The Day I Stopped Holding This Family Together Chapter 13

The Day I Stopped Holding This Family Together Chapter 13: The Version Priya Held
The next morning, I woke up to my son snoring on my couch under a quilt my grandmother had made.
It was the most beautiful sound I had ever heard.
I made eggs. Theo ate three of them. I sent him to Priya’s with instructions to do exactly nothing and watch movies. He hugged me at the door, awkward and fierce, and I almost cried.
I drove to Priya’s afterward to drop off a jacket I had left there. The house was quiet — her daughter was at gymnastics. Priya sat at her kitchen island, flipping her phone over and over in her hand.
She wasn’t smiling.
“I need to tell you something,” she said.
“You look terrified.”
“I’m not terrified. I just didn’t know how to bring it up. It’s about Cade. From two years ago.”
I sat on a stool.
“The company retreat in Tahoe. Neil went. You stayed home because Theo had that flu.”
“I remember.”
“Cade was drunk at the hotel bar. He started talking about you to a table of partners. He told them sometimes he came home and felt *suffocated.*”
I did not breathe.
“He said you were too capable. He said the house ran like a machine and he felt like an unnecessary part.”
I stared at the granite.
“Everyone laughed,” Priya said. “Neil thought it was a guy-joke. Neil actually toasted to you. *To Sienna, who makes her husband redundant.*”
“It wasn’t a joke.”
“No. I understood it later. When he started skipping Theo’s games. He was building an excuse. If you were too good at running the house, he didn’t have to try. He got to be the victim of your competence.”
I sat very still.
“Why are we talking about Tahoe today,” I said.
“Because Cade has been calling Neil. Asking about you. Where you’re staying. Whether you look happy.”
The word landed in the kitchen, heavy and absurd.
“He asked if I look happy.”
“Yes.”
“Neil told him?”
“Neil told him you looked the best you’ve ever looked. Neil told him you looked *awake.*”
I exhaled.
“There’s more,” Priya said.
I looked up.
“Ryker called Neil yesterday. He asked Neil to tell me you might need help with the divorce filing. He told Neil that if Cade tries to pull anything — anything at all — Ryker has the resources to make sure you don’t lose Theo. He told Neil to tell *me* because he didn’t want it to come from him.”
I stared at her.
“He’s positioning himself,” I said.
“He’s protecting you, Sienna. Those are different things. The first one is for him. The second one is for you. Watch which one he actually does.”
I stood up.
“Where are you going?”
“To meet someone.”
Priya didn’t ask who.