Victor's fingers pressed hard into the edge of the counter, the laminate biting into his palms. Willow's whispered words still hung between them, small and devastating.
I don't want him to go.
On some level he had always known this was possible. Beneath the careful routines, the prenatal appointments, the quiet dinners on the couch, her heart had never completely detached from the man sitting in the next room. Victor had tried not to name that truth. Naming it would have meant admitting how much this life had begun to matter to him, how easily he had allowed himself to settle into the illusion of a family he had never dared believe he could have.
It hurt to say what he knew he had to say next.
"I'll give you space," Victor said, his voice coming out lower than he intended, rough around the edges. "You're a grown woman, Willow. I can't stop you from making your own decisions."
