I thought I had already lost everything my parents could take from me. Their money, their approval, their calls, their place at my wedding — all of it was gone the day I chose Leo. But on our wedding night, in a cheap motel room with cold takeout on the nightstand, my new husband looked at me like he was about to change my life again.
The room smelled faintly of disinfectant and old carpet. The lamp buzzed. The mattress sagged in the middle. It was not the honeymoon my parents would have imagined for me, but I had not cared. I was finally married to the boy I had loved since high school.
Then Leo sat on the edge of the bed, staring at his hands.
“There’s something I should have told you before we got married,” he said.