I pointed toward the documents.
“I’ve spent ten years making decisions as if you were my husband. I put your needs into every major choice I made. I treated this house as ours, even though legally it’s mine. I built savings for both of us. I planned retirement around both of us.”
David’s expression changed.
“Are you kicking me out?”
“No.”
He looked relieved for half a second.
Then I continued.
“But I am stopping pretending that we have a commitment you’ve told me very clearly you don’t want.”
He stared at me.
For the first time, the confidence he always carried was gone.
“So what happens now?”
“I don’t know.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I need time to decide whether this relationship still gives me what I thought it did.”
David stood suddenly.
“Rachel, I love you.”
I looked at him sadly.
“I believe you.”
“Then why are you doing this?”
“Because love isn’t the question anymore.”
His face fell.
“The question is whether we want the same life.”
He paced across the kitchen.
