She rented a small room above a laundromat instead. It cost less than her sister's guest room, and gave the family some space back. She picked up shifts wherever she could, further and further along in the pregnancy. By her seventh month, most employers wouldn't take the risk anymore. That's when the recycling runs started. Cans and bottles, sorted by hand, redeemed for a few dollars at a time. It wasn't much. It was enough to keep the lights on, most weeks.
Months later, Paige became his fiancée. She was the woman who'd stood beside him through the divorce.
For almost a year, Everett believed Naomi had betrayed him completely.
He didn't talk about her much during that year. Not to Paige, not to his friends, not even to himself most nights. He kept a photo of their wedding day in a drawer he never opened. Some nights he almost threw it away. He never quite managed to. He told himself it was closure he was avoiding, not guilt. He was wrong about that too.
