It wasn’t some terrible battle.
We simply realized we were better apart.
So now it’s mostly Ellie and me in our little house, building a life that is smaller than the one I once imagined but still safe, warm, and ours.
Being a single mother makes you notice details.
Where your child goes.
What they take with them.
What they come back with.
Whether the story adds up.
And the free ice cream wasn’t adding up.
The first time, Ellie came inside holding a strawberry shortcake bar.
The pink-and-white kind covered in those little crumbs.
It was already melting down her wrist.
“I thought you spent the last of your allowance,” I said.
I knew she had.
Three days earlier, she had used the final few dollars on slime supplies and had been complaining about being broke ever since.
“I didn’t need money,” she said through a mouthful of ice cream.
