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to prove everybody wrong. We’re grownups who should be able to own up to the fact that we were the ones who were wrong. We don’t belong together.”
    Miles felt anger pulsating through his body with each word Willa spoke. He wanted to lash out at her and make her see how stupid she was being. Nobody was going to provide for her or put up with all the things he had endured because of her. From the day he and Willa decided to have Jade and be a family, he’d worked any and every job he could get to make sure his wife and daughter didn’t want for anything. And although they’d never discussed it, Miles did so with the understanding that Willa would continue to stay home taking care of him and Jade
    and the other kids they were supposed to have. He had tried to remain calm two years ago when she first brought up the idea of going to work. But the fact that she told him she was getting a job instead of asking how he felt about it turned their conversation into a screaming match. Miles ended the argument by forbidding her to work and thought that was the end of it. He was livid the next week when Willa announced she would be starting her new job the following day. Knowing she had been hired as a secretary, catering to the needs of some other man, sent Miles over the edge. And for the first time in their relationship, he hit her!
    As a natural reflex Willa hit him back then prepared to leave. Miles pled with her to stay and vowed never to hit her again. Even though he hated the idea of his wife working, especially knowing she would be at the beck and call of some other man, Miles gave in as a sort of peace offering. He had hoped Willa would hate it and quit like she did with most things, but a few years had passed and she was still working as Leonard Wilson’s secretary.
    Miles thought letting Willa have a job would make her more agreeable but she became even more defiant. He expected his wife to look and dress a certain way but, as usual, Willa ignored his wishes and did whatever she wanted to do. He bought her skirts and blouses to wear so she would look like a lady. Willa returned them for jeans and short dresses that he often said made her look like a whore! Miles wanted her naturally beautiful and simple like she used to be but she arched her eyebrows, wore false eyelashes, and put on makeup nearly everyday. She seemed more like a glamorous movie star than a wife and mother and drew the attention of a lot of men. Yet, Miles put up with it for the sake of their marriage. Most offensive, however, were the rumors about Willa having affairs right under his nose! Miles’s own family called him an idiot for letting his wife run all over him. His mother, who’d hated Willa from the first day they met, constantly scolded him to get rid of her and find a decent mother for Jade. He stood by Willa, though, and continued to love her despite the blatant disrespect she showed him. And then, after all of that, she had the nerve to sit in front of him demanding a divorce and calling the life they’d built together a mistake! It was almost too much for Miles to take, but he managed to keep his composure and tried to convince his wife to keep their family together.
    “So you think divorcing me and breaking up our family is the grownup way to handle this?” he frowned. “Kids give up and quit, Willa. We need to do whatever it takes to make things work. For better or for worse, remember?”
    “Well, it’s been more for worse than I can take. Besides, we’ve been together for all the wrong reasons since the very beginning and that’s just not good enough anymore. That’s not a life, Miles.”
    “What you mean all the wrong reasons? I’ve always loved you, Willa—from the first moment I saw you.”
    “And that’s my point, Miles. You love who I used to be. That broken child who needed someone to love her,” Willa admitted. “Except for Mae, you were the only person that really cared about me. And when she died you were all