“I know.”
“My career fell apart.”
“I know.”
“I feel useless.”
“I know.”
He looked up. “Then why are you being so cruel?”
Mariana’s voice stayed steady. “Because your pain does not give you permission to make me your servant.”
Rodrigo covered his face. For a moment, she saw the man she had loved, or the man she had wanted to love: talented, wounded, charming, full of beautiful words he never learned to turn into action. But love without responsibility had become another bill on her table. She could not keep paying it.
Claire explained the immediate options. Teresa was no longer allowed to enter without Mariana’s written permission. Rodrigo could remain temporarily in the guest room while they decided whether to separate, but if he damaged property or denied Mariana access to food, rest, or safety, further legal steps would follow. Mariana would file documentation of household expenses and damages. They would schedule a formal consultation the next morning.
Rodrigo listened in silence.
When Claire and Marcus left, Anika stayed.
“Pack a bag,” Anika told Mariana.
Mariana blinked. “What?”
“You’re not sleeping here tonight.”
“This is my house.”
“Yes, and you’re exhausted. You made your point. Now let your nervous system catch up somewhere safe.”
Mariana wanted to argue, then realized she had been awake for almost twenty hours. Her legs were trembling. Her head hurt. Her stomach was empty. She packed scrubs, documents, medications, and the small framed photo of her mother that sat on her nightstand. Rodrigo watched from the hallway.
“Where are you going?”
Anika answered before Mariana could. “Somewhere nobody throws away her dinner.”
That night, Mariana slept on Anika’s couch under a blanket that smelled like lavender detergent. Before sleeping, she ate scrambled eggs and toast while Anika’s teenage daughter, Zoe, sat beside her and said, with the fierce certainty of fifteen, “Men are so embarrassing.” Mariana laughed for the first time all day. Then she cried. Not loud, not dramatically. Just tears falling while she chewed because her body finally understood that no one was going to punish her for being hungry.
The next morning, her phone held thirty-seven messages from Rodrigo.
