamara blinked up at me with her doe eyes.

"I’m sorry, Mrs. Shepherd. If I’d known Mr. Shepherd would worry, I’d have endured my hunger silently."

Henry ruffled her hair.

"You did nothing wrong. You’re just too pure. It’s people like her"—he shot me a look—" who’d rather vomit blood than stop groveling."

My body went numb.

So he had seen me choking back blood—he just didn’t care.

I stood in the cold for thirty minutes, then I called my lawyer.

"Draft the divorce papers."