I filed for divorce soon afterward.
Ryan moved out.
Lina stopped speaking to me.
And somehow, despite everything they had done, I became the person my family expected to behave gracefully.
My father told me,
“You can’t force a man to stay in a marriage when he’s unhappy.”
My mother repeatedly reminded me that Lina was still family.
Then I lost the baby.
There was no dramatic explanation.
No doctor telling me stress had caused it.
No clear reason I could blame.
One day, I was pregnant.
Then suddenly I wasn’t.
I returned home from the hospital with empty arms while my four children kept asking when their baby brother or sister was coming home.
Ryan cried when I told him.
“I’m so sorry.”
I hung up.
Three weeks later, Ryan and Lina announced their engagement.
That was the moment I stopped expecting either of them to show any sense of decency.