Chapter 11 - A Marriage on Hold
Marcus left their house that evening with two suitcases and the understanding that they were not simply taking a break from an argument.
Khloe needed safety, space, and proof that he could respect a boundary even when it hurt him.
"You can visit Willa," she told him on the phone. "Talk to her doctors. But don't use our daughter to get back into my house."
"I won't."
"And don't send flowers."
"Okay."
He wanted to say he loved her.
Instead he said, "I'm listening."
Khloe's mother, Margaret, arrived the next day and sat beside her bed with a paper bag of homemade biscuits.
"You don't have to make decisions about your marriage while you're recovering from surgery," Margaret said.
"Everybody wants an answer."
"They can live without one."
A nurse brought a photograph of Willa with her tiny fingers curled around a soft cloth.
Khloe smiled for the first time that morning.
Across town, Isabella appeared before a judge following the initial criminal charges.
Her attorney entered a not-guilty plea, and the court imposed strict no-contact conditions while the case proceeded.
Marcus was relieved to learn she could no longer approach the hospital or contact Khloe.
Then a magazine published a story calling Khloe emotionally unstable.
The article cited a supposed medical source and mentioned a pregnancy loss six years earlier.
Khloe stared at the screen.
"That's private," she told Dana.
"We're asking the publisher to preserve its source communications and correct any unsupported claim," Dana replied.
"Only four people knew about that loss."
One was her physician.
One was her mother.
May you like
One was Jonathan.
And the last was Marcus.
