A week later, an envelope arrived with a handwritten note from Ashley, explaining that she’d genuinely believed Mark was unhappy and about to leave me. She’d been manipulated too. And I couldn’t find it in me to hate her.
As for the spa weekend? Mark rebooked it a month later… for two.
“Are you sure?” I asked him as we drove toward Serenity Springs, the same road I’d fled down weeks before.
He reached over and squeezed my hand. “I can’t think of a better way to celebrate.”
“Celebrate what? The promotion?”
His smile was soft and radiant. “No, silly! Us. The real power couple. The ones who made it without anyone’s help or approval.”
I leaned back in my seat, watching the world rush by. For the first time in our marriage, I felt completely secure. Not because Mark had finally “made it,” but because when forced to choose, he’d chosen me… without hesitation.
Some people spend their lives trying to prove their worth to the wrong audience. That day, I finally stopped auditioning for a role I was never meant to play. And it felt like coming home.
