I stared at her, then at Max, my chest tightening with each passing second. After a tense confrontation, Emily retreated into the house, leaving me alone with Max.
‘Do you have any idea what you’ve done?’ I said, my voice shaking.
‘Kate, I was just trying to help-’
‘No,’ I cut him off. ‘You weren’t trying to help. You were trying to…what? Relive your glory days? To prove to yourself that you still meant something to her?’
He opened his mouth to answer, but no words came.
‘Our children, Max,’ I whispered, and the tears flowed on their own. ‘You abandoned our children. Do you realise what that means?’
‘Kate, please,’ he reached for me, but I pulled back. ‘You don’t understand what I was trying to prevent!’
I turned around, rage blazing in my chest. ‘Prevent? You left our children alone! What’s the penalty for that?’
‘I thought…,’ he muttered, running his hands through his hair. ‘I thought if I came here, I could stop her from making the same mistake I did.’
‘What mistake?’
‘Marrying the wrong person,’ he whispered, and those words hit me like a physical blow.
I shook my head, my voice barely audible. ‘Then I guess we both made that mistake, didn’t we?’
I turned and walked away without waiting for his answer.
That night, as I was putting Emma and Liam to bed, Emma wrapped her little arms around my neck.
‘Mummy?’ – She whispered. ‘Are you and Daddy going to be okay?’
I pulled her tighter against me, my heart breaking. ‘I don’t know, baby girl. But I promise you and Liam will always be okay.’
‘Pinky promises?’
‘I promise,’ I said, intertwining our fingers.
Later, alone in the kitchen, I was looking at my engagement ring when my phone buzzed with another text from Max, ‘Please forgive me… I’m sorry. We need to talk.’
I typed back three words, ‘Not tonight, Max.’ Then I switched off the phone and let the tears finally fall.
I don’t know what’s next for us. But I do know one thing – I won’t put myself last anymore. Because sometimes the hardest part isn’t the betrayal itself. It’s accepting that the person you love isn’t who you thought they were.