My husband called me a whale, kissed his mistress in public, and told me to “dust the library.” Then he strutted into Asheville’s most exclusive Royal Estate Gala thinking he was untouchable.

Then he reached across the table and placed his hand on her stomach in a slow and tender circle that he had never offered to me. Skylar was also pregnant and it was clear that Jensen was saving all of his tenderness for a woman who was not his wife.

That night he came home in a drunken stupor and told me that he wanted a completely different life after the child was born. When I asked him where I would go with a newborn baby, he laughed and told me that I had nothing because he controlled every aspect of our world.

He spoke those words like a final verdict on my life and I spent several years believing that his power was absolute. However, the very next morning after his cruel speech, something inside my soul stopped begging for his approval.

I did not scream at Skylar or beg Jensen to stay with me because I was busy starting a very cold and calculated plan. Two weeks later, Jensen held up a thick envelope for the Royal Estate Gala and declared that his moment of ultimate status had finally arrived.