Status Updates From Holiday Hat Trick (Portland...

I want you. I want Marley. I want us.” “But I’ve hurt you so much, Mitch.” “If I didn’t love you so much, you wouldn’t have been able to hurt me so deeply.”

I lost myself. It was just all about you and your career, and I wasn’t Mia Quincey, I was just Q’s wife. I wasn’t a photographer, a woman with my own identity and things to keep me occupied, I was your plus-one.” “I never…” He let out a disbelieving breath. “I never saw you that way.”

Mitch hadn’t just married into the family. He was family. He belonged here. With us. But when he and I had divorced, I’d taken the only bit of normality he’d ever known away from him. I’d taken his family away. He should hate me for that. Instead, he kept telling me how much he still loved me.

I felt as though I had come home. But this wasn’t my home anymore. This wasn’t my family anymore. No matter how much I wanted them, no matter how readily they might still accept me, if I couldn’t be with Mia, I didn’t really belong.

Everyone in this town knew everyone else, so they all knew I was a divorced mom with a baby. If they wanted me to look presentable, then they needed to send a babysitter and a construction crew.

At the very least, I wanted the courts to order Mia to bring my daughter to me on occasion. I’d pay for it, but going for months on end without even seeing my baby, without hearing her infectious giggle was killing me.