Have a lovely day, Daniel murmured, briefly pressing his lips to her cheek.
Emily nodded, barely aware of the contact. Her skin felt cool and untouchedno warmth, no spark; just the faintest touch before the flat door clicked shut, swallowing up the quiet.
She stood there in the hallway for a few more seconds, listening for something inside herself. When had it happened, that silent flip of a switch? Emily could recall two years ago, sobbing in the bathroom because Daniel had forgotten their anniversary. The fury shed felt last year when hed failedyet againto pick up Maisie from nursery. Six months ago, she still tried to talk, to explain, or plead.
Now there was nothing. Just emptiness: calm, smooth, a grassless cricket pitch after a long, dry summer.
Emily drifted into the kitchen, poured herself a coffee, and sat at the table. Twenty-nine. Seven years married. Here she was, in an empty flat, watching her coffee cool, realising she had fallen out of love with her husband so quietly, so unremarkably, shed never noticed when it faded away.
Daniel carried on with life as usual. Promised to fetch Maisie from nurserydidnt turn up. Said hed fix the leaky tap in the bathroomleft it dripping for three months. Insisted theyd finally visit the wildlife park that weekendbut come Saturday hed be out with his mates, and Sunday hed barely move from the sofa.
Maisie had stopped asking when Daddy would play with her. At five, she already understood: Mummy would always be there. Daddy was the man who came home late and turned on the telly.
Emily didnt shout anymore. She didnt cry into her pillow. She didnt draw up schemes to fix things. Shed simply cut Daniel out of her lifes equation.
Needed the car for its MOT? She arranged it herself. Balcony lock broke? She called the locksmith. Maisie needed a snowflake costume for her school nativity? Emily sewed it at midnight, while her husband snored in the next room.
Their family was now a strange sort of arrangementtwo adults living parallel lives beneath the same roof.
One night, Daniel reached for her in bed. Emily shifted away gently, blaming a headache. The next time, exhaustion. After that, mysterious illnesses. Every refusal raised another brick in the wall she was methodically building between them.
Let him find someone else, she thought, chillingly logical. Give me a reasona proper, respectable reason everyone can understand, one I wont have to explain away.
For how do you tell your mother that youre leaving simply because your husbandwas just nothing? He didnt hit her; he didnt drink; he brought home his salary. So what if he didnt muck in at homemost men didnt. So what if he wasnt doting with Maisiemen were hopeless with kids.
Emily quietly opened a new savings account and tucked away a wedge of her paycheque each month. She joined a gymnot for Daniel, but for herself. For that new life she faintly saw, just beyond the inevitable divorce.
While Maisie slept in the evenings, Emily popped in her headphones and listened to podcasts in English business conversation. Her firm was taking on clients abroad; speaking confidently might open whole new doors.
Her evening professional courses claimed two nights a week. Daniel grumbled about looking after Maisie, though looking after seemed to mean handing her the iPad and scrolling through his phone.
At weekends, Emily spent her time with Maisie: parks, playgrounds, café milkshakes, cinema trips for cartoons. Maisie accepted that these were their times togetherMummy and her. Daddy, she understood, was simply part of the furniture.
She wont even notice, Emily told herself, clinging to the thought like a life belt. When we split, very little will change for her.
The thought was convenient. Emily clung to it. But something soon shifted.
At first, she couldnt put her finger on it. But one evening, Daniel put Maisie to bed without being asked. Later that week, he picked her up from nursery and, another night, cooked teaplain macaroni and cheese, but unprompted and without reminders.
Emily eyed him with suspicion. Was it guilt? A fleeting moment of madness? Hiding some misdeed she didnt yet know about?
But the days passed, and Daniel didnt slip back into his old ways. He got up early to take Maisie to school. Fixed the bathroom tap. Booked Maisie swimming lessons and took her himself on Saturdays.
Daddy, Daddy, watch! I can dive now! Maisie raced round the lounge, arms slicing the air. Daniel caught her, threw her up, and she shrieked with pure laughter.
Emily watched from the kitchen, not recognising her husband.
I can look after her on Sunday, Daniel offered one evening. Youve got that thing with your friends?
Emily nodded, a little stunned. There was no thingshed planned to sit, alone, in a café with a book. Did he actually listen when she spoke on the phone?
Weeks became a month, then two. Daniel didnt let up. No backsliding, no apathy.
I booked a table at that Italian near the river, he announced one day. For Friday. Mum said shed look after Maisie.
Emily glanced up from her laptop.
Whats the occasion?
No reason. Just want to go out with you.
She agreed, out of curiosity, she told herselfjust to see what his game was.
The restaurant was cosy, all gentle lamplight and a string quartet. Daniel ordered her favourite wine, and Emily was startled to realise he remembered which one it was.
Youve changed, she blurted out, not mincing words.
Daniel twisted his glass thoughtfully.
I was blind. A complete and utter fool.
Thats no surprise.
He gave a crooked, rueful grin. I thought I was working for usfor the family. That you needed money, a bigger flat, a nicer car. But really I was justrunning. From responsibility, from domestic life, from it all.
Emily stayed silent, letting him talk.
I noticed you changed. You just stopped caring. That was terrifyingfar worse than you shouting or crying. When you stopped, it was as if I didnt exist.
He set his glass down.
I nearly lost both of you. You and Maisie. And only then did it hit meeverything Id done wrong.
Emily watched him for a long moment. This man sitting opposite, saying all she had waited years to hear. Was it too late now?
I was going to leave you, she admitted softly. I was waiting for you to give me a reason.
Daniel paled. God, Em
I was saving up. Looking for flats.
I didnt know things were that bad
You should have, she cut in. This is your family. You should have seen what was happening.
Silence thickened between them. The waitress sensibly skirted their table.
I want to fix things, Daniel said at last. Us. If youll let me.
One chance only.
Thats already more than I deserve.
They sat, talking until the restaurant closed, about everythingMaisie, finances, how to share the chores, what they wanted from each other. For the first time in years, it was a real conversationnot blame, not small talk.
Healing wasnt instant. Emily didnt fling herself into his arms the next day. She watched, waiting for things to slip. But Daniel persisted.
He took over weekend cooking. Mastered the class WhatsApp group for nursery. Learnt to plait Maisie’s hairclumsily, lopsided, but he did it himself.
Mum, look! Daddy made me a dragon! Maisie burst into the kitchen, waving a wonky creation of cardboard and glitter.
Emily smiled at the dragonsilly, uneven, its wings wonkyand couldnt help but grin.
and so, half a year passed quickly.
Now it was December, and the whole family had driven out to Emilys parents cottage in Kent. The old place smelled of timber and mince pies, ringed by snowy fruit trees and a creaky porch.
Emily sat at the window with her cuppa, watching Daniel and Maisie build a snowman. Maisie bossed her father aboutcarrot nose here, buttons higher, scarf straight!as Daniel obeyed, hoisting her up amid bursts of laughter that echoed over the garden.
Mum! Come on! Maisie shouted, waving her arms.
Emily slipped on her coat, stepping out into the crisp sunlight and crunching across sparkling snow. A snowball smacked her from the side.
That was Dad! Maisie squealed, instantly telling tales.
Traitor, Daniel huffed.
Emily lobbed a snowball backmissed, but started laughing, and before long all three of them were tumbling about, the snowman abandoned, joyfully lost in the moment.
That evening, Maisie fell asleep on the sofa midway through a Christmas cartoon. Daniel quietly carried her to bed, tucking her in, smoothing her hair from her face.
Emily took a seat by the open fire, hands wrapped round a mug. Outside, the snow fell, draping everything in a soft, white hush. Daniel sat beside her.
Whatre you thinking? he asked gently.
How glad I am I didnt act too soon.
He didnt ask what she meantshe knew he understood.
She realised that relationships werent built on grand gestures, but on little, daily acts: truly listening, pitching in, noticing when to help, and standing by each other. Good days would come, as well as bad, and thered still be misunderstandings and squabbles over trivialities.
But right then, her husband and daughter were there with heralive, real, and loved.
Maisie stirred and came padding over, curling up between them on the sofa. Daniel hugged them both, and Emily thought, as the firelight flickered across their faces, that some things are worth fighting forif youre willing to try, every single day.
