Five minutes after our divorce became final, my husband looked me in the eyes and said, “Take the girls, Lena. I have a son coming now.” He thought he was leaving behind an ordinary wife and two daughters he no longer needed—but by that afternoon, he would discover I was a U.S. Army colonel, and the “heir” his entire family was celebrating might not even be his. – usnews

“Then ask her the question you should have asked before you threw away your daughters.”

Preston went silent.

On the other side of the glass, Sophie was trying to zip her backpack.

She had gotten one side of the zipper caught in the fabric.

Madeline leaned over and fixed it for her.

Neither girl knew their father was on the phone.

Neither girl knew he had just called because the son he had chosen over them might belong to someone else.

“Lena,” Preston said carefully. “This isn’t the time to punish me.”

I almost laughed.

“Punish you?”

“You know what I mean.”

“No. I don’t.”

“You’re leaving.”

“Yes.”

“With my daughters.”

“Our daughters.”

“They’re still my children.”

The words were so absurd coming from him that I actually looked away from the phone.

Four hours earlier, he had told me to take them because he had a son coming.